Hello All...hope I'm not here under false pretences!

[mikewan47]

Hi, bit about myself first I guess..! I'm originally a 'suvverner' who now lives up North around the Todmorden area with my wife and various pets.

The 'False pretences' comment is that I don't have a bike....yet! Looking at lots on eBay and Autotrader but I'm not rushing into anything.

Been riding since I was 17 on and off...once the bug bites it never goes away I guess and depending on finances at the time I've owned various bikes:

Yamaha RS125 - My first bike and I loved it.

Honda CB250N - Great bike at the time until an idiot in a car killed it!

Yamaha RD250 - Just stopped working one day..cost to repair prohibitive at the time.

Honda 650 Nightstar - Well I thought it was cool at the time.

Yamaha TDM900 - Liked it but brittle, cush drives, bearings etc.

Yamaha FZS600 - One of my fav's but had to sell as buying new house.

Got some spare cash at the moment...though this might not last due to Credit Crunch!

My wife has seen the look in my eye and kinda given me permission to get another bike..under the thumb..who me!

Being an old git, the temptation is to get a bike that I lusted after when I was younger and is now affordable. I can hear the sighs now....but I am trying to be careful and looking for advice in Forums like this.

So there you go, sorry about being long winded for a newbie.

PS/ Local biker cafe near here called Big D's, popular on Wednesdays.

Mike

[Scudnut]

Hi Mike

Welcome to the forum mate, the others will be along to welcome you too when they get out of their pits, unless of course they're riding out.

Where in the South were you mate, i'm from Devon originally but now near Heathrow.

Good luck with getting the right bike mate, something I'm not even going to try to advise you on.

[mikewan47]

Hi Scudnut,

I lived near Weybridge in a place called Addlestone which wasn't far from Heathrow....and I remember the traffic on the M25 vividly! Another great reason for owning a bike!

Good to hear from you.

To anyone else that might want to reply, if they have any advice much appreciated or if they know of a bike that's worth looking at at please let me know. Not got a lot to spend but I'm not afraid of working on bike if the basics like engine, gearbox OK, thanks.

[thunderlad]

Welcome to the site Mike,
As has been said on other posts regarding mid-range bikes, have you looked around the zzr,thundercat bikes, both very good, capable of keeping up with larger bikes, but also good enough to travel long distance on, coupled with the fact, they will be cheap to buy and insure

[jonnywombat]

Hi Mike...

You just need to check out ebay.. there are loads of middleweights for 1.5k or less

[mikewan47]

Hi thunderlad,

thanks for that. I'm looking at a couple on eBay though the only thing that puts me off is that although I've got the physique of a God........its more Bhudda that Adonis and these bikes might be on the small side for me!

Thanks again, off to look at a couple of bikes now so will catch up with everyone later.

[thunderlad]

The thundercat in the flesh is a dam big bike, just after i got my thunderace(1000 cc, bought off ebay for £1350 from telford)i saw what i thought was another thunderace, but looked different for some reason, only after i started to look proper, did i see the 600 sticker, the bike was the same size as mine!!!!!

[grotbag]

Greetings and welcome to the biker forum mikewan47



We have Big D's on our list Biker Friendly Café & Biker Nights

[Bornagain]

Hi from the North of Scotland and welcome to the site. I am 6' 2", 18 1/2 stone and had a CBR6F for three years, and it kept up with litre bikes even with my weight.

[mikewan47]

Thanks for the welcome all,

thunderlad and Bornagain, been to look at a Thundercat today and have to say, damn nice bike, bigger than I thought and maybe I'm being a tad sensitive about current body circumference prob' best just to find a bike that fits and get on with it.