Big wussy bleat about dirt bike prices

[JATZ]

When I mentioned hack I meant a small hack not a big hack.

Ooh not sure if Ishould post that-meh too late

Noooo, 125 cc's of honda reliability, I'll even chuck in the spiders for free

[cooneyr]

Yeah but what did you pay for it? Then how much did you spend on it?
There's plenty of bikes out there to buy, andI know I'll have fun on it. I'm not asking for a minter just a hack.

So predictable Dino me old flower.
WTF's a BRP?

BPR = Big Red Pig = XR650R

Though long and hard about ditching the 950 and getting a XR650R or a 640LC4. Problem is the 950 is a heap of fun and bloody brilliant for multi day adv touring rides with luggage.

I paid rougly $2k for the XR250R but its reasonably tidy (one owner for 90% of its life). I guess I had a XLR125 to sell to help fund it so not a huge amount of additional input. What impresses me about it is it has a reasonably amount of stomp for a 250 with what feels like lotsa torque and it has trail gearing (which emphasises the torque). Feels way more grunty than the 96 Dr250 Djebel I got my licence on and is light years better for trail riding even though it is a generation older. If your gonna get a trail bike, get a proper trail bike i.e. KDX, XR TTR, dont get a bike from the adv/roady side i.e. XL, KLR (I have to put DR in here to given my experiances) etc.

[NordieBoy]

Noooo, 125 cc's of honda reliability, I'll even chuck in the spiders for free

You can't pass this one up mate!
I mean, free spiders!

How could you turn it down?

[Padmei]

I said tight not stupid

[Crisis management]

When I started looking for a dirt bike a couple of years ago I did the same as you Padmei, low budget and quickly got thoroughly sick of looking at rubbish for $2k or more. In the end I spent more on a low hours good conditon bike and haven't regreted it, it is reliable, parts are available, it has decent suspension and after 2 years of riding it, I still aren't a better rider than the bike is capable of.
Spend more now and then there is no need to upgrade later!

Just an aside, there is a lot of adventure trail rides going on around here and the 640 is too big for a lot of that stuff, maybe a 250 road registerable bike is the better way to go but it won't be as capable as a pure dirt bike.

[rogerh]

When I started looking for a dirt bike a couple of years ago I did the same as you Padmei, low budget and quickly got thoroughly sick of looking at rubbish for $2k or more. In the end I spent more on a low hours good conditon bike and haven't regreted it, it is reliable, parts are available, it has decent suspension and after 2 years of riding it, I still aren't a better rider than the bike is capable of.
Spend more now and then there is no need to upgrade later!

This is damn good advice. I still like the 640 (Enduro though) as it will handle more rough stuff than you would expect, can do two up off road, and can do more luggage than is reasonable. In the knarly stuff you need fitness and strength (and kahunas!) though. As an office worker, I find this keeps me on my toes, and is good for me.

But there is really no substitute for the advice above.

[Willdat?]

You really need to spend 4-5k to get good value for $ as the depreciation seems to plateau pretty impressively...someone had a TTR for 4k on here that looked like a pretty good buy.

I'm regretting going down the cheap road as I've managed one decent (half) ride in the last 8 1/2 months. I suppose you're always going to have loyal old Gonzo as a back up.

[Willdat?]

Looks like Thommo61, (has the KLX250 on here, was at Xmas toy run) is selling a 2000 XT 250 for cheap on TM...sorry can't link to it as TM is on phone!

[cooneyr]

...Just an aside, there is a lot of adventure trail rides going on around here and the 640 is too big for a lot of that stuff, maybe a 250 road registerable bike is the better way to go but it won't be as capable as a pure dirt bike.

Only problem is that there is not a lot of choice for late model road regable bikes - WR or EXC pretty much with a price tag of ~$4k+. Otherwise you are in XRR or TTR territory for the previous generation road regable ~$2k-3kl for average to crap old one that prob isnt reg, and $3k+ for a better one (may or may not be reg). Obviously there are other bikes like CRFX, KDX etc but they can't be road reg. Have to decide which generation and if road reg is important then buy the best you can afford.

If my XRR handles a few months of thrashing i.e. obviously not a basket case then I'm looking to reg it for getting between trails and for wife to get learners on. This is definatly not going to be a show pony and nothing is being done except basic maint i.e. no sus mods. Also ride it like you stole it comes to mind.

[Monstaman]

OK I'm tight as a tight thing -

Owning an old BMW airhead and being of Scottish descent I'm only marginally less tight than you.

I am a Dutch Quantity Surveyor and my wife is a Chinese Accountant ... anything ova 5 bucks is a major item of expenditure in our household and requires serious approval !

Padmai, we felt the same when looking for Ellens bike, said to her we should be able to pick up a 250 for a coupla G .... ended up 4 and 1/2 for anything reasonable.

We wanted something of this century at least and the dollars did not seem to stack up really between an old hack and not so old hack.

250 seems to be a very popular size, accordingly the dollars seem to match!! .. .we are still having counseling

[countryguy]

You could always import one, just add it to a container bringing a car over.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mcy/1670720595.html

or this http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/mcy/1663286841.html

[clint640]

This is damn good advice. I still like the 640 (Enduro though) as it will handle more rough stuff than you would expect, can do two up off road, and can do more luggage than is reasonable. In the knarly stuff you need fitness and strength (and kahunas!) though. As an office worker, I find this keeps me on my toes, and is good for me.

But there is really no substitute for the advice above.

Yep, & that Husaberg of yours is SWEET! Thanks again for the ride in the weekend. When it comes to 2nd hand trailbikes you often seem to get 4x the bike for only twice the money going from the $1k-$2K shitters to something worth $4k-$5K

I spose the trouble is, lots of people have $1K - $2K to spend on a cheap trailbike, chances are they don't know much about bikes either, apart from that their mate said 'get one of those XR250's they're really reliable', so although the prices for shagged 20 yr old trailbikes are stupid, there are plenty of punters out there who will pay them. Supply & demand.

[Crazy Steve]

OK I'm tight as a tight thing - I own a KLR

Having a fling on the KDX200 the other week & reading marks' diaries on adv rider made me very keen on buying a small dirtbike.
I keep rooting my back picking up Gonzo & know if I had a smaller bike to throw around on the knarly bits I really wouldn't fall off so much- it's true -once Gonzo starts going it's bloody hard to correct the weight.
Anyway on with the bleat.
Looking at bikes - XRs KLX/KX DR basically anything 250ccish or under, not road registerable got no probs doing a bit of work on them.
C1990 bikes around $1500-1800 - What??!! they're 20yrs old & most would have been ridden around the clock. Parts prices & availability??
Looked at a shitheap IT175 rough as guts & they wanted $1000ono

Whats going on here?
Apart from the obvious that I've got to HTFU etc etc what do you guys think?

I agree 95% of motorbikes For Sale atm in general are over priced..

I always like to look how hard something is to sale by doin this.....Then pricing it right !!!

How many people out of 1000 Randoms can ride bikes ? ? Maybe 200-300 outer 1000..
Now how many of that 200-300 are looking at road bikes ? ? Maybe 200 ? ?
Now how many of that 200 that are looking for 500cc Roadbikes and above ? ? Maybe 150 ? ? Etc Etc Etc.
Now for the 100 people looking for off roadbikes....
How many people looking at only Hondas...
How many people looking at only Kawasakis...
How many people looking at only Suzukis...
How many people looking at 1k-2k ? ?
How many people looking at 2k-4k Etc Etc Etc Etc.....

Leaving maybe one or two possiable buyers for thousands and thousands of road and off road bikes for sale atm....And hunderds of TYRE KICKERS !!!!!!!!

Crazy Steve...

[rogerh]

Yep, & that Husaberg of yours is SWEET!

Sure is. Its gonna get some hours put on it this week end if I have my way. Just surfing now for some ideas of where I could go for a little entertainment.

[Crisis management]

Sure is. Its gonna get some hours put on it this week end if I have my way.

Which Husaberg is it??? I had a ride on a 390 and that was absolutely lovely.......nowhere near as good as a 200 EXC of course, mutter, mutter....

Just another thought, how about an older trials bike? My TY250 cost me $900 and is still ok for trials (even thought half knackered) and great for slower tail riding but not into jumps etc, it may provide a may of getting riding skills at lower cost. You are in Trials heaven down there, they have events on all the time and it's a great way to learn a lot of off road skills.