Motorbikes, a bit of a rip off in this country.

Arg

I was looking about and you don't get a lot for you money with motorbikes for example. http://www.suzuki-gb.co.uk/bike/vz800l0/
http://www.suzuki.co.uk/cars/cars/new/alto/alto

They're about the same price and you get a more for your money with the Alto, even the small engine bikes are quite steep at £3000 a pop.

The same applies to other makes so is it just because in the UK bikes are seen as toys instead of proper transport that keeps prices high.

ps, Apparently the Altos and a few other hatchbacks are having their prices knocked down to about £6000 at the moment.

Trebor16

If you look around at the prices in other countries in Europe you will see they are not much different to the UK prices. One of the main factors is the way the pound and euro have both fallen in value against the Japanese yen which has seen the prices of Japanese bikes soar in recent years.

Middle weight bikes are now on a par pricewise with the cheaper cars whereas twenty to thirty years ago it would have been the top range bikes that cost the same as the cheaper cars.

k12479

Hmm..well this isn't a recent phenomenon, it goes back to the fifties/sixties or so, back when a motorcyle with sidecar was a reasonable mode of transport rather than the oddity it is today.

That Suzuki VZ800 thing is hardly basic transport. The Alto on the other hand will be made in hugely greater volumes, on more automated production lines, sharing more components across vehicle lines which brings the price down.

I think for most of the marketplace, bikes are toys. The more 'proper transport' end of the market is more the scooters.

forgotmyname

You need to compare the ALTO to a 50cc or 125cc scooter. Then your more inline with what value for money means.

The Alto wont do 110mph and 0-60 in under 7 seconds. How much money would you need to spend on an Alto to achieve this?

Even then the Alto wont be able to nip through the traffic.

My main reason for getting a scooter. No matter how empty or gridlocked the roads my journey was always within 1 minute either side of my average.

Compare that to an extra 20 or 30 minutes on some days.

rtho782

A 600cc commuter bike (like mine, a Yamaha XJ6F) has a 0-60 time of around 3.6 seconds, gets 50-60mpg, and cost me £5500 brand new with 4 years 0%.

If you want a cheap bike, the Suzuki SV650 (650cc V twin) can be had for around £4400 brand new on low rate finance.

Cars start around £6000 and that is for a horrible slow boring ugly econobox like a Ford Ka(ck). Find me a decent new car under £15k that will have reasonable performance! (Won't ask for it to be anything like the bike because you'd have to get into the realms of an SLR McLaren Mercedes to match the 0-60 time).

And you can have a horrible little 125, the bike equivalent of that Alto, for under £1k new.

Trebor16

I think you are being optimistic if you think an XJ6 will do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds.

The only 125's you will find for under £1000 new are the chinese built ones.

rtho782

http://www.autorivals.net/features/2010fz6rvs2010650r/2010fz6rvs2010650r.htm

The fz6r is the us name for my bike, which is an XJ6 Diversion F ABS, and quotes 3.8 so not far off. Mine has been modded with a power commander, full arrow exhaust system, and had it's gearing changed via the chain. I wouldn't say 3.6 is far out.

I'd rather have a lexmoto than a Suzuki alto, but even a ybr125 is only £1999 new.

bris

Trebor16 wrote: »

I think you are being optimistic if you think an XJ6 will do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds.

Eh no, I have a 55 plate ZR750 that can do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds and 150 overall. There are very few top end sports cars on the roads that can beat a £1500 sports bike off the lights. Don't underestimate the power between your legs on these sports bikes.

ian103

where can you get a ybr for 1999 new - Im looking and the best I can get is circa 2400, just looked at a CPI and thats 1600

rtho782

Go in and talk to dealers. I bought mine for that in mid 2011 and that included an alarm.

List price is a bit higher. I was paying cash so that might have made a difference?

ian103

That is the cash price, absolute best I can get is £2250 for last years model and £150 delivery as they are nearly 200 miles away, local dealer begrudingly reduced by £120 from a list price of £2570. all they bang on about is interest free credit (I assume they get a kick back or something) but thats no benefit to me.

I found a friendly local dealer - no 2nd hand stock of 125s and they sell Kawasaki / Sym / CPI, small amount of discount of the Kawasaki but the other 2 are list price.

Looks like the market place is tightening up on the prices.