Notes from a New Rider… Bike acquired.

With the practical work of getting my motorcycle license out of the way, it was time to get down to business and start looking at bikes. My first inclination was to get something new (isn’t it always?). When you strip it all back, buying a new bike is pretty impractical. Chances are you will do something stupid in your first year of ownership. It could be as little scatch on the rear fender putting the plate on it (YES, I did this), or as drastic as dropping it at at stop sign (NO, I did not do this). As I got over the idea of having something new I began my online search for used bikes. First thing, set a budget. Temper it knowing that will likely be in the $1,000-$1,200 insurance range (I’m going to endorse Riders Plus here www.ridersplus.com. they had the best rates of anyone I talked too), a grand sunk into riding gear and you will likely spend 10% more than what you originally wanted.

Applying that logic I came up with a budget of $5,000, with a cap of $6,000 if I found something I really liked. As a rule used Japanese bikes come in far cheaper than North American (or even European) stuff. I’m not sure why–  but I think it has something to do with the preference of the North American rider. My experieince to date is that the  engineering on both breeds is great. Having a budget established allows you start a refined search. There are a number of websites you can use, each with there own pros and cons. The list I used is as follows;

a. kijiji.ca – A site that tailors to you local geography. It’s a lot of work searching the site, but there is a lot of product. I ultimately purchased my bike through a Kijiji ad.

b. autotader.ca – Tons and tons of used bikes. I found over the last few years the site has become full of dealer ads and a number of scam artists (“2007 Harley Fatboy for $3,000…” *BULLSHIT*), if its too good to be true it probably is.

c. usedmotorcycleforsale.ca – Seems like a realtively new site. It’s getting better as time goes on. It seems that you may specific “Ontario” as the location, you get bike ads from all over.

d. Individual dealers usually have their own collections of used bikes for sale. It is a lot of work to search each site but buying some local makes a lot sense for maintenance purposes alone.

After the search you will likely have created a short list of bikes. I was going for a cruiser style bike– American/European first, Japanes second. I found three a Suzuki, a Honda and a Triumph. The Triumph was the one that caught my attention. It wasn’t the newest of the three (2006), it had the least amount of kilometers and it was the most expensive at $6,900. But man it was the one I wanted. I  put the first two on the back-burner and reached out to the owner of the Triumph. We went back an forth for a week or so on price and eventually we settled at $5,900. Given we we’re about 125km apart I drove down on a saturday to have a look– it was everything I expected and after owning it for two weeks my advice is to spend a few hundred bucks to get something you really want, it will be the right decision.

And here it is…

Thanks for reading, I enjoy the feedback!

-gleason

Notes from a New Rider… Bike acquired.