[Nutsinatin]

First of all, thank you to everyone for your suggestions! Sorry for the slow reply but work has been busy this week!

The biggest killer of bikes has been the insurance, I’m not a big earner and the only reason I’ve got this budget is due to saving for the last year + so I can’t afford a huge insurance bill next year too.

Tracer is a bit pricier to insure than the Tiger (£1600), and soft suspension can be sorted (just like the SV). Is that the original A mode you’re in or the remap? It just appeals to me as something I can commute and scratch on like the SV, but if I want to pop over to Essex to visit I can without all the discomfort and the pillion can enjoy the trip in relative comfort. It’s the spirit of the SV in a bigger package.

Due to the VRFs popularity I decided to give it another try, £2500 to insure the current model, even going back to the 2001 model it’s £1600 to insure, so still on the no list but if I come across one I’ll give it a spin, it must be doing something right if you all like it so much! Is the VTEC really as bad as the reviews say on the pre 2015 models?

BMW S1000XR, not a single insurer even gave me something sensible, £4k+ to insure, no way, and I don’t know if I could bare to ruin one through the winter!

BMW k1200r does look like a wild card, ugly as sin but only about £800 to insure (despite being two insurance groups higher than the VFR??) I’m not afraid to admit that 160bhp scares me and the duolever front end sounds scary, and it might be a bit lacking in wind protection, but for that price and reading the reviews I need to give one a test ride.

R1200GS, the oil cooled 10 – 13 model is about £1200 to insure (13 on water cooled is £2k+), think it might be a bit big (having filtered behind several) and too touring (that scary duolever front end again), but I’ve only ever sat on one, so I guess this is the push to at least test ride one.

Triumph Sprint GT just doesn’t inspire me. It might be a competent bike, but much like the VFR it’s heavy and dated and hot. They are cheap and not too bad to insure and a friend has had one since before I even started riding (first time I rode a bike was pillion on it). But it just doesn’t appeal to me.

The Kawasaki Z1000SX is not something I really considered. It seems a bit more like a comfy superbike than what I’m after, but there a few out there at reasonable prices. For some reason the insurance is the same as the Tiger so if I get the chance this is another oddball to give a test.

BMW K1200GT, BMW1300GT, Honda VFT1200F are all great touring bikes, but are just not what I want as my only do it all bike at this point. I’m more comfortable with more of a middleweight bike at this point and for their excellent touring ability I think it’s just too much of a trade-off for commuting and having fun for now. I did really consider the Crossrunner 800 but it pretty much has all the same problems as the VFR 800 for me. You might be able to boss that big old Beemer around but I just don’t have the chops for that yet!

I’ve done my time on SVs, I’ve written 2 off over 4 years and 80,000 miles and I just don’t think it has anything more to offer me. For my commute there isn’t a better bike, narrow for the city, sporty for the twisties and comfy for 25 miles each way, plus I get 200 miles from a tank so only fill up every 4 days. However, it hurts if I’m doing the north circular and back in a day or doing Manchester in a day. Aberdeen is a two-day affair, but I would love to make it a one-day affair so I could spend two more days with friends! Obviously I would love to take the fun route but for these I normally need to just get from A to B as quickly as possible so it’s a motorway slog. Although the two up work has reduced, with a pillion and luggage the brakes were at their limit stopping. All this can be ridden around but I think this time I want a bike more in tune with my needs, so I can enjoy it rather than riding around it. There is only so much you can do with bar position, reworked suspension, memory foam seat, rebuilt callipers and different pads. If I could have two bikes I would keep the SV as a commuter and get another bike for all the other bits but that just isn’t possible this time.

I totally agree with you about the V-Strom 1000 in terms of value for money. Emotionally it does nothing for me, but as a tool it ticks most of my boxes. If it’s more fun than it looks then I might need to give one a go if any Suzuki dealers still exist around here. It’s a safe option for a year if I can’t decide on what I really want by March.

I was meant to take a Tiger out for a test ride today but someone crashed it yesterday so I’ll have to try again next weekend. I’ve got this month to try and find a bike as I don’t want to have to take a new policy out in March only to cancel and insure a new bike.

Thanks all for your advice, I need to get on and book some more test rides to decide on the one. You’ve definitely given me some ideas I would never have looked at and convinced me to give the VFR and V-Strom another chance.

Ta.