[Closed] I must be daft - on two fronts: car and motorbike

Should get a good deal on the F800 GSA. They've not been a good seller for BMW.
You can always hire a van/car should the need arise. Simples

looks like Daisy_Duke has already answered my question "how will you get to Edale for a pootle?"

What about 2-3 year old motorbike so most of depreciation has happened and a v. cheap run around car?

Presuming being on here you are a cyclist, do you only ever ride from our door?

Just need to ask yourself also whether you are going to be the kind of biker that will ride all year round (after wettest winter on record last year)?

How often do you carry enough bags/ shopping/ stuff to tip etc that you could never get on a bike?

Make sure the GSA has panniers for vital shopping items. I've just ordered bicycle carrier for my GSA from here..
http://2x2cycles.com/product/motorcycle-bicycle-rack/

I had just a motorbike for 10 years, commuting through scottish winters, the whole deal. Was fine. Had a top box which could take most shopping, and a homemade "roofrack" that could transport bigger things (like bike frames, or I've put the pic of me transporting some 5 foot by 18 inch loft insulation boards on here before)

But then I got into mountain biking, so I got a car.

You'll be fine with just a bike, assuming it's got a top box and/or panniers - but when it's pissing down and you have to pop to the shops for that bottle of wine you forgot to order for tonight's meal you'll wish you still had a car...

They're also a lot more dangerous than a car if it's icy - no idea how much of a problem that is where you live.

My crush just got a bit bigger 😳

I'm shopping for a leather jacket and a helmet this afternoon

I ran bikes all year round for 7 years, the only time it gets a bit iffy is when it's icy, fresh snow is fine. Decent gear to keep you warm and dry is vital (bloody miserable otherwise). Winter is very harsh on the bike itself though, the road salt and grime really hammers the finish.

Sell the car and buy the BM then pick up a cheap run around (bike or car) for the winter months. I picked up a little CB350 the other month for a whole £260 and it'll be a great little bike for the winter.

As as complete change of tangent, noticed that you are in NW Norfolk, whereabouts? I have just moved to area and live in sunny Mileham! If you ever see a rugby lad masquerading as a cyclist on a fat bike that'll be me!

Hope you have a garage. I wouldn't keep a brand new bm outside

tbh, though as long as you have mates with cars it should be ok and with the money you save on tax and insurance you can afford the odd taxi when you absolutely have to be somewhere and its -2

However whats crazy is buying a new F800.....there are so many better bikes out there and if you want a Tonka toy then the secondhand market is flooded with them and usually the previous owner has covered them in glue and driven through a touratech outlet as a bonus

any excuse to post a pic of my bike
[IMG] [/IMG]

My Tenere is up for sale 😀

DaisyDuke - now that is lovely!! As a new rider, though, riding a bike that weighs more than the Moon might be too much of a challenge...

Scud - I'm in King's Lynn and quite often drive through Mileham as it's the back way to Norwich.

emsz - I have most things but no boots yet - planning to pop across to the BMF Bike show at Peterborogh this weekend with my credit card... 🙂

Rachel

Winston - so what bikes are better than the F800 for use on mixed surfaces, then? It seems people rate it higher than the Tiger??

"BMF Bike show at Peterborogh this weekend with my credit card... "

enjoy ,just ensure the kit is pukka from a good retailer - my experiance of cheap show kit has been that its factory seconds and good luck finding the retailer to warrenty it afterwards 😉

We got rid of our second car a few years ago and I managed 2 years on my 1250 Bandit. Got a top box and invested in some good textile trousers and jacket.

If it's what you have you get used to it but if you ride over winter try and rinse it when you get home so it doesn't get too knackered.

Better yet, get some ACF50, get the bike really clean, then spray the crap out of everything- you need to reapply every so often but it gives really good protection. I used to just leave mine filthy for months at a time, it works better than cleaning every day then having new crap go onto the nice clean casings etc.

It's so effective, it even keeps Suzukis in good condition.

ATG, it's easier to ride than you might imagine. I almost bought a F800 GS Adventure before this, but decided I wanted a shaftie for winter use. Good bike the F800 GSA, just not been a huge seller for BMWW. Hope you get a good deal. PS, it looks better in red than it does in sand!

It will be fine for a while. Ive done it years ago, only had a Fireblade for a couple of years.

Eventually I got fed up riding it in the shitty winter so bought a really cheap car. Cheap as in a few hundred quid cheap. Just enough to work when its snowing or raining so hard you cant see.

Remember, your bike is supposed to be fun. When your tiptoeing around on greasy, icy roads and your hands are too numb to work you will wish you were in a car, any car.

Get a shite slow car and keep the bike for the adrenaline rush for when the conditions are good for it.

Seriously, you can get a decent slow car for a grand.

Trimix - Member

Remember, your bike is supposed to be fun. When your tiptoeing around on greasy, icy roads and your hands are too numb to work you will wish you were in a car, any car.

Aye, definitely was true for me- I had one bad winter too many, ended up there was a long spell of snow and ice, I parked the motorbike up and commuted by mountain bike for a couple of weeks and it's never been ridden since- it just beat the love out of me completely.

dual surface - what, tarmac and slightly bumpy tarmac?

If you are doing a round the world or some long distance touring off the beaten track then sure its great value for money, more easily fixed (and more reliable) than a big GS and capable of a bit of dirt road when the tarmac runs out

But if you are based in East Anglia and want a bike for pleasure and touring the UK plus Europe on a week off then there are plenty of cheaper better handling bikes which will be more rewarding to ride - If it was me, I'd be tempted by the new VFR800

Winston, I was more thinking of knobbly Tarmac and completely messed up BOATs etc. TBH I don't see the point in getting kicks on the road - it's full of cars and trucks and other huge lumps of scary metal. It's likely I'll go straight onto knobbliy tyres...

And yes - it will definitely be red. The sand one just looks like baby puke.

Rachel

Can you rent cars easily where you live ? If so then bike only will be fine. I can't see having to rely purely on a bike in the depths of winter, especially a bad one, will be much fun. The other alternative is to have a cheap old car to throw the bike into and to use when the weather is miserable.

If you want to actually go off road then any of the dual purpose bikes are really too heavy and generally not up to it...
Keep the skoda and look for a cheap bike as well as you'll only cry when your shiny new bike is covered in scratches and dings from off road riding.

The nice thing about adventure bikes, you can use them for gentle off road. You'd be surprised where you can get yourself yet they handle well on the road. Take a look over on advrider.com and ukgsuer.com. Bikes are meant to be used not polished for a Sunday! Enjoy it...

Nice.

I have a 2013 - 1200GSA triple black and now rarely take the car. Great bike, handles well, great engine. I have to say one of the best handling bikes I've owned.

Dual purpose tyres = work in the dry / lethal in the wet

I used to own a Fireblade so stumbled upon this Youtube clip the other night only to have a chuckle at 3.10min in when a GSA passes the rider and proceeds to disappear into the distance

Daisy_Duke - Member

The nice thing about adventure bikes, you can use them for gentle off road.

2 zoomers I know on SV650s doing some gentle offroad

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It's surprising what a big adventure bike will do offroad 🙂 this is my ktm 950 used it for this sort of stuff to commuting to touring etc, great bike.

But as above you will be glad of a car outside when the winter kicks in.
Also the amount of money you will need to spend to ride in the winter, heated gear is the only sensible option for me, it will be cheaper to buy an old car 🙂

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

That's the type of thing! 🙂

Rachel

I don't see the point in getting kicks on the road - it's full of cars and trucks and other huge lumps of scary metal. It's likely I'll go straight onto knobbliy tyres...

That seems at odds with it being your sole method of transport...?

I'd echo the cheap bike, keep car if you want to do that.

Nibby - I might be wrong but is that near Osmotherley?

Nibby - I might be wrong but is that near Osmotherley?

It looks like it. If it is I've taken a big dual sport along there too.

Allthegear, you're definitely on the fairly daft part of the spectrum, but it's not that impractical, just uncomfortable. But it does mean you'll actually ride. If you have the option of a car you'll always drive.

I think I have nine motorbikes in the barn. I did ride two of them across the yard and washed them this year. Which is more than I did last year.

Without a car, there are things you can't do on the spur of the moment - take an old telly to the tip, pop down to Ikea for a bookshelf - turn up neat and tidy at a wedding, pop a mountain bike in the back and go somewhere nice, ect ect.

Commuting through the winter can be pretty miserable on a bike. If it's a bit icy, freezing, you cant feel fingers/toes, your helmets fogged/salted up so you cant see, you wont see the blackice that gets you - you really don't have a chance with 2 wheels rather than 4. And if you do ride through the winter, you will really need 2 sets of decent quality kit - 1 winter and 1 summer. You don't want winter gloves when the suns out ect.

I don't have a car, I just have an SV650s, but in winter, for a couple of months when the weather dips or a week of rain is forecast, I can at least use the train to get to work, and I live in the centre of a town 5 mins from a supermarket.

Oh, and I don't know anyone who didn't drop their first motorbike - theres a lot more skill/observation/experience required to be filtering through traffic than a car. You'r only at the foot of a journey how to learn to ride. I'd get a second hand bike, just so it costs less when you inevitably bin it. The issue with bikes is when you find the limits, it all goes wrong very quickly, in a way thats hard to save, unlike cars.

Oh, and I don't know anyone who didn't drop their first motorbike

When I say drop I don't even mean a conventional accident, but say pushing paddling a bike in a car park or something daft, even just trying to ride off with a disk lock off -

Put it this way, I've beenriding 13 years, and sropped my SV for the fist time (I've had it 4 years!) last week, just tripping over a sleeping policeman in my own parking spot I've negotiated daily. I just clipped it in my boot, the bike started to go and in trying to save it, my other foot slipped and down it went, gently.....

And years ago, on a ride out, my mate, his learner girlfriend and I leaving their gravelly farm drive. He got to the bottom first, roared off, she used the front brake and skied the front wheel, and down she went. I lept off my bike to get hers off from her (she was underneath it) and out of the corner of my eye, having left the engine running I was in such a rush, on the slightly unstable and downhillslope, as I was pulling her bike off her, saw mine, riderless,just gently roll off the kickstand forwards and down it went - I could have saved it, but would have meant dropping the other bike back on my mates girlfriend!

Its the slow speed stuff that gets you, rather than the high!

Ah, yeah, you do drop them. My best lock related incident was a wheelie the length of the street only to find my lock was still on the front wheel when I touched it back down. 😳

My brother had a Kwak Z1100 with full fairing ,panniers and top box.
Manouvering it fully loaded it started to go but his aftermarket handle bars started bending and over it went.
Looked like Dali had set too once we got it back up.

Refuse to use a disc lock. That bas&%^$&$ has had me off a few times.

Refuse to use a disc lock.

The trick is to remember to put it where it will hit the brake [b]immediately[/b] on moving off - sometimes in front of the calliper, sometimes behind.

If you must use a disc lock- and they are almost completely useless- put it on the back wheel. 3 reasons. 1- it's marginally less useful because dragging a bike with a locked back wheel into a van is harder. Though not very. 2- you're less likely to drop the bike if you ride off. And 3, rear discs are cheaper than fronts.

But also 4, don't use a disc lock, they are crap.

[i]So, last year I did my A motorbike test and I've been more and more obsessed with owning a dual sport type bike ever since.[/i]

As a biker of +30 years, WTF is a 'dual sport' bike?

And agree with you will drop your first bike, but then for me it was a Garelli Tiger, about half a dozen times and then an RD250E three times, a new 350LC once (left it in two pieces) and then somehow I've managed to not fall off since even though some years I've covered more than 20k.

As a biker of +30 years, WTF is a 'dual sport' bike?

Nibby - I might be wrong but is that near Osmotherley?

Not 100% sure Mark, I think it was yes, was defo in Yorkshire somewhere.

To get to it there is good long stretch then you go down, some bigish rock steps. On that pic we went down then turned around and went back up.

Some cracking riding up that way for a big bike though.