Not posted on here for a while but hope you don’t mind giving me some ideas. Currently I ride a trusty ER6F which has served me well for commuting duties, put 20k on her in the last two years. Daily I commute 90 miles, mostly on motorway or A/B roads depending on my mood. I’ve more than ‘mastered’ the soft little kawasaki and fancy getting a 2nd bike to toy about on. Strikes me as winter is a good time to look for a bargain. I don’t really want to spend more than £4k as the bike won’t be garaged, also don’t want to loose too much value if I decide to swap.
Top of my list are a GSXR-1000 but also have been looking at Aprilia RSV 1000s as they look like a bargain used. Main priorities are:
Max £4k
Lots of choice used
Ton of power
Easy to DIY service and/or easy service schedule, (which has ruled out ducati from what I understand of their service requirements)
Suspension able to cope with some poor B roads a bonus.
What is the service requirements on a GSXR like, any silly cam chain replacements needed? How often do the valves need doing? Same for the Aprilia if anyone knows?
Fazer thou, Great commuter, tons of power, loads of mods for it, can go scratching when you ask it to and their are loads out there, new old, black blue whatever takes your fancy, pick from fuel injected to good old fashioned carbs.
My advice, stay away from out and out sportsbikes for your first big toy not because of any sensible riding issues but because in all truth their friggin horrible to ride, Get something with power, thats forgiving work up to something that wants to tear your head off, the riding position alone is enough to intimidate the novice rider.
+1 for Ben’s SV1000R Very nice looking bike and sounds awesome. You will love the power of the VTwin and not an out and out Superbike so very easy on the wrists and back, yet still fantastic in the corners and on the M/Way.
Plus its well within your price range that you could probably get the insurance in your 4K:)
I do like the idea of an SV1000 and if I was looking to straight replace my ER for something bigger, I’d probably get one. However I want to keep the ER and have something alittle more ‘special’ as a second bike, the Aprilia appears to be much more fun proposition on paper and better quality for the buck. To give you an idea I even considered a ducati 999, only put off by the service requirements. Am I kidding myself that an Aprilia will be less hassle?
