passed my DAS last month in Chingford, no minors, huragh!!! but, I’m still pottering around on my Jinlun 125-11 until I’ve saved up enough for a bigger bike in April. (Heaven forbid I turn up to one of your meets on my noisy little 2BHP chug-a-lug).
I’m ommuting from Walthamstow to Oxford Street, 16 miles every weekday day, but also fancy touring with my girlfriend around Europe at the wekends.
I’ve been scouring bike trader & Ebay for ages and was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a first mid-range bike that would be good for me. (I’d love a VFR800 but can’t afford it!)
So far I’ve been looking at 600’s, Fazer, Bandit, Ninja’s at the £3000.00 price range, I like the look of the post 2004 Fazers and Bandits, but also see that SV650’s appear to be £500 cheaper, why?
What do you guys reckon I should go with and have you experience of riding Fazers & Bandits?
Maybe not financially viable, but woud you keep the 125 for the commute, then you could pick a more touring-based big bike, rather than look for an all-in-one.
If you keep the 125, take a look at the TDM900 as a tourer, great VFM and plenty of grunt.
If you want a single bike, worth checking Z750 (I loved mine) but not perhaps pillion-friendly (depending how long her legs are and how easily she can bend them!) or maybe you might just stretch to a Kaw Versys.
Of the bikes you’ve already mentioned each has it’s merits and none are bad, just that what one person likes another doesn’t. For me I couldn’t get on with SV650 'cos of the twin vibs, which are the very thing that appeals to others.
Don’t think I could afford to keep the 125 and run a bigger bike.
That said, I do like the look of the Verys and the 900 you suggested, I realise that these are good for touring but why would they not be good for commuting too?
As far as I can see from the design, the rider would sit pretty upright which would make it easy to manouver?
Is there something I’m missing, i.e. Heavy as hell, slow at the lights, too wide to filter on?
You sure could do everything on the one bike, but for me the TDM it isn’t an ideal commuter, obviously it’ll do it but having owned one for the past 2 years and would highlight a few things.
It is a little large and unwieldy (19" front tyre) and doesn’t turn in at the front especially easily, though can be assisted by a fork drop in the yokes. It’s quite heavy, which can be good for 2-up touring but not really for commuting. The throttle is prone to being a bit “off and on”, partly cured with a TPS recall and simple mod to the Airbox and entirely fixed by a Power Commander.
I’m not trying to be negative about the TDM as I love it just highlight it’s shortcomings as a commuting machine where Bandits, SVs, Fazers and Versys will be better suited. But for your 2-up touring they won’t match the TDM (except maybe the Bandit 1200/1250).
I get around this (like a few others on here) by having a 2nd bike (scooter actually) for the commuting need, which helps keep the miles down and also with much better storage the scoot is an ideal commuting tool.
About £2.5k would get you a pretty good TDM ('04/'05), they run forever are cheap to insure and do 50-60mpg. But maybe you need to be 100% that you’ll tour a lot before deciding, I’m forever buying excellent bikes but finding what they’re excellent at isn’t necessarily what I now want to use them for.
Anyway the main thing is to get out and try some of these bikes, no one can tell you what’s the best for you, ride a few and you’ll start crossing some of the potential list.
HI Guys, this has been great, certainly given me plenty to think about and I appreciate the time you’ve spent helping me, espacially Poldark, v. detailed so thanks alot.
I’ll spend most of my time commuting so it appears that a bigger bike is out, (I’ll only spend about 2 or 3 weekends of the year touring) whereas I’ll spend 48 weeks commuting but there certainly seems to be much more out there than the typical Fazer, Bandit, Ninja options that I thought I was limited to.
I did my DAS last year and got a 06 Bandit 650. I basically got it because all the magazine write ups were pretty good plus they seemed to be very good value for money. I paid £2900 for mine which had just over 4000 miles on the clock. The gears are quite slick and it also has ABS which seemed a good idea as I’m still basically a learner without the L plates. Personally I really like it… Hope this helps, Cheers
hello .try the fazer 1000 good around town great two up with gear .when isold mine and got a ktm superduke the wife kicked up **** so don,t go up that road
