Short-term motorcycle ownership?

Short-term motorcycle ownership?

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Discussion

Exasperated

Original Poster:

456 posts

18 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
Well, long-term stuff has been discussed already, but what about bikes you've only had for a short amount of time before changing? Mine was a Streetfighter V4 S, which I owned for six months before abandoning for an Africa Twin (and let's not talk about depreciation). Anyone else? smile

croyde

23,933 posts

237 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
Honda 400 V4 race rep in the late 80s.

About 2 hours. Gorgeous thing but too impractical as my only bike in London.

Hadn't been allowed to test it prior to buying.

Took it back and got a full refund.

New Yamaha MT03 for 2 months before part exing for a new Street Triple.

Only got half the cost of the bike against the Triumph.

Exasperated

Original Poster:

456 posts

18 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
That's quite impressive smile

trickywoo

12,308 posts

237 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
Shortest I owned a bike was about 800 miles. Triumph Street Triple 765RS. Glad to see the back of it.

Adam_W

1,090 posts

207 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
BMW F800S I think, had it for all of 4 days before I had written it off.. oops

Onelastattempt

442 posts

54 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
A Suzuki GXS250e, bought as a non runner for £50, fitted an old battery I had in the garage and it fired up on third attempt. Sold for £125 to a workmate two days later. He used it to commute on for 3 years, he never did a thing to it, not even an oil change and it flew through the mot each year. He part exed it for a GSX750F and got £100 for it.

Skeptisk

8,241 posts

116 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
trickywoo said:
Shortest I owned a bike was about 800 miles. Triumph Street Triple 765RS. Glad to see the back of it.
What happened? I had a test ride on the previous version (before buying a Tuono) and it was a nice bike.

OldGermanHeaps

4,211 posts

185 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
Bmw f650gs. Absolutely bored me to tears on the road and utterly useless off road, lasted 2 weeks before i replaced it, but it taken 6 weeks to sell it.
Still made a couple of quid on it but wasnt worth the hassle. Had a few short term bike i bought cheap with faults opportunisically, repaired them and played with them for a few months before selling them on for a profit. It has been a fun way of trying out a few different styles of bike but I always come back to a grunty traillie on knobblies. Got a crf 450x with a big bore kit now and I think i have found perfection for me, I cant think what would tempt me away. If i had room in the garage for a second bike I would compliment it with a Pan European.
I would like a go on a dct africa twin though, could that be the perfect 1 bike solution? Too much dough for a toy though.

SteveKTMer

1,061 posts

38 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
Triumph Daytona 600, the 4cyl 600cc model. Bought it on a Saturday, wrote it off the next Saturday after about 300 miles. All worked out well as I bought a new ZX6r the following weekend which was a much better bike, 22k miles in 2 years.


Jazoli

9,214 posts

257 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
I've had too many to remember to be honest hehe

AKjr

532 posts

18 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
croyde said:
Honda 400 V4 race rep in the late 80s.

About 2 hours. Gorgeous thing but too impractical as my only bike in London.

Hadn't been allowed to test it prior to buying.

Took it back and got a full refund.

New Yamaha MT03 for 2 months before part exing for a new Street Triple.

Only got half the cost of the bike against the Triumph.
That's a killer frown

How are you finding the Triumph? I've had mine a week and put 400 miles on it from new, loving it so far (standard R), I've had to bring the running in service forward a fortnight hehe

Biker's Nemesis

39,624 posts

215 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
2012 Honda Fireblade, owned for 5 months, I just didn't like it for all sorts of reasons.

croyde

23,933 posts

237 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
AKjr said:
croyde said:
Honda 400 V4 race rep in the late 80s.

About 2 hours. Gorgeous thing but too impractical as my only bike in London.

Hadn't been allowed to test it prior to buying.

Took it back and got a full refund.

New Yamaha MT03 for 2 months before part exing for a new Street Triple.

Only got half the cost of the bike against the Triumph.
That's a killer frown

How are you finding the Triumph? I've had mine a week and put 400 miles on it from new, loving it so far (standard R), I've had to bring the running in service forward a fortnight hehe
Absolutely loved the Street Triple but that was a while ago, 2009 to 2015.

Got a Speed Twin 900 now and loving it too biggrin

Slowboathome

4,460 posts

51 months

Saturday 4th May
quotequote all
6 weeks on an RD350 before some git ran a red light and T-boned me.

Gas1883

577 posts

55 months

Sunday 5th May
quotequote all
Kawasaki kh250 - Suzuki sp370 & within a day back to a Kawasaki kh400 , no idea of cost as young / single , just board to pay , sp370 was truly awful , or probably not what I liked

Hugo Stiglitz

38,038 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th May
quotequote all
Jazoli said:
I've had too many to remember to be honest hehe
Not just me then...


Short term is 6 months? Ah erm..

Drawweight

3,103 posts

123 months

Sunday 5th May
quotequote all

GS 1200 that I had for 6 weeks before it got written off.

I got £300 less than I paid for it off the insurance so that wasn’t a bad deal.

KTMsm

27,676 posts

270 months

Sunday 5th May
quotequote all
Hundreds...

I like to try everything and it's hard to get a proper test ride on decent roads particularly on older used bikes

So I just bought any bikes I hadn't ridden as long as they were sensibly priced and then sold them on again

It's how / why I became a dealer

Disappointments include:
V Strom 650 & 1000
SV 650
Versys 1000

Hugo Stiglitz

38,038 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th May
quotequote all
Sadly I agree with your disappointments.

The Vstrom 1000 for me was very neutral to ride.


Rushjob

1,984 posts

265 months

Monday 6th May
quotequote all
Kawasaki ZRX 1100

2 months

I'd ridden big v-twins for the previous 30 odd years, but I'd always hankered after a big Kwak ( The Z1 / Z1R were THE bikes in my early riding days ) so after selling my Multistrada back in the UK as I couldn't register it in France for a sensible price, I bought a really well looked after ZRX.

Lovely bike, really well looked after with a history folder you wouldn't believe, every invoice for work from servicing to tyres was at the same Kawasaki dealer.

I could not get my head around riding it.

Tried my best, but it had to go ( I actually made about 250€ profit on it! ) and bought a Guzzi Stelvio instead....