before I start ringing round?

I cycle nearly everywhere I need to go, and I work from home, so for the tiny use my car gets I can’t justify keeping it.

Driven 1200 (one thousand, two hundred) miles this year, and that includes an out of character 300 mile round trip to the Lakes. I do still need an engine for occasional meetings beyond realistic cycling distance, but I’ve really grown fed up of paying out for something I hardly use.

I’m not comfortable enough with my sexuality to ride a scooter I’m afraid, so 125cc is as small as I’m going.

I’m a 30 y/o male, have full car and bike license, have been driving cars for 11 years, had full bike licence for two years but this would be my first bike. Will want to limit my mileage to about 1500 or as close as I can get.

Anybody got a generic idea of what it’ll cost me?

Well I’m in my mid thirties, and not had a bike for many years and I was quote about £250 for insurance for the 600cc bike, loads of no claims years on my car though. I think that where you live will have more of a bearing on the cost.

get a bigger bike if you want to keep insurance down. I don’t know if it still holds but I once read that 70% of the most commonly stolen bikes were below 125cc. Also, younger presons rider smaller capacity machines and do lots of silly things on them. This makes the bikes look like a great risk to the insurance companies.

I used to insure a CBR100XX for less than £200 fully comp and I was only early 30s at the time.

Taking your test makes a big difference. My lad paid pretty much the same for a 900 a couple of months after passing his test as he did for a 125 (£300-ish at 21).

Assuming you’re buying used a 185/200/250 etc will tend to be cheaper to buy than a 125 as their isn’t as much demand for them.

My brand new Honda PCX 125cc scooter has just cost me £150 to insure third party fire and theft through Devitt – I only have a provisional licence. I decided against fully comp as the difference was so huge considering the excess and that the bike is ‘only’ worth £2400.

It looks a bit like a sports bike from the front and is quite nippy if that helps – and does around 110mpg.

More than you think but depends very much on where yo keep it? Garage in a rural location is much cheaper than on the street in a city.. ~don’t get a secondhand 125 – they all have been thrashed to death by ignorant kids 🙂 Don’t dismiss scooters – wethar protection, luggae space ease of use is not to be sneezed at.

oh – and by the way, I am 32 and am insured to keep the bike on a driveway.

To insure fully comp would have been over £500 with a £300 excess. Just not worth it in my mind – I have bikes worth more than the scoot and they aren’t insured to that level.

Really ? My insurance for 125 is about 12 pound a month fully comp through Devitt, parking on the street (opposite a police station well nearly) in small town but then I am an old lady with more no claims history than you have had hot dinners sonny boy etc etc etc.

Lol@Hels.

I would hope it was about £100

Bear in mind i’m 34, have held a bike licence for 6 year and have 4 NCB. I pay £117 a year fully comp for a 600 Honda Hornet

[edit] that’s with Hastings Direct

I got a CB500 as a first bike in my 30s after passing my DAS test. No bike NCB (not transferrable from the car, WTF?), been driving since I was a teen. Was about £120 I think.

So, I’d guess, buttons. Best quotes I had were from Carole Nash and Adrian Flux, both of whom gave me ostensibly the same quote but CN went “here’s your quote along with a load of extras we’ve added on for you”, AF went “here’s a quote… and here’s a lot of extras we could add if you’re interested.” I much preferred a company who offered me opt-in options rather than one that would have me opt-out to stuff (and obviously hope I wouldn’t notice / bother), so I went with AF.

Some years later, I’m getting a lot of spam from a company calling itself The Trading Floor, spam which uses my full name and details rather than just the usual dross. They claim to be reputable but ignore unsub requests. I’ve no proof but I have good reason to suspect now that Adrian Flux were responsible for selling my details to this bunch of bastards, so whilst I can recommend them as an insurer I’d caveat that by recommending that you watch out very closely for the “please don’t prostitute my information to third party companies no matter how carefully bloody screened you claim they are” tick boxes.

Brilliant advice folks, thanks. Particularly interesting to hear that going a bit bigger than 125cc might be a wise move, and potentially no more expensive. Perhaps an old 500 might be a better bet? They’re going for around the same cash, I just assumed mega bucks more to insure and fuel.

The biggy for me is it’ll have to live outside. Locked back garden, ground anchor, semi-rural location, but still outside.

I just assumed mega bucks more to insure and fuel

I doubt it’ll make much odds to insurance. No doubt it would use more fuel but it won’t be ragged senseless all the time so may not cost more to maintain. Maybe.