Thinking of buying a Yamaha Niken…

[Britzilian89]

Read the reviews, the forums, the YouTubes and owned a Tracer (ie same CP3 engine) previously.

Anyone know someone or owned a Niken long term?

Thoughts welcome

All year long distance commuter but also fun rides out

[Jazoli]

I had similar thoughts last year when Chorley Yamaha were selling them for £8999 OTR

I didn't buy anything in the end but I'd still consider one just for the fun of pissing off knobheads on sportsbikes.

[J6542]

I remember seeing that thread last year, and I was really tempted to get one, looks like you could get up to some serious hooliganism on it.

[Britzilian89]

Jazoli said:

I had similar thoughts last year when Chorley Yamaha were selling them for £8999 OTR

I didn't buy anything in the end but I'd still consider one just for the fun of pissing off knobheads on sportsbikes.

Hey Jaz

Yep I’m having same thoughts as you - in a world of £15-25k bikes the Niken are ridiculously cheap

But as we have always found in life, there is always a reason… but I think in this case it’s cheap because noone wants them rather than being because of low quality etc

[Rob_F]

I love the idea of it, even seeing one on the road I actually thought it looked cool - like something Batman would use for commuting.

[Mr Dendrite]

I saw my first one in the wild two weeks ago, as opposed to Demo bikes or camera platforms. The guy who had it absolutely loved it. Used it all year, said it felt incredibly safe in slippery conditions. It was in a grey colour with the panniers, looked good.
Only downsides every stop takes twice as long because people want to ask about it.

[Britzilian89]

Mr Dendrite said:

I saw my first one in the wild two weeks ago, as opposed to Demo bikes or camera platforms. The guy who had it absolutely loved it. Used it all year, said it felt incredibly safe in slippery conditions. It was in a grey colour with the panniers, looked good.
Only downsides every stop takes twice as long because people want to ask about it.

Yeah that’s probably the core reason for buying it - riding all year commuting… from farm roads to motorway then central London

The Niken feels like a good commuter plus do everything else

[Sidecar Man]

Rode on at Blyton last year Was great fun. If a little hard work.
Front grip was great But rear could come round a bit when pushing on.
Also quite hard to wheelie But once up in the air it balanced okay