Bought my first bike

[NickH]

Well I'd decided not to go above 500cc until I'd improved my skills and confidence a bit more, and to follow the general advice to Get a Used, Unfared Bike Because You'll Drop It. That didn't leave a lot of options near Cambridge, so yesterday I got the train to Peterborough.

Wish I'd read DoktorMandrake's posting before setting out!   At least I had cobbled together a checklist of things to ask/examine...

Looked at a little YBR250 which I liked, but they didn't let me test ride it (except around a car park shared with other units and full of cars and pedestrians!) and made no offer when I commented adversely about the price. Anyway I thought could do better than 250cc. At least it was a chance to practice all those checks and questions (it was in great condition btw apart from a rather rusty pipe).

Then to another shop full of shiny bikes and enthusiastic customers and salesmen. Test-rode an elderly but very clean ER-5 (uncannily low mileage, but they had paperwork to back it up). It did everything an ER-5 should. I suspect it's been dropped from stationary (some paint off crash bars; star-shaped scratches on bar end; all indicator lights had been replaced) but that's no big deal.

That ride was my first time on the road without adult supervision - nobody following me shouting instructions in my ear! That felt good. I wasn't fast though (if it had been Mod 2 I'd have failed on Progress for sure), particularly on a windy fenland road alongside the river. I got a bit lost at one point but that just added to the fun.

Now if I'd expanded my criteria I could have got a very shiny GPZ500S (someone bought it while I was testing the ER-5), or a CBF600 or SV650... Or gone home empty-handed and waited for a more modern 500 (e.g. CBF500) to come up. But you know what? I bought the ER-5.

Delivery this Thursday (btw the salesman was too superstitious to do it on Friday). So I'll soon have my own bike!

[jayjay]

Nice one Nick enjoy you riding.
JJ

[madmic]

Nice one! Good choice of first bike

[sidewinder]

Excellent bet your well excited.Heard a lot of good things about the er's

[Wynne G Oldman]

Congratulations, you got a good bike there. It'll do everything you need it to. 

[notoriusb.e.n]

Now thats a smart first bike purchase. Enjoy. 

[bonio]

Enjoy it. I hope this week'sweather holds out for you!

[mikiboy]

Nice one.  the GPZ is a cracking bike due to the half fairing.  The ER is basically the GPZ without the fairing.  You can't really have gone wrong with that as its a slightly newer design than the GPZ.  Enjoy.

[SnapDragon]

Well done, ER5's a great bike

[SOUP]

Great stuff!   

Take it easy at first then go have a ball.   

[Captain Hook]

I know that road along the river, it's hard to concentrate on the road rather than constantly thinking about what could go wrong if I serve

Luckily as with most of the roads in the fens, it's as straight as an arrow for most of its lenght.

Congratulations.

[NickH]

Cheers, all

Sorting out insurance now. All the online brokers were pointing me towards Equity Red Star as the cheapest, so I went with them despite their apparently dodgy reputation. I fessed up to my Mod 1 spill, even though there was no claim, and it added £5 to the premium (didn't have any NCB anyway, not having a car).

I must say the weather is unreasonably good for the time of year! Forecast for Thursday is a little bit of wind and rain, but Friday should be perfect. For a first run I was thinking a round trip to Ely and St Ives (with a tea break in each, naturally!)

Edit: P.S. That's St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Will save St Ives Cornwall for another time!

[Daktana]

Took my lessons and test on an ER5, great bike, Have fun.

Dave.

[Felix]

Good choice in first big bike. I expect you'll enjoy it once you get use to it.

You'll soon be full of confidence

[HappyHippy]

All sounds good to me - and you are, of course, buying at the best time of year.

Good on you especially for walking away from the 250. Both my first car and first bike were a case of "I want one, I want one, I want one, I want one, here take the money now give me the keys" so having a bit of willpower earns you some respect points.

Happy riding

[djkitchen]

Great stuff, enjoy riding it

[sidewinder]

Cheers, all

Sorting out insurance now. All the online brokers were pointing me towards Equity Red Star as the cheapest, so I went with them despite their apparently dodgy reputation.

Thats who i'm with.they were giving really good quotes through swintons.

[SnapDragon]

first bike was

one of these

[The Red Barron]

A very smart first choice.  Enjoy 

[Katch]

very nice

[radicalrabit]

Great first bike ! But I love the GPZ as well !

[shonajoy]

Yay! Great bikes. Pics when you get it!

[NickH]

Yes, I should have test-ridden that GPZ! I know it has a slightly different (less stable?) geometry, but the only way to know if I'd get along with it would have been to try it.

The ER-5 is not looking quite such a bargain in the light of day: to my completely untrained eye the tyres look a bit old, though it has just passed its MOT (btw I've found a shallow horizontal crack or line across the middle of the back tyre - is that bad?), and it's coming up to its 7500 mile service which will be the first one for many years, so I should probably bring it forward (wonder what that will cost?)

Went for a brief ride yesterday; now I'm going to wait half an hour for the last of the frost to clear and I'll be out again today! Hmm, if only I didn't have to work in an office most weekdays...

[martin79]

Yes, I should have test-ridden that GPZ! I know it has a slightly different (less stable?) geometry, but the only way to know if I'd get along with it would have been to try it.

The ER-5 is not looking quite such a bargain in the light of day: to my completely untrained eye the tyres look a bit old, though it has just passed its MOT (btw I've found a shallow horizontal crack or line across the middle of the back tyre - is that bad?), and it's coming up to its 7500 mile service which will be the first one for many years, so I should probably bring it forward (wonder what that will cost?)

Went for a brief ride yesterday; now I'm going to wait half an hour for the last of the frost to clear and I'll be out again today! Hmm, if only I didn't have to work in an office most weekdays...

The crack isn't great, but I was riding a divvy 600 in the summer, with tyres that looked like they were crazy paved, did 4K on them with no issues, but do be wary of it and keep an eye on it.

[MarkShelley]

You must live near me. I live in Willingham and work in St Ives, so if you see a biker travelling between the two around 8am or 5pm it will probably be me.

[mikiboy]

Did you buy it from a shop?  Take it back and complain about they tyre and ask how on earth it passed it's MOT.  get rid of ASAP.  The last thing you want is old tyres that let go or blow out.
Service?  It WILL need an oil and filter change.  You can do that yourself.  Shims MAY need doing.  Check the service manual.  If you are strapped for cash, do the oil and filter yourself.
Oil and filter about £30 posted from Busters on Ebay.  Do get the tyres done asap.  May be best to do the front too.  Check that carefully for cracks.  Could be an old tyre was put on the bike to get rid of it.  I bought a wheel with tyre for Maria's GPZ to swap over but turned out, that had cracks in it so we never used it.

[Wynne G Oldman]

You can buy 4 litres of 10W-40 oil and a filter at Hein Gericke for £22.50. They don't advertise this, but if you ring them and ask, they will confirm, and let you know if they have your filter in stock. The valve clearances are adjusted by tappets, so much easier to do than buckets and shims. It depends on what year your bike is, as to whether you need to adjust them at 7.5k or not.

This should come in handy.

Do not click on this link if you do not want to download the ER-5 service manual in pdf format.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=er5%20valve%20adjustment&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFEQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorkari.cz%2Fupload%2Ffiles%2Fmanualy%2F752_er.pdf&ei=F1MQT9RGkNPxA-Lj6YQE&usg=AFQjCNFIHR4gCkrGkRunikqtYoFjdU72eg

[NickH]

The silly thing is I looked much more thoroughly at the bike I didn't buy (in a workshoppy kind of shop) than the one I did (it was in a more showroomy place where I didn't feel so free to poke around). Only at home did I get the chance to put it on the stand and inspect all of the rear tyre. Come to think of it, I probably haven't seen all round the front one yet...

They are probably the original 1999 tyres (yes, 12 years and 7,200 miles! Seems to have spent most of the last 5 years venturing no further afield than the MOT test centre).

They did an MOT and changed the oil at the shop.

According to the users manual there are about 25 things to check at 7500 miles or 2 years. So I'd better get it done professionally. But I will go back and ask the shop why the tyres weren't even an advisory on the MOT!

Edit: And thanks for the link to the service manual!

[Wynne G Oldman]

It's all pretty easy to do, but if like me, you don't have the time or inclination, it shouldn't cost too much to do at a dealer.

[mikiboy]

If they have DEFINATELY changed the oil, I'd leave it for 3000 miles or 12 months.  Have you checked when the valve cleance and shims check is due?  Chances are they will be fine if you do get them checked