Old bikes, tenere, dominator etc...

Been looking through the ads at old teneres, dominators, super teneres etc, is there any reason to avoid any of these bikes specifically, apart from being old and slow....
Just wanting it for urban/traffic jammed dual carriageway commuting, so as long as it'll hit 75mph I'll be happy. Also looking at XT660 and DRZ 400s but these are a bit pricey

Imo, if you dont want to do any off roading,a sv would be a better buy.I can recommend a drz for town riding and green laning,as i used to have one,but it was no good for dual carriageway riding,and the seat was a plank.For dual carriageway commuting the xt would be better suited,but its still a single so not ideal.Never ridden any of the older stuff but at the end of the day ,i cant see an older single being a better commuter bike than an sv,and you can get a decent sv for the same sort of cash. Just my opinion of course!

This http://www.motorbikestoday.com/revie...yam_tdm900.htm was bigged up in one of the recent mags (Ride i think) and can be had very cheap.

TDM 900s are a bit pricey out here to act as a second bike

Originally Posted by Tim in Belgium

TDM 900s are a bit pricey out here to act as a second bike

They seem really cheap here looking at bike trader (but depends on how much you wanna fork out for bike 2 really).

Cant see much wrong with your choice of a Tenere though - have you also considered a Transalp for summat totally bombproof?

Africa twin may also be worth a look if you can find one at the right price.

Africa Twins are 3.5k+ euros for a 750

I got a neighbours Transalp that was sitting there rotting for a very good price. The wheels were worse than I thought though and like rocking horse poop to get hold of. If you get a cheap spoked wheel bike check the wheels!
(I have some now)

I had an early Dominator back in the early 90s. Brilliant bike (check you get the full power 45ish bhp version as 2 were made). Incredible handling. Don't know about longevity of the engine though. Like the XT of the time they were prone to being nicked.

I was looking at big trail bikes and found that they have generally had year round use and the prices are high. (This is in the UK, in Italy there are thousands)

A few weeks ago there were about 3 600 Transalps for sale in the whole country, £1600 upwards.

Basically highish prices, highish usage and check the wheels!!


Also, have you changed residency to Holland so you can buy and register a bike out here? My insurance company has just decreed I cant have the sv out here and work at the same time, although I am employed in the UK and resident in the UK.