Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

MCE insurance offer a flat rate for that particular company, but when take into account the bum tingling interest rate, its near enough £1100 and no viable get out early/cancellation means. As I intend to only do this for a few months through winter until another job starts its a no go.

£1100 is apparently a very good rate and I'm lucky to be offered it, as one telephone adviser put. Its third party only, so I'd need another policy to cover for loss of earnings/care in the event of an own fault incident.

Do normal professional couriers pay these kind of rates?

I guess the % of these riders who bin it into other users is very high, hence the rate.

The rate of accidents and damages to yourself and own vehicles is very high, especially in the winter. I did a few months of Pizza delivery in winter many years ago and always saw it as a good omen if one of my early evening deliveries was to a hospital, as I was guessing I'd be going there sometime on the shift. They only need one claim per year to wipe out that £1100. If you break it down to 3 months at around £400 it's probably a good deal as you could easily have a low speed off and claim £400 for a scooter, if you get it wedged under a £100k car in Central London it's likely to cost £4k minimum.

There were cons with bikes getting stolen while delivering, people not paying, probably one accident a week, one every 2 days in the ice. Used to just gaffer tape the bikes. I remember pointing out the tax on the bikes had expired and the guys just shrugged. I'm guessing a lot of places are not properly insured either and a lot of drivers were illegal immigrants so they weren't going to start any claims.

It was the wild west, whether it's improved I don't know but make sure you are wearing proper protective gear, should be full face helmet, 3mm leather trousers and knee pads, decent top jacket with back protection and solid gloves. You can survive most low sides in that and still deliver, just don't go under the oncoming traffic. I crashed more doing that job than in 30 years of normal biking.

I always tip food delivery drivers now.

Well that's my commuting bike sorted. One very happy bunny. And apparently the photo won't upload from my phone. It's a sv650s in red.

All true. I did pizza delivery when I was 16 and had so many crashes it's impossible to remember them. All my fault and never (fortunately) involving other vehicles. Aside from pinballing a bike down a narrow street after falling on black ice.

Motorcycle couriering was worse as I had to pay my own insurance - from memory, between 800 and sixteen hundred quid a year for various bikes from a C90 up. I don't know how guys do it these days - I was earning minimum 120quid a day, cash in hand in 1996 and from what I hear, rates have barely shifted since. If you're in central London be prepared to start looking like a heavily kohled chimney sweep...it's a dirty business, even if getting paid to thrash a bike around was seriously good fun for a bit.

Spot on with the knee protection - they take more of a battering in most falls than any other body part.

The CBR and YZF125s are a waste of time. They aren't sports bikes, they don't feel like sports bikes. Seriously, a battered old 500 is a rocketship compared to them. You pay a massive premium for one that's not shagged out and if when it falls over (and it will) your repair costs will be a fraction of the amount unless you're a fan of smashed plastics.

A carb CG125's the dream really if you're on any sort of budget. Get the disc brake model if you can, massive improvement over drums. Once you get used to riding and know where you want to go bike-wise you can upgrade. It's just a tool to get used to riding the roads.

That said, if you can afford it then Varaderos, due to the premium and looks, tend to be looked after really well and give you much more of a big-bike feel.

Hard won experience about knees. I've just had the last stitches out of mine and still can't bend my leg past 45 degrees. That's 2 weeks after the operation to clean the gravel out of it. It's easy to get casual about leg protection because it's a bitch if you're not on the bike all day but knees are complicated and take time to fix so I'll be looking after mine from now on.

I'm happy I did the Pizza delivery despite the accidents, some fun times. Not sure I'd want to do it again though.

good points, I'm riding my first bike, a 1981 cg125 and I think it's great, wouldn't change if for any other 125.Looking forward to getting on bigger bikes though.
#csb

The big bikes are awesome but you have to go a lot faster before you get the flighty excitement you get from basic suspension, skinny tyres and high revs. The c90 adventure guy has got a point, you can go a long way and have a lot of fun on a small bike. I've never ridden a motorbike I didn't like though, even my honda express 30 years ago.

> Well that's my commuting bike sorted. One very happy bunny. And apparently the photo won't upload from my phone. It's a sv650s in red.

Looking for one myself. Not red tho! All my bikes in the old days were red and it's a colour I really hate (being colour blind all reds look the same to me which probably doesn't help)

Think I prefer nekkid but could prob handle a fairing. There seems more of those for the bargain bucket prices than the bare ones

If it it is an sv...if the suspension hasn't be sorted, get it sorted. Thicker fork oil, 12.5w and actually set to your weight. Rear shock is shite, try a gsxr one better shock lasts longer and more adjustable. Get the sag set properly.

Also brake pad wise get the nissin semi mettallic pads (standard fitment OE) and they are great.

I'm really struggling to find anything that I don't have to hold on to for long financially speaking. At this point, as much as I hate to admit it, CBR's are the cheapest going bikes. I understand there's a constant demand for 125's, but it's kinda crazy that anything not in bad shape is around £1200+
I mean at this point, the bike will not be used as a commuter at all, that will always involve cycling. it'll be solely a weekend outing/riding experience to improve my skill for the future as you've said.
Anywhere more specific I should be looking? Gumtree only seems to yield the odd decent bike, but I shit you not, one AD for a CBF has someone charging 1500 for one and stated that his mum dropped the bike two days ago and damaged all the right hand side fairings. wtf.

Yeah you will get that.

Look at older bikes or bikes needing work. Cat D on a cheap bike don't worry as bikes will get dropped and panels and bits scratched or marked will need to be replaced so beyond economic repair.

December might help with people a bit desperate for money to pay for crimbo.

Little bikes are nice in town, but I can't forget the feeling of safety I got once I tried something bigger. More weight means you don't feel the wind of passing traffic, and a bit more grunt gets you to the front of the queue and puts a lot of potential danger safely behind you.
Try everything, but don't be afraid of a big bike. It might not be for you, but give it a go.

4 stroke 125 have got better.

The last 125 4 stroke I rode was a suzuki vanvan while the last two stroke 125 I rode was a aprilia rs125...33bhp anyone....

Cheers for that. My thinking is that it is about to be Christmas season, bad weather tends to make folk (esp in Glasgow) super lazy and order out more, hopefully more tips* etc

None of the folk round here are wearing more than gloves + helmets, though that may change as the road conditions head for the worse. Your right though, it sounds like a lot, but in the real world the damage that one person on a scooter can do is likely to be in excess of that sum each and every time they slide over into a parked car, if a pedestrian/dog/property is also involved then the cost of that incident just rockets.

Its my own bike and I'm meticulous about maintenance and how things operate, essentially if it isn't working in the way I/manufacture think it should work then IMO its broken. A nice ideal, but means your always fixing small things, an OCD of sorts I guess.

*Working as a postie I only did one Christmas, did VERY well from it, in one day I took £210 in tips!

Christmas postie is a better job than food delivery for tips. I got used to not even offering change for small amounts. Just take the money, quick look of recognition and off like a robbers dog.

It's great getting paid to ride a motorbike, it's just the weather conditions when you'd normally avoid being out on the roads is peak time for someone else wanting their dinner delivered.

Living in Scotland you've got to love bad weather otherwise it's the wrong country for you!

When I was younger every time it snowed I'd take an mtb/ dirt bike/car/ quad/ van out and just rag the crap out of it. You don't get better in those conditions unless you practice and it was fun in the country. In a city prob not so much.
Always thought it should be part of the driving / riding tests to put you on a skid pan and experience what happens when you loose control. Isn't going to make everyone like solberg but at least might reduce the severity of some accidents = worth it imo

Thanks for the advice about setup but I should clarify I'm revisiting my yoof and rode an sv as my first big bike. Done a few others since then but a job change meant I needed wheels again and the insurance on a bike is pennies. I've always found the sv to be very forgiving, the forks are grand and will do me for now. And nothing beats the burble of a v twin. Already planning next summers bike tour with my boy, who at 14 is planning on a bike himself at 17.

What about yamaha dtrs as a first bike? not the cheapest but from the little research I did when I was thinking of doing my cbt was rated really highly as a first bike. Definitely likely to get knicked though I would've thought.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-DT125R-DT125-R-YPVS-1997-125cc-Great-Runner-Rare-Electric-Start-/272045554991?hash=item3f572dbd2f:g:EhgAAOSweuxWRwuZ

Much obliged. I think I'm strongly heading down this route. There seems to be a lot of decent runners with busted fairings and indicator stalks. Something I can easily repair myself.
You recommend any older bikes I should look at?

@casaBLANKA Would totally kick it with one of those, but where I live, that would get spotted before you can type 'lock reviews'.

Ah nuts. I want a supermoto again. A proper, sorted, lairy one though mind. Not the hell on wheels, 8mpg, we dive at 5, two stroke death trap I had last time. With electric start.

Husqvarna SM450RR/ SM510R / Husaberg FE570....something like that.

Most irksomely it appears they stopped getting imported into the US after 2010 so they're thin on the ground. Any 'tard experts out there that can recommend something else? It would only be a weekend toy, so short service intervals are not really a bother.

ktm400 ;)

...

Gah...so husky got sold to BMW who then flogged it to KTM. So everything is basically a rebadged KTM these days....harrumph.

I've got more than mild paranoia about the products of the Orange empire.