New bike time

[raceboy]

Right, fancy a new (well previously cherished) bike, I only use it to commute on which is now a 20 minute ride on fast sweeping A roads. I've not been riding long, 6 months experiance on a 125 but need something with a little more poke, I'm drawn to 600ish naked bikes and love the sound of Monsters, just had a quick look through trader and for £2k-£2.5k there seems to be a few nice ones with under 10k miles on them, and I've just tried Bennetts for a quote and it's only £145 TPF&T
Would one of these be more trouble than it's worth, I'm used to dodgy Italian electrics with my Cagiva, but is it going to be a money pit to rival the TVR
Or do I play it safe witha Bandit/Hornet/Fazer choice

[ledger]

no useful information about the monster, but have you considered a naked sv650, Im planning on getting an SV come spring myself

[s2ooz]

I love the SV650 too. put a micron exhaust on.. loverly.
bandits are old (mechanical design) and expensive to service (ask a dealer for a quote on both)

[ledger]

I tested a hornet and the SV, much prefered the SV, in particular the brakes on the hornet were dire.

[raceboy]

I imagine a Monster is going to more expensive to service and according to www.ducatiuk.com theres no dealers in Nottingamshire which I find a little strange but I'm just a sucker for something 'different'
So any ideas on service costs/intervals for this kind of thing

[ninjaboy]

I had a hornet for a week while i was waiting for my new bike to be delivered.They are great fun and are as fast as you need on the road and the finish is good,could be worth a look

[Steve_T]

I was looking at a Monster (and also the Cagiva Raptor 650) as my first bike, but settled on the SV. Why? Well the SV is two insurance groups lower than either a Hornet or Fazer, which saved me £££s.

Why not a monster, well mainly it was the servicing cost (was quoted £350 for a 6k service by Ducati London South, two services for the SV haven't cost that much!) Also the much talked about lack of steering lock. Having commuted in London for a while now, this would actually be a problem, so if it's busy on your commute it's another mark against the Monster. Finally take a good look at someone riding a monster, it's a very odd riding position to my mind. I'd say get a good SV and insist on different tyres to Metzlers if they're on there, my BT020s are way better, particularly in the wet.

Steve.