hi.

I was wondering what you think of this bike.





'4,000 miles, good condition mainly garaged.colour is blue'

it says £1100 o.n.o.

I was thinking of offering £1000. (or lower if I could get away with it)

my second question is, do you think I should get that bike? or spend my money on bike lessons and go for my full test?

Howdy there

I notice you do not mention what reg it is. For a check on what you should be looking at for used bike prices take a look on parkers - http://www.parkers.co.uk/motorbikes/used-prices/
A price on a year 2004 marauder is around the 940 mark for private sale - and dont forget to haggle lol

As for second question its a case of swings and roundabouts.. Some members will advise you to go one way and other members the other way. I myself was in the same predicament not long back, at the moment im currently awaiting my CBT which is two weeks aways now (tiz a long waiting list around here !) and had a few rethinks beforehand about going the DAS way. I decided to go the CBT way in the end, I felt myself that if I went for a DAS and failed I would be gutted, (specially with the outlay of cash needed too lol). I decided that going the CBT way, and getting a bit of experience (and hopefuylly a few of lessons inbetween) was the better option and would stand me in better stead for the DAS. I have had a word with my local test centre and they have offered to refund the price of the CBT against the DAS if I take it within 6 months which I felf was a good offer. Just a word of warning about going down this method is the changes to the bike test which will come into place next october, so if you go this route then do it sooner than later and avoid the extra cost of the bigger test

IMHO - At the end of the day, sit down and have a think for a couple of days and go for what suits you the best and that you are comfortable with it - not for what others may think.

Best of luck

If you are willing to pay up to £1000 then I would place an offer of £725 - bearing in mind that it is a 125 that is going to need to be sold on in a few years anyway he will probably really just want the bike sold - he probably has his eye on a bigger one anyway.

If he doesnt like £725 then offer £800 max - chances are he will either take this or try for a little more- in which case raise it to £825 CASH and hold.

You will be surprised at how many people will fold at this point and just sell it, if you are able to do this bargining in front of him and actually get the cash out and put it in his hand then you've got him!!

B xx

p.s. I use to be one of the evil people that would phone you up after you totalled your car and agree a valution - I ALWAYS hit my mark!! - sorry

Not getting a CG 125 anymore, then?

Marauder 125 - Good little bike, especially if you're not taller than about 5' 8". My g/f had one and loved it to bits. I had my first go at riding round a car park on it too
Great to learn on, performs well and never heard much complaint about it. The one in the pic looks OK from what I can see. Don't like the colour myself, but it's about what you like.

Parkers may list the price quite low, but I've never seen decent ones going for less than £1200 privately. However, follow the advice of Lady Bella. You can haggle 'em down and ought to at least try.

As always, I'd advise taking an experienced and knowledgeable biker mate along to check it out mechanically. If you haven't one of these, take a copy of Bike Trader - The first few pages (after the ads) have info and advice on what to check when buying a bike.


My personal advice, though is to go for the lessons and full test, if you can. You'll ride so much better from Day 1 and can then get anything you want.
You can't do DAS yet as you're 17, right?
Get a restricted licence before the law changes.

Ideally, I'd suggest getting this bike, riding about for a bit, do the lessons and test on it then either de-restrict it or sell it to buy a bigger one (it shouldn't de-value in that short a space of time).

thanks for all your advise.

Iam 6 foot tall. so i'm guessing that I shouldn't get this bike?

also, I read a bike magazine that the CG was sleep inducing and mind numbingly boring. It doesn't look good either I don't think. The thing I like is the little amount of fuel it uses.

and the nearest CG to me is £1300 from a honda dealer and it doesn't look like they'd take any offers.

You could try the honda dealer for £1000 cash. Chances are they dont really want it there - their money comes from bigger bikes.

Also my bike is trashed in the magazines - cruisers tend to be; but I love it anyway.

B xx

Not so.
I'm 5' 11" and was perfectly comfortable blatting about.
I'm currently on a 125 Dragstar, which is a bit bigger, but pretty much the same still.
The two issues I have are back ache on long (200 miles+) journeys and my knees getting in the way of Full Lock on U-Turns etc. Still fine on the country road twisties, going round hairpins at Boscastle though

Depends what you want it for. Blatting about town will be great.
If you can, give it a test ride first, or at least have a sit on it, see what you think.

I think I have gone off the bike.

I may contact the honda dealership that is selling the CG125 for £1300.

I do have enough for the bike, but I don't want to spend that. The max I would go is £1000.

what price should I start at?

I was thinking of e mailing and offering £800?

Don't E-mail!!!!You've got a much better chance of beating them down in person.
If it's Devine.. beat em down a bit.... or get em to throw something in... some gear or a free service etc.
Devine's aren't known to be overly generous, but as said before, it's likely they don't really want it there. Threaten em with going to Micky Oates In fact, have you had a look in MO?

If i were in your shoes I would opt for the restricted license test and a few lessons before hand, and any money you have left once you passed your test put it towards a restricted 600 or similar.

But if I were to go for one of those bikes I would go for the Honda, I've hand one they are very, very reliable and cheap to run, insure, tax, etc.

Godd luck tho with whatever you decide.

I have about 3 grand to spend.

I just need to decide how to spend it.

I need to pass my car test too though. but don't necessarily need a car.

It took me a long time working part time on £3.82 an hour to save that money up though, so I need to watch how I spend it and not throw money away.

have a look at Suzuki GN125 bikes, very similar mechanically to that maruder (same haynes an everything) but you can pick up a good one for £600 odd if you look

ive got one and it great and really easy to handle, also im six foot four so no problems with height

this will save you a bit of cash and will probly sell on for exactly what you paid for it

take what the mags say with a pinch of salt - most of them will say that about any standard bike that's less than 600cc

cruiser design is good for all shapes and sizes

Give it to me! I'll sell you ... umm ... <looks around> ... a bowl full of pistachio shells! There you go - 3 grand!

guys.

I think I might just do my car lessons just now. once I get my licence, i'll think about the bike licence.

what do you think?

I think you'll be a better driver if you stick with bikes first. I did it the other way around, and had to unlearn loads of bad habits.

You'd better hurry up if you want these shells - my wife is sucking all the pistachio taste off them...

Trust me bikes will get you on the road a lot faster and for a lot less money

Also there a lot less stressful and way more fun

it took me over a grand in lessons and nearly a year to get my car licence, and that’s when u pass first time, you can easily fail repeatedly despite being a competent driver, my CBT on the other hand cost a hundred quid and took half a day

Also bear in mind the extra insurance and purchase costs of getting a car on the road

But most importantly you will be a much better car driver for having ridden a bike first, and will pass your car test with a lot less stress when you have the hang of a bike clutch I reckon

Whats she doing with your nuts.............................

Nothing now. She's thrown them out. 3 grand (or so I'm claiming) of pistachio shells!

I gots one of them My Mary the same colour too (whats wrong with the colour huh huh? Its damn pretty if you ask me ). She trundled me around all over the place, through hail and rain and wind and storm She never broke down (except when I left the lights on and the battery died...duh!), she never done nuffin wrong...she beautiful Im never selling my Mary, just gonna pass her on to my daughter and woe betide if she crashes her