Kinda OT: Buying a motorbike over in the UK

Looks like I might be heading over to the UK in the next couple of months. The extremely tentative plan is that I am going over there with a mate and we are going to buy a couple of bikes then head off to Eastern Europe and run amok. Any idea where I can look at some bike prices online?

Reply to
Fraser Johnston
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Reply to
SteveH

Thanks for that. Funnily enough the VFR800 is on my short list. Would be the perfect bike for what I am planning on doing. Is yours the VTEC one? I hear the VTEC ruined them.

Fraser

Reply to
Fraser Johnston

Also, Fleabay, but like everything else, you pay your money, you take your chance.

Reply to
Elder

I heard going 800cc, fuel injection and linked brakes ruined them.

Reply to
Douglas Payne

Bitchy ;-)

Depends on what you want.

Late model 750s are more sporting, 800s more comfortable and a bit smoother. Linked brakes are great if you have luggage and / or pillion.

Personally, I'd look towards the Pan European for a big tour.

Reply to
SteveH

If you get something here, make sure it is a couple of years old. That way, once you get to eastern europe the spares wo't dry up totallly if anything goes titsup on a used bike.

You tend to find that "last years" model of vehicle from germany heads over into CZ and Poland etc to be the ordinary blokes run arround.

Reply to
Elder

I'm definitely thinking Jap, probably Honda. Boring but reliable. And less than 5 years old.

Fraser

Reply to
Fraser Johnston

Bike + British summer. Bring your organ donor card please. ;)

Reply to
Depresion

How exactly are you going to register it? You're going to need some sort of permanent / postal address to register the bikes to.

The basics of paperwork when buying a vehicle in the UK are as follows: There should be a form V5C, which is a blue fronted booklet, and the address of the keeper should match the name and address of the place you're viewing the bike at. Not the same person and or in the wrong place, and stay away unless there's a really good reason (ie, I recently bought a car from an old bloke who was selling it for his daughter, and I just thought it was very unlikely that he'd be on the fiddle, with me buying the car at his home address etc.). There should be an MOT, which is what an Australian would consider to be an insanely stringent roadworthyness test. Not quite as stringent as the Shaken mind. OTOH, do bear in mind that it is possible to get shady MOTs, so don't take an MOT as gospel on vehicle condition. This used to be an A5 sized sheet of paper, handwritten, but now IIRC it's an A4 booklet and printed with a computer. There may still be handwritten MOTs around - it's only over the last year or so that they've changed. There should be a paper tax disk. It's marked with the date of expiry, and again, all the details on the disk should match with the vehicle. Normally on the windscreen on the passenger side for a car, or mounted in a little holder on bikes and tractors.

If you buy a vehicle without tax, you need to take the MOT and insurance certificate or cover note to the local post office and buy tax, in either 6 month or 12 month increments. If you buy a vehicle without MOT, you can't take it anywhere but an MOT test station for a pre booked test.

Reply to
Doki

'Permanently export' it, get Aussie plates, then you don't have to worry about tax or speeding tickets.....

Reply to
SteveH

Might be better a couple of years older. They don't shift over the border for a while, once they get "too old" to be any good. You tend to find that apart from the "new rich", the average Czech is happy to run arround in anything either from the 90's or a Skoda. And it doesn't have to be a new Skoda.

Opel/VW/BMW old models tend to be popular car wise. I imagine that Jap bikes from the 90's or older will be popular and even an 80's Jap bike would be considered technologically desirable when the Native Jawa and CZ bikes used 1960's technology and Ural/Neval/Dnepr/MZ would have been the only imports allowed for about 30 years.

I imagine that all the modern brands would have dealer networks now and prices compared to the west would be very cheap, but I wouldn't like to say what spares availability would be like for the latest model.

Remember, it wasn't so long ago that in CZ, you saved for your car, ordered it, then recieved it 6 years later down the waiting list from the Skoda factory, made by political prisoners and then owned until you died, or it disolved. If you were very rich and well connected you could have your Tatra in 3years.

Reply to
Elder

I'd assume he wants something that's going to be quick, comfy and reliable.

To minimise the risk of issues - including knackered shocks and forks etc., it's best to stick to new-ish, low mileage stuff.

Reply to
SteveH

I've got a 1982 CG125 in the garage which I'll be happy to lease to you on very reasonable terms... ;-)

Reply to
conkersack

Which can break miles from anywhere still, get crashed into and bend a fork/wheel or swing arm.

Then you find yes, you can get one from the Czech main dealer. He can order it in, their next shipment from Honda is due in in 3 months, and if you are lucky, the dealer might know how to fit it. Otherwise you take it to the shed round the backstreet where the guy with the biggest hammer will make it fit.

Any used bike except sometimes those bought from a dealer, can fail, and usually will, and usually as far from a modern support network as possible. The least gadgets, gismos and "technological comfort aids" you have the better.

Reply to
Elder

You don't know much about bikes, do you?

For a start, every modern Honda is supported by David Silver Spares, who can airmail anything you need within a couple of days - this is one of the major reasons for buying a Honda.

In terms of gadgets and gizmos, well, apart from the move towards EFI, which is infinitely better than relying on carbs., there really aren't any - unless you're talking cutting-edge litre bikes. (The VTEC VFR is the exception and a bloody good reason to avoid it).

Given that there is sod-all difference between the first VFR800 and the last pre-VTEC VFR800, buying the latest one you can afford makes a huge amount of sense. The same applies to 99% of bikes out there, other than the supersport litre category.

My VFR has done over 12k miles in my hands, needing nothing other than brake pads, a chain and annual oil changes. Unreliability is the least of the worries with one.

Even if Frazer went for a slightly older bike, do you really think there will be loads of 'em around in Eastern Europe anyway? - although, to be fair, I've been spotting increasing numbers of long distance tourers coming over from the former Eastern Bloc countries to experience mid Wales.

Reply to
SteveH

It might make it to the Czech border, then it enters the black hole.

A mate runs an online business sending bits for old Skodas from CZ to=20 the UK, you have a choice, either you wait until he comes over about 4=20 times a year, or he posts it. You will not get a promise that it will=20 arrive, and you will not get a refund if it doesn't, and you may get to=20 meet him next time he is over, to be told "I told you so" if you dare=20 piss and moan about it taking months go appear. he always advises=20 waiting until he is over next, as you will get it, and it might be=20 quicker than post, he won't charge you postage for something you might=20 never get.

With petrol down as low 87 octane in some places, how does EFI handle=20 it? =20

=20

If it was new in Germany 10 years ago, it will have hit CZ about 4 years=20 ago. And a few will now be in the spares and breakers yards after being=20 twanged by the deranged maniacs that make up the CZ driving population.=20

A blind bend means overtake, because you can't see the bus coming the=20 other way. The czech MOT means if they can't see the fault, they can't=20 fail it, so wrap it in tank tape/carpet/paint anything that will hide=20 it. Tie a bag round a leaky brake pipe and they aren't allowed to remove=20 it to fail it. Pay the tester =A35 and he will not even see that you have= =20 covered it. With insane drivers and crap vehicles, accidents are=20 plentiful, so loads of cars and bikes end up in the breakers with parts=20 being "as much as you can carry for =A310" ina lot of cases.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

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Reply to
Elder

Which is obviously why DHL will do a guaranteed 24 hour delivery to the Czech Republic, along with most of the rest of Europe - ex. Eastern Bloc or not.

He needs to look at using more reliable and reputable services, then.

How does a carb. bike handle it? - even worse than an EFI bike, unless you want to take the carbs off and re-jet them every time you encounter a different grade of petrol.

Yeah, obviously the breakers yards will be stuffed full of broken 10 year old Jap bikes.

As I said - for most bikes, the differences between one model year and the next is purely cosmetic - so buying a 3 or 4 year old example would be by far the most sensible thing to do.

I fail to see your point - if you ride defensively, there is no reason for you to have an accident.

(Portugal has the most dangerous roads in Europe - I've done a couple of thousand miles on bikes and a few thousand more in cars over there without crashing, or even having a near-miss)

If you do, you get David Silver to DHL the bits you need.

You make it sound like a 3rd world country. It's not.

Reply to
SteveH

Right, and how often does he use Guaranteed air freight services from UK to Czech? How reliable is that? How often does your mate have things disappear in the 'black hole' at the border when he's shipping things in?

I am almost certain that vehicles with EFI - even Japanese ones, Hondas probably - are sold domestically in Czech, and other markets where they sell cat-piss as petrol. I suspect they manage fine.

Reply to
Douglas Payne

Actually it pretty much is that is why a lot of poles, czechs and latvians etc are making there way here now they are part of europe.

Reply to
Elder

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