Coming to the dark side...
Discussion
Gunk said:
Congratulations, the cost will be worth it. I've been obsessed about bikes all my life. I'm 53 now and there's still nothing like getting up at the crack of dawn with nothing on the roads and meeting up somewhere with likeminded mates for a bacon sarnie and a chinwag.
It's just not something car people seem to do.
Cheers. It's just not something car people seem to do.
My initial budget was £4000 but I’ve only spent ~£1300 so far. Got a few more bits to buy, disk lock, basic maintenance stuff. Got some gear and a cover for Christmas which helped. Insurance is gonna be about £900 fully comp. Against almost all advice, I’m gonna be PCPing a bike; was comfortable at £100/month but that only requires a £200 deposit for the bike I want so might up that a bit. Gonna be well under £4K, anyway.
Only got one fried who is interested in bikes but sold his last year to fund a house purchase. Brother’s done his CBT but won’t be persuaded to progress. Plenty of roads around the Lakes that attract bikers though so hopefully make a few pals along the way.
horsemeatscandal said:
Cheers.
My initial budget was £4000 but I’ve only spent ~£1300 so far. Got a few more bits to buy, disk lock, basic maintenance stuff. Got some gear and a cover for Christmas which helped. Insurance is gonna be about £900 fully comp. Against almost all advice, I’m gonna be PCPing a bike; was comfortable at £100/month but that only requires a £200 deposit for the bike I want so might up that a bit. Gonna be well under £4K, anyway.
Only got one fried who is interested in bikes but sold his last year to fund a house purchase. Brother’s done his CBT but won’t be persuaded to progress. Plenty of roads around the Lakes that attract bikers though so hopefully make a few pals along the way.
Loads of bike clubs etc around. If you can endure facebook, it's great for finding local riding groups that organise trips out and rideouts. My initial budget was £4000 but I’ve only spent ~£1300 so far. Got a few more bits to buy, disk lock, basic maintenance stuff. Got some gear and a cover for Christmas which helped. Insurance is gonna be about £900 fully comp. Against almost all advice, I’m gonna be PCPing a bike; was comfortable at £100/month but that only requires a £200 deposit for the bike I want so might up that a bit. Gonna be well under £4K, anyway.
Only got one fried who is interested in bikes but sold his last year to fund a house purchase. Brother’s done his CBT but won’t be persuaded to progress. Plenty of roads around the Lakes that attract bikers though so hopefully make a few pals along the way.
Gunk said:
That’s a good first bike, nice and easy to handle, enough power to be fun. Good idea doing it on HP, gives you the flexibility to change it for a bigger bike, which after a year you’ll want to!
Cheers, picking it up this afternoon. Can’t wait, first solo ride home. In the cold. And dark. And heavy traffic. Talking of local groups etc. the lady in the service centre where I took my car on the same day got all excited when I told her I was off to buy a bike and ended up inviting me on an annual charity run from Carlisle to Appleby in April. Wrote all the details on the service report which will be a bit confusing for the next owner. Turns out I’m on a stag do that weekend (Oi oi!), so won’t be going.
I’ll let you all know how the ride home goes and I guess that’s the conclusion to this thread so thanks for all the advice, sure I’ll be starting plenty more threads in this forum though.
Quick last question, are silk gloves any good or not?
Oh yeah, if anyone’s fancying getting a bike like myself and was wondering about costs I went from nothing to owning (on HP) a bike for £2348. That also includes everything I need in terms of gear and accessories but there is still a few ‘wants’ on the list.
jmcc500 said:
Out of interest, could you give us an idea of the kit you bought? Am currently in position of having got licence I am not sure whether to commit or not - have got as far as trying on crash helmets at the weekend!
Of course. Luckily for you I kept track of spends in a lovely little spreadsheet and I’m not too precious about discussing costs. From top to bottom....Helmet: Shark S800, £99.
Jacket: Richa Falcon, £110.
Gloves: Richa Stealth, £64.
Pants: Richa Colorado, £108.
Boots: TCX Rush, £80.
Misc. stuff was an Alpinestars neck scarf and Oxford baselayers. These were a Christmas gift so not sure on cost. Also stocked up on skiing socks when they had them in Aldi for £2.99 for two pairs, they’re pretty decent. Oh yeah and I got a zip-up hi-vis vest but I got that from work.
If you’ve got your license now it would seem an awful waste of time and money to not go ahead with it. I’m sure you could easily spend less than I did, too.
jmcc500 said:
Out of interest, could you give us an idea of the kit you bought? Am currently in position of having got licence I am not sure whether to commit or not - have got as far as trying on crash helmets at the weekend!
You have a license so you have to get a bike now!There's lots of 2nd hand kit on ebay etc, I bet you could be on the road with an insured bike for less than £1500 if you tried.
So the ride home went as well as it could have. Roads were as salty as hell and my hands were that cold I was looking forward to junctions and roundabouts so I had an excuse to move my fingers.
But aren’t I glad I bought a second hand bike...... only managed to drop it on it’s side while manoeuvring it in my garden. Not really any damage; snapped the end off the brake lever which I’ll replace and a minor scuff on the exhaust which I’m not bothered about. Least it wasn’t my skull and it was bound to happen at some point. However, I obviously hated everything about bikes for the twenty minutes after dropping it. Over it now though, looking forward to getting some miles under the belt.
But aren’t I glad I bought a second hand bike...... only managed to drop it on it’s side while manoeuvring it in my garden. Not really any damage; snapped the end off the brake lever which I’ll replace and a minor scuff on the exhaust which I’m not bothered about. Least it wasn’t my skull and it was bound to happen at some point. However, I obviously hated everything about bikes for the twenty minutes after dropping it. Over it now though, looking forward to getting some miles under the belt.
AlunJ said:
Congrats on the pass and new bike. I dropped my new cbr650f on my first ride out after passing. It's absolutely gutting but you live and learn. Even worse I'd be riding a 125 for a few months and having done my test on an sv650 had never dropped a bike until that point lol.
Cheers my friend. Glad to hear I’m not the only one and I’ll count myself lucky I’ve got no fairings to smash and that I managed to spare the tank and frame. Fence and gate will be removed from the back patio this afternoon to allow for better manoeuvring. Gonna order some cleaning and maintenance bits today and then hopefully all I’ll need to do is fuel the thing. And maybe go to the gym a bit more....... practise my 200kg deadlifts. No commuting on it today, lovely layer of snow outside. Hopefully conditions will allow on Wednesday.
horsemeatscandal said:
So the ride home went as well as it could have. Roads were as salty as hell and my hands were that cold I was looking forward to junctions and roundabouts so I had an excuse to move my fingers.
But aren’t I glad I bought a second hand bike...... only managed to drop it on it’s side while manoeuvring it in my garden. Not really any damage; snapped the end off the brake lever which I’ll replace and a minor scuff on the exhaust which I’m not bothered about. Least it wasn’t my skull and it was bound to happen at some point. However, I obviously hated everything about bikes for the twenty minutes after dropping it. Over it now though, looking forward to getting some miles under the belt.
Congrats on the bike, sorry to hear you dropped it. I dropped mine in the back garden too, pushed it over while screwing in the left hand fairings back on after an oil change But aren’t I glad I bought a second hand bike...... only managed to drop it on it’s side while manoeuvring it in my garden. Not really any damage; snapped the end off the brake lever which I’ll replace and a minor scuff on the exhaust which I’m not bothered about. Least it wasn’t my skull and it was bound to happen at some point. However, I obviously hated everything about bikes for the twenty minutes after dropping it. Over it now though, looking forward to getting some miles under the belt.
then proper slide on the ice coming around the corner of my estate a couple weeks ago. Like you say, lucky it's 2nd hand and good to get it out of the way 
I've dropped mine a few times and it's always surprised me how little damage is actually done, even in proper accidents. Course if you hit it in the right way the opposite is true.
Even managed to get my poor little CB125F run over by a Range Rover (literally had to reverse off the top of my bike after knocking it over) and the only damage was a single paint scuff on the fuel tank and a snapped clutch lever. How it wasn't crushed I'll never know...
Even managed to get my poor little CB125F run over by a Range Rover (literally had to reverse off the top of my bike after knocking it over) and the only damage was a single paint scuff on the fuel tank and a snapped clutch lever. How it wasn't crushed I'll never know...
Small tip if you are new to moving bigger bikes around is to stand to the right hand side of the bike and leave the side stand down so if you do lose balance it will fall to the left and settle back on the side stand, once you gain confidence and get to know the bikes balance point you’ll be fine.
However the best of us still have the odd “moment” so don’t worry about it.
However the best of us still have the odd “moment” so don’t worry about it.
Gassing Station | Biker Banter | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff