Hey guys,

I am not new to the world of CBRs, but I am new to this forum. My name is Amir and I am currently a college student. My post is regarding whether or not I should look into buying a new bike or buy a used one again. I'll shoot out a little bit of my history before I begin.

I've been riding for about two years now and I started off with a lovely ninja 250 to get used to things. After that got old, I sold it and found a '92 CBR600. It was really cheap which was great, but unfortunately the miles on the bike were 55K+ and just about 3 months ago the bike totally died on me. So now after working for a while over this summer i've made some money and can afford to spend about 2,500 on a bike.

I have been looking at craigslist for another used bike and have found some decent bikes, but a lot of them have a great deal of mileage on them and most have salvaged titles. So my question is regarding new bikes. I can afford to make monthly payments and such, but I am not too familiar with the process of buying a motorcycle and I was also wondering how much I can bring the price down off a new bike. Any help would be great, thanks for your words of wisdom!

-Amir

 

The price of a new bike won't come down too much. You won't be able to make a killing on a new bike as opposed to a used one sold by a private owner. I am a college student too and i understand what you are going through. I would probably buy a used bike because you don't have to deal with payments and if you are like me loans are already a pain i have to worry about later on down the line. Since you are familiar with buying a bike just make sure its straight and rides well. I would stay away from salvage titles though. If you are interested i do have a 01 f4i frame with a clean title with 2k on the title for sale possibly. So if you come by a killer deal on a non title-able bike or with no title. we could work something out.
good luck!

 

I would stay away from salvaged titles, you never know what your getting into. You can save thousands over a new bikeby buyingone that is a few years old. Take out a loan and make payments, if something goes wrong, likeyou drop it,you'll have the cash to fix it.

 

i debated the same thing for a few months, i ended up going for new because i couldnt find anything too good used. I bought an 07 600RR New OTD for 8,000. My payments are 160/month. Im still a college student as well, but my bike is a daily rider so i needed somthing reliable that wouldnt break down on me next year. It is going to be a bit annoying having a bike payment but being on that bike makes it all worth it in my oppinion. I dont know if this helps you out at all, but goodluck on getting a bike.
I agree with everyone else and tell you to stay far away from salvage titles, i had a friend that had very bad luck with a salvaged bike.

 

think about it this way. 90% of sportbikes are bought by a young kid at one point or another.

90% of kids dont change the oil lube the chain or do ANY maintnence on a bike at all, top that off with them doing wheelies and racing..


The bike you bought with 55K miles on it should have lasted you 200k miles. any honda will last that long with correct maintnence; however hardly anyone does ALL the work required.

I'll buy new if it's an option thank you

 

Back in '04 before I bought my bike I was going back and forth and back and forth between buying new or used. I was actually looking at getting an '01 or '03 silver/black F4i. But, at the time I didn't know much about bikes and didn't want to have to worry about anything, so I decided to just get the new bike with the warranty. That way if anything went wrong, I could just take it in and it would be handled. Never ended up needing any warranty work though... nothing ever broke! LOL

I can't really be too decisive on this though, cuz it's kind of a case by case basis. I don't really regret buying a new bike just because I use it every single day and put a **** ton of miles on it, so I've gotten my moneys worth out of it no doubt, with nearly 4 years now of bulletproof reliable service. But while I agree with the above post about how many bikes get treated poorly by young squids, if you look hard enough there are clean adult owned well maintained bikes out there. You just have to be a little more patient to find them, which can be frusterating but defintely doable. It's up to you and just how much time you're willing to spend looking for a GOOD used bike, if that's the route you choose. Otherwise, if you can afford a new one, you can't go wrong with that route either

But yea these bikes WILL last a long long time when they're taken care of... I think mine is living proof of that.... 134,000 miles and running like a dream! So if you find a used one that you can tell is in good shape and has been well maintained and not abused.... don't rule it out

My $0.02

 

+1. I forgot to mention that I got my used 04 from a one owner in his 30s who owned bikes all his life. And it only had 3500mi. Kinda important. You will have to be patient for that to come around at a good price.[sm=nerd.gif]

 

Don't buy used. People abuse sportbikes to no end. Some riders I know stay in 4th gear or lower unless on a road trip out of state. People drop them and tip them over all the time. Maintaining the bike is a non-issue for some. All reason to buy new.

But for the love of god, do not walk into a dealership and ask them what you can do! They will always try to get you for extra warrenty's, service plans, high intrest rates etc. Go with someone who has bought several already or who has worked at a dealership before and knows how to dance their stupid sales dance.

 

I totally disagree, if you test ride the bike and know what to look for, you can get a good used bike. These bikes are bullet proof and if you get it at a low ball price, any issues can be dealt with pretty easily.