What do I do?

Mad Cow · Post by **Mad Cow** » Thu May 24, 2007 5:56 pm

Due to recently coming to the end of my contract, I'm currently unemployed and with nothing in the pipeline I decided to get rid of my R1200GS as it was on a personal lease, luckily the price I was offered by the local beemer dealer covered the settlement. But enough of my woes and on to my real dilemma.

I'm now looking to buy something outright to avoid such problems in the future. Obviously I like big twins but fancy something a bit more sporty and have about Â£3K of my savings identified for this. So a few questions:

What sort of age bike should I be looking at for this much dosh?

So far by lurking around here as a guest I have discovered the following problems:

Cam Chain tensioners can go bang
Forks are undersprung
Rectifier/regulator can go awol
Brakes are not as sharp as they could be.

I've also asked these sort of questions on the SV1000 portal, I'm sure you are all going to tell me not to go down the Suzook route but how do the two compare? Both have good strong motors, both sound good but with budget suspension it seems

My neighbour rides a TL1000R (too slowly) but that is a bit too extreme in terms of riding position, the VTR looks more forgiving (remember I'm used to a GS).

orangestorm · Post by **orangestorm** » Thu May 24, 2007 6:22 pm

Hiya mate don't see any real dilema there Â£3k will get you a real clean genuine low mileage Storm (check the sales &wants section) I've owned mine for six years now from new and not had peep from it even tho it's never seen a workshop yet. On the CCT front it seems to be the luck of the draw some do some don't. Take one out for a blast u won't regret it..

stevevtr1 · Post by **stevevtr1** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:18 pm

Considered a Falco ? seems an option...Mille motor, good suspenders ,read somewhere in a test goes like a well sorted firestorm,not so sure on the reliability front but (hell don't read the workshop section here!!!!!!....ducks from the kitchen knives,bricks,public floggings!!etc) just an option but the storm is great bike for the money.
Cheers
Steve

Mad Cow · Post by **Mad Cow** » Thu May 24, 2007 11:51 pm

Thanks for the advice so far guys.

Steve, as for the Falco, seem a bit more pricy than a VTR, not too keen on the styling (but have always loved the look of the Firestorm) and all the Aprilia owners I seem to meet have had reliability problems. Oh yeah and they're apparently very expensive to service.

Also when I do a search on Bike Trader I can find 15 VTR's and 9 SV's for sale within 40 miles, whereas I found only one Falco and that is over my budget.

It's difficult to get an objective picture as the funny thing with forums is that they all seem to slag off the thing they were set up to celebrate. When I got my GS, I went on http://UKGSer.com and thought I had got a crock of sh*te. No end of problems from electrics through brake failure to corrosion. Of course not a single thing went wrong with mine

When I had a Land Rover Freelander, from reading the Freelander Club forum you would think that every 1.8 ever built had its head gasket blow....

Oh yeah, they pretty much did, mine included

Went for a job interview today, hopefully I will hear tomorrow and be in a position to go test riding at the weekend

stevevtr1 · Post by **stevevtr1** » Fri May 25, 2007 6:08 am

Know what you mean about forums,had an RGV for 5 years before the storm & made myself paranoid as hell reading the horror stories with power valves dropping into the cylinders.So i then moved onto this must be bullet proof i thought its a 4 stroke & its a Honda!!Anyway done all the precautionary stuff with the tensioners ,new R/R next,sorted the suspension,lovin' it to bits now.Don't think you'll be disappointed.
Cheers
Steve

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:04 am

If it was my money, I'd look for a mechanically sound, cosmetically challenged c. 1999/00 Firestorm.

Cosmetics fix up real easy with a bit of time spent on them. Then you have a grand left over to fit uprated suspension, install a CCT spring fix or fit manual tensioners, braided hoses etc and have a fully sorted trick Storm.

Alternatively, 3k will get a mint low mileage 52 plate one if you're a good haggler. There's nothing really wrong with the standard storm as a road bike, people do like to whinge and magazine's get 15 grand bikes for nothing.

CCT's aren't a big deal, consider them a service item and change them. Yes, they can go, but that can be risk minimised or fixed easily. Brakes are good enough and any bike benefits from braided hoses. Finish is excellent, the motor's a peach, reg/rect is fixable (fit an R6 one) but isn't a big enough deal to worry over (fix it if it goes) My forks are standard and I've never bottomed them out yet.

cupasoop · Post by **cupasoop** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:55 am

You dont have to go anywhere near Â£3000 to get a nice storm. They only got updated once in it's model life to a bit bigger tank, crappy new clocks and a bit less power.

Pick up a nice early one, it'll be almost the same as a more expensive late one and pocket the change for fuel.

Trouble with these sort of forums is that they are full of folk with problems trying to get them sorted. You'll never hear from the majority of owners who dont have any troubles. Any sort of problems with cct, rectumfrier etc will sound like an epidemic. (by the way, honda cant make cct's or rectumfries. They fail on just about every other bike they make)

Zakalwe · Post by **Zakalwe** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:26 am

I bought a mint, stock 04 'Storm in Sep 06 for Â£3200. Only 5K on the clocks.

Â£3K buys a lot of bike when you are looking at Firestorms...

Post by **sirch345** » Fri May 25, 2007 12:26 pm

I think a test ride is your best bet first as Orangestorm has already suggested

IMO You get a lot of bike for very little money with the Firestorm, especially if you take a little time and have a good look around to see whats on offer

Good luck with it, what ever decision you make

Chris.