Motorcycle delivery cost

[CrankyCraig]

I've spent the last few evenings trawling though the various used bike websites in search of a 125cc or less scooter for the wife, and I've all but lost the will to live.

Unable to discern any correlation between used scooter prices I've ceased caring. My criteria has now changed to the cheapest 100kg or so of nearly new Japanese scooter that can be delivered to the door, yet that doesn't appear to be as straight forward as I'd imagined it to be.

Is free or fixed price UK delivery just not a thing when it comes to motorcycles? Can't a few stamps be stuck to the bike and it be left against a postbox with the keys posted inside?

[CrankyCraig]

Danm1les said:

What area are you looking in and for how much? Surely there is hundreds of bikes within 20 miles of where you live unless your out on the outskirts somewhere?

Exactly this, arse end of Cornwall, more than 100 miles from any meaningful civilization. I'm able to find lot's of very suitable bikes elsewhere around the country, but the local options are almost exclusively Lexmoto or tractors.

I can't afford to care too much about which Japanese scooter I would like, given the lack of options, preferably something which wont depreciate massively or dissolve the first time it rains like the Chinese bikes around these parts do.

I've never bought a bike from a store before, but it's surprised me a bit that in this day and age delivery terms aren't typically stated on the website.

[CrankyCraig]

PIGINAWIG said:

Just hire a van for fifty quid for the day, then you can go and look at three or four local bikes, even if they’re a hundred miles away and choose the best one. The van will be handy to load the bike in and deliver home.....

Rocket science it ain’t.....

If I could have found just one bike within a hundred miles of here worth buying I wouldn't have started this thread.

[CrankyCraig]

Lee540 said:

Cornwall Kawasaki Centre
Anton Paris
Damerells
GT Motorcycles
Thor Motorcycles

Off top of my head.. you have all those guys in Cornwall.. (and Plymouth), more if you include Exeter.. between those you cannot find one cheap scooter?

Edited by Lee540 on Tuesday 24th April 10:03

Correct. Though I haven't been any further than their website. There was one listed as sold on one of those sites a few days ago which fitted the bill, just a bit too late to the game.

Plinth said:

I recently bought a bike from a dealer 175 miles away.
He charged £1 per mile (one way) for delivery, which I think is remarkably good value.

If that's what I could expect to pay, I could expand the search a bit

PIGINAWIG said:

If it’s not too personal - what’s your budget?

Not at all. Budget is quite flexible, but around the £1k mark seemed reasonable given what's available elsewhere, though I appreciate anything newer or from a dealer may be more. As stated, something Japanese that's done most of it's depreciating, and preferably lower mileage. HAS to be an automatic scooter

[CrankyCraig]

Donbot said:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Took 2 mins. You appear to be making this difficult for yourself.

You may need to up your budget a bit for your list of requirements.

So it seems. Excellent work that man. Thank you very much

[CrankyCraig]

Aaargh... I was all ready to buy this, and then I refreshed a search page and noticed this:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/honda-motorbikes/honda-v...

Just one of many preferable examples available elsewhere, and I now feel like I'm settling for something inferior because i'm impatient. Daft, really, because almost anything will do.

I'll sleep on it.