2008 Fireblades....

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Are they any good? My local dealer has one I'm very interested in, I went and sat on it yesterday but couldn't take it out as I'm currently waiting for my new driving licence to arrive.

I'm 6'4" and it felt very comfy for a sportsbike, knees are the main issue for me, and it felt slightly more relaxed than my Tuono does. The main reason I want to change is the Tuono is a brilliant bike but I went out for a long ride with some mates the other day which involved a motorway stint and it was frankly pretty uncomfortable trying to keep up with everyone else on their faired bikes. I want to go down to europe next year and I think a fairing would be welcome. Can't fault the Tuono for pace and handling.

Are there any issues to look out for on this model blade? The one I'm looking at has 24,000 miles on it which isn't ideal but I can live with that, it's got full service history and all the mod's on it are tasteful, expensive bits. (yoshimura exhaust, honda double bubble screen, akrapovic carbon fibre chain guard and side infils, carbon fibre hugger and front mudguard, brand new set of metzeler racetec K3's) They have another 2008 one in with 14,000 on but it's a worse colour and has no trick bits on it, and is £500 more.

Are they going to hold their value well? My Tuono still has solid residuals despite the oldest ones being 10 years old, I'd put my 2009 up for £5000 if I were to sell privately. The blade is priced at £5195.

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mckeann said:

Zx10r is a much longer bike than blade. I'm 6'3 and it fitted me much better

I would gladly have an 2011 onwards 10R but unfortunately they are out of budget, the previous 2 shapes do nothing for me and the original is getting on a bit now although I do like them.

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jjones said:

Sure for that money you could find one with half the miles though.

This is true, the dealer I have been in isn't the cheapest around but all the bikes they sell are pristine, my dad has had probably 10 bikes off them in the past and they've all been spot on.

The other one they have has less miles on, but it is more expensive and is standard, so by the time I have added an exhaust, hugger, tail tidy and screen it's going to be well over £1k more than the white one. I also think it's been tracked fairly often as the tyres are melted to fk. And it's red and I want a white one.

A quick scan on ebay and I think it's fairly priced really. Mileage doesn't bother me mechanically but I'm wondering if it will affect the resale much, realistically I will probably have it a year and put 6,000 miles on it so then it's going to be a 30,000 mile bike which will narrow the market down for it.

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Gunk said:

Can't quite understand your concern about 24,000 in 8 years. It's nothing and at least it's been used and hopefully serviced regularly.

I'd much rather by a bike with some miles on than one that's been a garage ornament.

Clearly you didn't actually read my posts then. As I said mileage doesn't bother ME but in reality I'll only keep this bike a year and it'll be sold with 30,000+ miles on which may put some people off.