Big Bike Time: Recommendations

So you’ve passed your test and how comes the exciting bit, which bike to get. Knowing what to get as your first big bike can be confusing, there are a lot of people advising you what they think is best and a million articles about why you need the newest Ducati on the market.

You may have had a 125cc a couple of years and are feeling pretty confident on it, but how do you know what the next step is? It’s a good idea to try and bridge the gap between bikes, so maybe avoid an R1 for now.

We Buy Any Bike have found choosing a motorcycle can be a long process, in which you’ll go through a kind of checklist. You might spot a bike that you love the look of, but then realise it’s far too heavy. Or come across a bike that is ideal for pottering around town, but the tank is tiny so that trip you had planned in summer will be a nightmare... You’ll have to work through pros and cons of each bike until finally, everything will fall into place.

Fairing Vs Naked

Firstly, you will drop your bike. That’s something that people hate to say out loud but unfortunately, it’s going to happen! So you might want to keep that in mind when looking at the price tags.

Try and think of your first bike as a learning curve, you have to go through the rough to get to the smooth. When you’ve got the basics nailed you can start looking for your dream bike and you’ll know you can handle it.

With these points in mind, it’s a good idea to look at naked bikes or minimal fairing. Taking a tumble is the worst, only made worse by remembering you have to pay for the repairs. With naked bikes, you don’t have to worry about cracked fairings which can be pricey to fix up. Of course, it’s not always as simple as that, you might have a motorway commute on your hands so weather protection would be needed. You’ll have to weigh up the information and see what fits you best.

Big Bike? Think Insurance

Secondly, insurance is high for newbie bikers especially if you are based in a city. So fully comprehensive, on brand new bikes is..wow.

There are some really good second-hand bikes on the market, ranging from £1600 to £2000. For a first bike, this is more than enough to spend to get a reliable steed. This will also help your insurance; once you start getting into the £3000s, insurance contracts can go crazy. This isn’t to say cheaper is better, in fact, when you start looking below the £1000 mark things can get pretty sketchy!

So that’s our view on first bikes, keep the budget sensible and get the practice needed. Once you have some miles under your belt with a big bike, the mishaps have occurred and drop taken place, you’ll be ready for the next step.