Have a few questions about buying a used motorcycle...

[redhenracing2]

Have fun with it 

[Nurblesnurb]

Have fun with it 

Meh, fell through. Mostly because I wanted to hold out for a better deal or something that looked prettier.

[mister]

Have fun with it 

Meh, fell through. Mostly because I wanted to hold out for a better deal or something that looked prettier.

So the Ninja deal fell through in 2 hours?

Michael

[redhenracing2]

Wow, I think that's a new record for a transaction fail.

[Nurblesnurb]

Well by fell through, I meant I called him and told him that it wasn't going to happen unless it was for an absurdly low price. I am just gonna stick around for a few weeks and see if any more GS500's or SV650's roll around. I just hope that the R6's or F4i's I'm seeing on craigslist don't get any cheaper or else I'm going to buy one... which would be a terrible idea.

Just a question, if I get an unfaired (is that a word?) 500 or 650, is there a cheap solution to making it look more like the modern ones? Perhaps fairings from a motorcycle graveyard or something similar?

[mister]

The R6 / I4 prob is easy fixed.... stop looking at them.

Why look for a cheap naked then spend $ to make it faired? If you want faired, get faired to begin with. Then, take the fairings off, throw on some Frame Sliders and ride until you have learned how to ride and are pretty sure you won't drop it anymore (notice I said anymore, implying you will drop it), then put the undamaged fairings back on.  Otherwise, you'll ride it, drop it then take the dmaaged fairings off and ride around with it naked or need to spend more $ to get replacement fairings.

You want an idea of what to out look for when Inspecting a bike? Go over this http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html

Michael

[redhenracing2]

I dropped my gs about four times in the year that I owned it, all low speed lowsides, and if it had fairings on it they would be trash. I highly recommend getting a naked one, and one that's already banged up at that, for your first bike. Because you will drop it.

[tt_four]

My first bike was an xt550 dual sport. I dropped it like 15 times. I dropped my ex250 a few times because I would forget to take the lock off the front wheel before I tried to pull out of a parking spot, plus once when it was cold out and I took a turn too fast and lowsided. Same thing happened with the disc lock on my 3rd bike a few times, as well as once when I was pulling a bungee cord down to my passenger peg while my bike was on an incline, and pulled it right over. I haven't dropped the GS(although Heather did quite a few times trying to learn how to ride), and haven't dropped the XB either. It still took me 3 bikes before I stopped making any of those mistakes. Still have frame pucks on my current bike though because I'm not gonna act like mistakes aren't made.

[mister]

I'm not gonna act like mistakes aren't made.

Yeah. Like getting distracted at the pump when you pull up (so your routine is broken) and getting off the bike Before you put the side stand down.

I'll tell you, as light as the GS is, when gravity has taken it and a little momentum has kicked in, that bike is friggin heavy to stop it from falling all the way. I know if I can stop it in mid fall and get it back up, I'll be fine if I ever need to pick it up off of the ground.

Michael

[redhenracing2]

Not sure if you made a deal yet or not, but this may be worth looking at for you. I would print off the short version and take it with you when you go to look at the bike.

http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html

[Allen]

If its your very first motorcycle, then maybe the R6 wouldn't be the best choice.  The gs500's and sv650's would be great starter bikes, its my fourth year on mine.  Look for 04+ for the faring, for the 650's, the naked bikes are more popular and have mountain bike style handlebars which makes them super comfortable, newer sv's have fuel injection.