Herald Maverick 250
Discussion
Has anyone tried one of these?
Looking for a second bike, mainly when riding with my wife on her 125, mostly in the Peak District.
Like the look of these, but don't know much about them.
Also open to other suggestions, scrambler, cruiser, retro style, up to £4000ish, prefer new, or almost new, not Royal Enfield.
Looking for a second bike, mainly when riding with my wife on her 125, mostly in the Peak District.
Like the look of these, but don't know much about them.
Also open to other suggestions, scrambler, cruiser, retro style, up to £4000ish, prefer new, or almost new, not Royal Enfield.
I have a '66 plate Herald 250 (not a Maverick) and it's a very enjoyable thing to own and ride. As you probably know, the motor is a copy of a 1980s Suzuki, and the bikes are tweaked in Huntingdon, Cambs (suspension mostly - mine has RaceTech rear shocks).
It was bought for the job of nipping across town through traffic which is does admirably, but it's a lot of fun on faster roads as well (slow bikes/cars quickly more fun than quick bikes slowly in my opinion). Tops out at about 80-ish, but is perky enough on getting there. Complaints are mostly that the front end feels 'light' when pushing the corners which doesn't inspire confidence (far worse than my old CBR 125R), and that the life of some of the components feels shorter than I was expecting (consumables such as front disk and chain and sprocket). I'm not sure if the latter is down to previous maintenance though as I've only had it 9 months. Online parts shop has a decent supply of things too, I've yet to encounter any unobtainable parts.
It lives outside under a cover, has regular ACF50 treatments, and so far shows no sign of collapsing into an oxidised pile.
I'm sure other bikes are better built, but for £1800, it does exactly what I wanted in being fun and frugal, with more poke than a 125.
It was bought for the job of nipping across town through traffic which is does admirably, but it's a lot of fun on faster roads as well (slow bikes/cars quickly more fun than quick bikes slowly in my opinion). Tops out at about 80-ish, but is perky enough on getting there. Complaints are mostly that the front end feels 'light' when pushing the corners which doesn't inspire confidence (far worse than my old CBR 125R), and that the life of some of the components feels shorter than I was expecting (consumables such as front disk and chain and sprocket). I'm not sure if the latter is down to previous maintenance though as I've only had it 9 months. Online parts shop has a decent supply of things too, I've yet to encounter any unobtainable parts.
It lives outside under a cover, has regular ACF50 treatments, and so far shows no sign of collapsing into an oxidised pile.
I'm sure other bikes are better built, but for £1800, it does exactly what I wanted in being fun and frugal, with more poke than a 125.
KTMsm said:
Plenty of reports of these and similar rusting to bits in a couple of years.
Why would you rather buy a crap Chinese bike new than a good Japanese bike used ?
Japanese or any decent brand of bike will last a lot longer and hold its money a lot better
That's kind of the point of this thread, finding out if they are crap, or not.Why would you rather buy a crap Chinese bike new than a good Japanese bike used ?
Japanese or any decent brand of bike will last a lot longer and hold its money a lot better
cjs racing. said:
That's kind of the point of this thread, finding out if they are crap, or not.
The point might have been crudely put, but he does have a point. At 4k there’s quite a few options open to you for similar bikes from better quality manufacturers.
From what I’ve seen of Heralds in a garage local to me, they would be very close to the bottom of the list for bikes at that price point.
It might be worth you having a look about, but at 4 to 4.5k you can pick up the likes of BMW GS310, KTM 390 Dukes, Husky Svartpilen, Yamaha MT03
I've ridden a Meteor 350 and thought it was a hoot. I'd imagine the HNTR 350 is more my thing with regard to a quick front end.
I thought RE dealers had stock they were discounting as RE are going direct to dealers and not using an importer anymore.
A 12,000 mile used Japanese motorcycle that looks like a motorcycle for £4K ish:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20240123...
Slight budget creep:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20230926...
The motorcyclist along the road who has lowrider/cruisers and a superscooter was using a female relative's CL500 and was complimentary.
I thought RE dealers had stock they were discounting as RE are going direct to dealers and not using an importer anymore.
A 12,000 mile used Japanese motorcycle that looks like a motorcycle for £4K ish:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20240123...
Slight budget creep:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20230926...
The motorcyclist along the road who has lowrider/cruisers and a superscooter was using a female relative's CL500 and was complimentary.
2021 SV 650:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20231005...
Looks like a motorbike and torque curve means you can leave it in 5th or 4th on tight, winding country lanes with grit on the outside and accumulated wet leaf litter in the middle of your side of the road due to the passage of other traffic.
65 to 70 mpg but £112 per annum road tax.
As used by many bike training schools to dawdle economically and reliably.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20231005...
Looks like a motorbike and torque curve means you can leave it in 5th or 4th on tight, winding country lanes with grit on the outside and accumulated wet leaf litter in the middle of your side of the road due to the passage of other traffic.
65 to 70 mpg but £112 per annum road tax.
As used by many bike training schools to dawdle economically and reliably.
Edited by carinaman on Thursday 25th January 13:02
carinaman said:
2021 SV 650:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20231005...
Looks like a motorbike and torque curve means you can leave it in 5th or 4th on tight, winding country lanes with grit on the outside and accumulated wet leaf litter in the middle of your side of the road due to the passage of other traffic.
65 to 70 mpg but £112 per annum road tax.
As used by many bike training schools to dawdle economically and reliably.
They are good bikes, but far too much like the Bandit 650 I already own.https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/20231005...
Looks like a motorbike and torque curve means you can leave it in 5th or 4th on tight, winding country lanes with grit on the outside and accumulated wet leaf litter in the middle of your side of the road due to the passage of other traffic.
65 to 70 mpg but £112 per annum road tax.
As used by many bike training schools to dawdle economically and reliably.
Edited by carinaman on Thursday 25th January 13:02
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