Novice biker looking for info.

andyneb

Hey guys, Im coming into this as a complete novice re bikes and information regarding them, however am considering getting a motorbike in the coming months.

Im well aware that there is a different theory test to the one that must be done for a car licence, does that mean that there is also a different book, or is all the info to be found in the same book?

Have had a look around for bikes as well, and have been recommended a yamaha virago xv125 as a decent bike to learn on. Would that be something that people would agree with, or is there something more suitable?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

hobochris

Would need a bit more info before we could advise.

How old are you?

What is your budget?

what type of weight/build are you?

What type of riding would you be doing?(weekend spins / short commute / long commute)

Also remember you'll need gear and would seriously advise on lessons.

andyneb

Im a 26yr old male, 6'0 and around 14 stone.

I'd be looking to use the bike mainly for short commutes, looking at about 50kms p/day, but intend on using the bike as main form of transport in place of car, so prob looking at around 450kms p/week.

Will have around 1500E to play with, and it being a first bike, will naturally be looking to pick something up secondhand.

Cuddlesworth

andyneb wrote: »

Im a 26yr old male, 6'0 and around 14 stone.

I'd be looking to use the bike mainly for short commutes, looking at about 50kms p/day, but intend on using the bike as main form of transport in place of car, so prob looking at around 450kms p/week.

Will have around 1500E to play with, and it being a first bike, will naturally be looking to pick something up secondhand.

First of all, I do similar enough mileage so I can tell you honestly that 1500 is not going to cut it.

For the theory test, buy the cd from Easons. Keep doing the tests over and over on the pc till you are getting a constant success rate(obviously paying attention to the questions you get wrong). Common sense goes a long way. Its the exact same questions as the exam so constant pass on your pc means constant pass on theirs.

For the bike, its coming up to Winter. If you want to truly use the bike Decent Gear is a must have. That means pants, jacket, gloves, helmet and boots. Even outside of Winter, with our rain and a decent speed you get very cold with bad gear. I bought cheap stuff(sub 500) and froze my ass off last year. If it hadn't been for the great gloves(130 on their own) I would have been utterly screwed.

Chain maintenance doing that mileage can be expensive. Tyre replacements every 6 months roughly(bout 10k kilometers for a sport tourer) will be around 600 for the year. Insurance will be around 500 plus depending on bike/engine size. I get away with about 25 euros a week on fuel, so drop about 1400 a year on that. I spent 500 on gear, replaced jacket after 6 months for 350 euros, helmet after 7 months for 140, pants after 9 months for 150 all because they didn't wear well or were sub par.

My costs last year were 4k for bike, 1.2k for insurance, 1.5k for fuel, 550 for tires, 400 servicing + repairs, 200 chain maintainable, 75 euros tax, 500 for gear initially, 640 during year.

Total costs for bike last year were around 9k.




You know, I think I just pissed myself when I realized how much that ****er cost me last year. No wonder I have no cash.

This year it will be around 1.5k hopefully.


The point I'm trying to make is that the first year of biking is not going to be cheap. Especially if you are going to be using it everyday. Cheap gear will be replaced and will cost you far more in the long term. Maintenance costs will go up, chains sprockets, tyre's etc all get lots of wear with decent use. And you don't want to cheap out on parts like tyre's or chains when driving a bike.

KamiKazi

With your height and weight I think you can forget about a 125 cruiser.

I'd recommend a restricted Suzuki Bandit.