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Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

Two wheelers
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WestWicklow1
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Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#1

Post by WestWicklow1 »

In 2019 I bought a new Royal Enfield Himalayan. I had no problem taking a demo for four hours from BikeWorld.

Now I want to buy a Honda CB500X and a Honda CRF300L but no test rides are available and almost every dealer says "No need for a demo, these bikes sell themselves". To me that's BS and I will never buy without a test ride. It's not only Honda. I'm considering the KTM 390 Adventure instead of the CRF300L and it's the same story at the only dealer in Dublin, no test rides.

So, would you buy a bike without first having a test ride?
Breezin
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#2

Post by Breezin »

Nope.
But obviously enough people do.
Tigger
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#3

Post by Tigger »

you wpuld have to be mad, i wanted a dr350 a few years ago cos i love light thumpers for messing round town but im riding a ktm 950sm so i was fRAID id not like the power.
yer man would not let me on it so i went down to the bank and pulled out the relevant number of monies and gave it to him and said have insurance and if i drop her i'll buy it and too mjy test ride,
dr350 have no power :(i wanna cr500 or similar, had a dt200r a lifetime ago that was a nice light little stroker.
kadman
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#4

Post by kadman »

Tell me more about the Royal Enfield. I been thinking about one myself.

Had the originals back in the day, along with AJ's Matchless and all the BSA's.

And no I wouldn't buy any bike that I couldn't test drive.
Jimmy Bottlehead
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#5

Post by Jimmy Bottlehead »

Not a bloody chance. The feel of a bike is too personal to just take a chance on. You gotta know how it feels, the ergos, the throttle and brake response, the sound and feel of the engine from the seat.
Tigger
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#6

Post by Tigger »

People do tho. It's soo hard to get a dealer to let you test ride a few bikes and pick your favourite. I've often bought bikes because people I know have the same model and they let me borrow it for a weekend.
kadman
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#7

Post by kadman »

I did once from a very good friend. Without taking it for a spin, I gave him nearly 2000 euro.
Never got a chance to drive it until the weekend. I could not keep it over on a left hand turn.
Never again.
Jimmy Bottlehead
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#8

Post by Jimmy Bottlehead »

kadman wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:42 am I did once from a very good friend. Without taking it for a spin, I gave him nearly 2000 euro.
Never got a chance to drive it until the weekend. I could not keep it over on a left hand turn.
Never again.
Did you lose it on a bend on the first drive?!
kadman
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#9

Post by kadman »

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 11:46 am Did you lose it on a bend on the first drive?!
Thankfully not, but I had to fight to stay on my side of the road, and in light drizzle too. The obvious question I asked my friend, " was it ever dropped ",
he said never so I bought it.
I set up a frame jig at home, and it was 2"= out of line at the neck. I set it up between a concrete pillar and atree. Block and tackle and pulled it back to 1/2" out of line.
Major improvement. Drove it for 6 months and then brought it to a guy in Roscrea to get the last bit lined up. He did a great job on it, but nearly pulled his garage wall down .
After that I would not buy a bicycle with out a test drive.
WestWicklow1
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#10

Post by WestWicklow1 »

kadman wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:43 pm Tell me more about the Royal Enfield. I been thinking about one myself.

Had the originals back in the day, along with AJ's Matchless and all the BSA's.

And no I wouldn't buy any bike that I couldn't test drive.
I never had any of the originals. My brother has an original Clipper and he loves it. The Himalayan is a really, really nice bike. Once you accept what it is, which is a low-powered 411cc single-cylinder mc (and are prepared to be stopped by admirers asking questions about it :)) . I bought it for a particular reason and it does the job extremely well. When I took the demo bike for a test ride it reminded me of a BSA B40 (350cc single) I owned in the mid-1960s. I've covered 12k km on it in two years and I still love it.

Regarding the CB500X and the CRF300L from my first post... I got lucky!! I attempted to buy a 6-month-old CB500X and got a test ride on it. They're a really beautiful bike. My offer wasn't good enough so I emailed every Honda dealer in the country and asked to be considered for any cancellations. I eventually got calls from two different dealers, one offering a CB500X and one offering a CRF300L. With the CRF I was able to take a 30-minute test ride on another one they had and loved it. I collected the CB yesterday and I'm collecting the CRF on Friday. I'm as happy as apis :mrgreen:
kadman
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#11

Post by kadman »

I think I had and drove most of the brit stable of bikes.B40, C10l, C11g, Ci5 and a B25 Starfire that was a lovely bike, but crashed and twisted frame.
So I cut it, aligned it in a jig, and re welded it. Beautiful ride after. I had a large number of brit bikes years ago, but got out of them for a car. GGRRRrr.
And in the last few years had a Suzuki GS 650 g, and a Suzuki 850. All gone now, so I am hankering for another :lol:
WestWicklow1
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#12

Post by WestWicklow1 »

kadman wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:01 am All gone now, so I am hankering for another :lol:
I know of a nice 2 year old Himalayan with 12k kms coming up for sale soon ;)
kadman
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#13

Post by kadman »

WestWicklow1 wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:27 pm I know of a nice 2 year old Himalayan with 12k kms coming up for sale soon ;)
You know what happens when you affer a recovering biker, his drug of choice :D I have now been trained to say NOOoo... :lol:
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Seanybiker
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Re: Would you buy a new bike without a test ride?

#14

Post by Seanybiker »

Seen a gsxr 1000 on donedeal, rang the fella and a few days later my friend went up with a van and picked her up for me. Only seen the one pic of the bike he had in the ad, no test rides at all, didn't even try to haggle the price at all. 13 years later and I still have the bike. Was well happy that the fella I bought it from was genuine and mentioned a few little scrapes here and there on it.


Actually in 06 I bought a brand new bandit 600 without test riding it. Passed my test with the money for the bike in me pocket. Went straight from rest centre to the shop and for him to knock 100 off the price , I'm really bad with asking for money off haha I thought 100 was a deal of the century.

Didn't mind not test riding the bike as it was brand new so I knew it would be in working order. Some cream crackers robbed it on me a few years later and crashed it so hopefully the fuckers got hurt.
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