NT700 Deauville: would you, even if it made perfect sense?
Discussion
Moved house now. New commute is 80 miles each way, 3 days per week. Other 2 days are at home. It's 70% dual carriageway, 20% fast A/B roads, 10% battling through traffic in Cambridge.
If i use the same bike every day i'm looking at 25k p/a.
I've got a VFR800 V-TEC as my "nice" bike, which only has 8k miles on it and is mint, so i'd like to keep that as my fun option for when the sun is nice. I may get a ducati monster or retro bike to run alongside as my transport for when the mood takes me.
I've also got occasional use of my dad's ZZR1200 for when i fancy something balls-out fast. I plan to take this once a fortnight to keep the battery charged.
So. I'm looking for something to take the bulk of the miles, come rain or shine. It must be able to do at least 160 miles on a tank, preferably with another 20-30 left. It must have decent weather protection. It must be able to sit at 70-80 in comfort and be able to overtake traffic on A/B roads safely.
Budget is not massive. I have a couple of £k to put towards something, and would be prepared to have £100-£150 p/m on finance. I think that gives me up to about £6k ish to play with.
It think it needs to be shaft drive as i don't want to be messing with the chain on cold, winter nights/mornings. I'd rather spend that time tinkering with my other bikes, etc.
Insurance needs to be cheap because my NCB is on the VFR's policy. I could transfer this to a new policy without NCB and put my new bike on the VFR's policy i suppose.
I'm struggling to come up with anything other than an NT700 Deauville. 2-3 yr old ones are £6k with 10k miles and a few extras. Should take a few years of high miles easily.
I like K1300GTs, but they're £9k+, and i don't need anything that powerful as the ZZR takes care of that if i fancy it. More than the 70bhp of a Deauville would be nice though!!
Thoughts? In my position would you buy something you didn't particularly like to take the mileage away from your pride and joy?
p.s. Commuting by car is possible, but parking is limited and when the kids are back at school it's hell on earth trying to get in/out of camb and along the A14. Balls to that!!
If i use the same bike every day i'm looking at 25k p/a.
I've got a VFR800 V-TEC as my "nice" bike, which only has 8k miles on it and is mint, so i'd like to keep that as my fun option for when the sun is nice. I may get a ducati monster or retro bike to run alongside as my transport for when the mood takes me.
I've also got occasional use of my dad's ZZR1200 for when i fancy something balls-out fast. I plan to take this once a fortnight to keep the battery charged.
So. I'm looking for something to take the bulk of the miles, come rain or shine. It must be able to do at least 160 miles on a tank, preferably with another 20-30 left. It must have decent weather protection. It must be able to sit at 70-80 in comfort and be able to overtake traffic on A/B roads safely.
Budget is not massive. I have a couple of £k to put towards something, and would be prepared to have £100-£150 p/m on finance. I think that gives me up to about £6k ish to play with.
It think it needs to be shaft drive as i don't want to be messing with the chain on cold, winter nights/mornings. I'd rather spend that time tinkering with my other bikes, etc.
Insurance needs to be cheap because my NCB is on the VFR's policy. I could transfer this to a new policy without NCB and put my new bike on the VFR's policy i suppose.
I'm struggling to come up with anything other than an NT700 Deauville. 2-3 yr old ones are £6k with 10k miles and a few extras. Should take a few years of high miles easily.
I like K1300GTs, but they're £9k+, and i don't need anything that powerful as the ZZR takes care of that if i fancy it. More than the 70bhp of a Deauville would be nice though!!
Thoughts? In my position would you buy something you didn't particularly like to take the mileage away from your pride and joy?
p.s. Commuting by car is possible, but parking is limited and when the kids are back at school it's hell on earth trying to get in/out of camb and along the A14. Balls to that!!
Edited by dapearson on Thursday 11th April 15:10
Deauvilles are a good bike. You'll get loads of people calling them 'dullvilles' because it ryhmes, but essentially they do what they were designed to do very well.
My old man's on his second and I've ridden them btoh, and always managed to have fun on them! I would say though that his current one (an 08 or 09 plate) doesn't seem to be finished as well as his older one. He's had it from new and uses it in all weathers, but it had to be returned to have several bits and pieces replaced under warenty that had lost their coatings and tarnished.
My old man's on his second and I've ridden them btoh, and always managed to have fun on them! I would say though that his current one (an 08 or 09 plate) doesn't seem to be finished as well as his older one. He's had it from new and uses it in all weathers, but it had to be returned to have several bits and pieces replaced under warenty that had lost their coatings and tarnished.
Felters said:
Deauville is good - that sort of money would get you a half decent Pan as an option.
Personally I'd put the miles on the VFR. The depreciation caused by the extra miles will be less than the cost of running a second bike...
Yeah i hear what you're saying. It's not really about depreciation though. I like the VFR and want to keep it long term. I'm planning to build a collection of bikes and try not to sell any.Personally I'd put the miles on the VFR. The depreciation caused by the extra miles will be less than the cost of running a second bike...
spareparts said:
80 miles each way, 3 times a week, mostly sitting on a dual carriageway?
I would take the car.
Have you never tried the A14 7am-10am or 4pm-7pm Mon-Fri? :-)I would take the car.
It can take 1.5 hrs to cover the 20 miles from Huntingdon to the office by car under normal traffic conditions.
Parking is the main issue though. It's £10 to park on the road outside the office when the car park is full, and that's IF there are spaces.
dapearson said:
spareparts said:
80 miles each way, 3 times a week, mostly sitting on a dual carriageway?
I would take the car.
Have you never tried the A14 7am-10am or 4pm-7pm Mon-Fri? :-)I would take the car.
It can take 1.5 hrs to cover the 20 miles from Huntingdon to the office by car under normal traffic conditions.
Parking is the main issue though. It's £10 to park on the road outside the office when the car park is full, and that's IF there are spaces.
I'm in a similar situation albeit without a full license yet so need to work on that but I'm looking at long M'Way commutes and the Deauville does appear to fit the bill. The alternative is an F800ST which should get better mpg and might tempt you out on it else when. Researching them throws up a chunk of reliability issues though so needs to be post '09. I'll probably just end up on something fairly humdrum to start with regardless, kind of liking the look of the GSX650F to test the waters of long distance commuting so to speak though.
Cheers,
Rob
Cheers,
Rob
spareparts said:
Ah, that makes a difference then. Personally, I'm not a fan of sitting on a bike at constant velocity in a straight line for such a long time in the morning AND at the end of the day after work when tired, and what sounds like a lot of filtering through heavy traffic. Cost dependent, I'd even look at getting the train.
I've been doing the commute into Cambridge for 6 years now. Until recently that was from Peterborough, so only 40 miles each way. We're now up in Lincolnshire a further 40 miles north.The extra bit of the commute adds about 20 miles of dual carriageway, but the bit closest to the house is about 20 miles of A/B roads, which is nice to have first thing in the morning, and nice to finish off the day on the way home.
There are also multiple different routes that i can take if i fancy having fun, such as Stamford->Bourne, Bourne->Sleaford, Bourne->Grantham. All lovely roads for the summer.
I'm quite happy commuting by bike, it's just that i'm going to be doing BIG miles and i'm not always going to be "in the mood", so will mostly just want to get it done.
B19GRR said:
I'm in a similar situation albeit without a full license yet so need to work on that but I'm looking at long M'Way commutes and the Deauville does appear to fit the bill. The alternative is an F800ST which should get better mpg and might tempt you out on it else when. Researching them throws up a chunk of reliability issues though so needs to be post '09. I'll probably just end up on something fairly humdrum to start with regardless, kind of liking the look of the GSX650F to test the waters of long distance commuting so to speak though.
Cheers,
Rob
My trusty commuter for the last 2 years has been a Fazer 600 (the original shape one). Cost me £1500 at 18k miles. Sold for £1k at 38k miles. Great little thing, but it struggled a bit to maintain 80mph in high winds and weather protection was useless.Cheers,
Rob
That said, it did the job.
F800 has belt drive. For some reason this puts me off.
dapearson said:
I've been doing the commute into Cambridge for 6 years now. Until recently that was from Peterborough, so only 40 miles each way. We're now up in Lincolnshire a further 40 miles north.
The extra bit of the commute adds about 20 miles of dual carriageway, but the bit closest to the house is about 20 miles of A/B roads, which is nice to have first thing in the morning, and nice to finish off the day on the way home.
There are also multiple different routes that i can take if i fancy having fun, such as Stamford->Bourne, Bourne->Sleaford, Bourne->Grantham. All lovely roads for the summer.
I'm quite happy commuting by bike, it's just that i'm going to be doing BIG miles and i'm not always going to be "in the mood", so will mostly just want to get it done.
The extra bit of the commute adds about 20 miles of dual carriageway, but the bit closest to the house is about 20 miles of A/B roads, which is nice to have first thing in the morning, and nice to finish off the day on the way home.
There are also multiple different routes that i can take if i fancy having fun, such as Stamford->Bourne, Bourne->Sleaford, Bourne->Grantham. All lovely roads for the summer.
I'm quite happy commuting by bike, it's just that i'm going to be doing BIG miles and i'm not always going to be "in the mood", so will mostly just want to get it done.
London couriers rate the Deauville highly and I've heard the fairing is quite effective. An alternative is the ST1100/1300 which would be my choice.
? Belt drive has got to be better than chain drive for what you want, surely?
Right tool for the right job. I'd be looking at something like a Deauville, as you say, or one of the less fashionable (ie non-GS) flat twin BMWs.
With 25k miles a year, it'll hammer the re-sale of whatever you buy, so I'd probably look for a well kept older bike with lowish miles (maybe 6 years old). That'll limit it's depreciation when you have to sell it as an older bike with high miles.
With 25k miles a year, it'll hammer the re-sale of whatever you buy, so I'd probably look for a well kept older bike with lowish miles (maybe 6 years old). That'll limit it's depreciation when you have to sell it as an older bike with high miles.
dapearson said:
Budget is not massive. I have a couple of £k to put towards something, and would be prepared to have £100-£150 p/m on finance. I think that gives me up to about £6k ish to play with.
It think it needs to be shaft drive as i don't want to be messing with the chain on cold, winter nights/mornings. I'd rather spend that time tinkering with my other bikes, etc.
BMW F800 ST should be in budget, and is belt drive and good fuel economy. The newer F800GT is still only £8k-ish new. Doesn't come standard with panniers like the Deauville though. It think it needs to be shaft drive as i don't want to be messing with the chain on cold, winter nights/mornings. I'd rather spend that time tinkering with my other bikes, etc.
Edited by dapearson on Thursday 11th April 15:10
For this I'd get the Deauville over an old Pan Euro as while the Pan will eat the miles, it will also use more fuel and it is wider so filtering is harder.
edit: just saw the belt drive discussion above.
creampuff said:
BMW F800 ST should be in budget, and is belt drive and good fuel economy. The newer F800GT is still only £8k-ish new. Doesn't come standard with panniers like the Deauville though.
For this I'd get the Deauville over an old Pan Euro as while the Pan will eat the miles, it will also use more fuel and it is wider so filtering is harder.
edit: just saw the belt drive discussion above.
Pan or Kwak GTR1400 would be lovely for the dual carriageways, but both are a bit wide (esp the GTR) for filtering.For this I'd get the Deauville over an old Pan Euro as while the Pan will eat the miles, it will also use more fuel and it is wider so filtering is harder.
edit: just saw the belt drive discussion above.
If i could bring myself to spend a bit more i'd go for a K1300GT as they're only just wider than the ZZR1200 i came in on today, but putting that mileage on such an expensive bike seems daft.
dapearson said:
Pan or Kwak GTR1400 would be lovely for the dual carriageways, but both are a bit wide (esp the GTR) for filtering.
If i could bring myself to spend a bit more i'd go for a K1300GT as they're only just wider than the ZZR1200 i came in on today, but putting that mileage on such an expensive bike seems daft.
I've measured it: the Kwaka GTR is a full 5 inches wider than a Pan European!If i could bring myself to spend a bit more i'd go for a K1300GT as they're only just wider than the ZZR1200 i came in on today, but putting that mileage on such an expensive bike seems daft.
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