1994 Suzuki RF 400

hannable80

trying to get my first bike, im 25 and 6'4" I think this could be the bike for me as i wont be looking at the front tire while riding it . would i get insurance on a prov.?

BJ2007

hannable80 wrote:

trying to get my first bike, im 25 and 6'4" I think this could be the bike for me as i wont be looking at the front tire while riding it . would i get insurance on a prov.?

you will get a quote on it as your 25, but you will have to get the bike restricted as it will be over the 33bhp lisence requirement. those rf400's are a higher group than most 400cc bikes so will be dearer to insure.

Also there are not great bikes and can be troublesome. There cheap though so i guess that is what makes them appealing.:rolleyes:

Anyway ring around for quotes, ya never know carol nash mite insure you unrestricted, they have strange rules....

carsQhere

hannable80 wrote:

would i get insurance on a prov.?

AON is (so far as I know) the only insurance company that'll cover you on a first time provisional.

You can, however, knock a very big chunk off what they charge by doing a bit of training & an "AON assessment".

Have a look at www.irishridertraining.com which has some good training information on it. There's another training site, MSA-Ireland who have a page up explaining how to get the reductions at: http://www.msa-ireland.com/insurance.htm

Hope that helps!

Rexelac

Carol nash will cover provisionals if your over 25, prepare to pay over a grand though.

Krusty_Clown

Hey, I had one of them for a while. Lovely looking bike, a real eye turner.
But not much on performance and reliability. Don't even think of trying to get spare/replacement parts in this country.

For a first bike, you might be better off with something a little less heavy.

hannable80

im a tall guy so what do u suggest. cant find many bikes that would suit

Krusty_Clown

How tall? Well, if you're going to go the way of the larger engined restricted bikes, there's a large selection.. Maybe a medium sized trailie? Like a Transalp, Dominator, KLE, TDM, etc? you can see some examples on the Gorey Bikes site. No affiliation or recommendation..

The problem with the RF is that it is small, heavy, and not very powerful (detuned GSXR400 engine, if I remember correctly).. Restrict it further to 33bhp and it's a bit of a dog.. It's also got sh1t resale (if that bothers you) as very few people buy the and it hasn't been made for a long long time..

The bigger RFs (600, 900) were supposed to be a lot better, but still never sold very well.

hannable80

jeasus some of those are pritty expensive

Krusty_Clown

Whoever told ya that motorcycling was cheap, was a goddam liar..
(athough insurance is heading in the right direction).

You get what you pay for. Particularly with the RF400. I traded in my CBR250R to buy the RF400, but could only keep the RF400 for around 5/6 months, because of the grief it was causing me.. But maybe your specimen may be better.. Have you tried sitting on one of them? At 6.4' I reckon it's not going to be terribly comfortable..

I see that they have one in the Bray Honda Centre for 2.5K (1996). Seems a bit too cheap to me.. There's another in CBG.ie for 2.2K, but I reckon it's been through the horrors as it's been entirely resprayed / new bodywork..

How about a 91 Honda Transalp, with 14K miles, for 2.5K? It's at the bottom of this page, after the Banana yellow RF400.

hannable80

the translap is grand if i grew a mullet. Was on my friends CB400 and it was a gud size . many of them flying around, I also think that HYOSUNG GV 650 'AQUILA' looks class but no chance on a prov licence. Fair play on picking up on the new body work wouldnt have cop'd it myself. Dont want to be screwed buying a dud bike

Hotblack Desiato

hannable80 wrote:

the translap is grand if i grew a mullet.

wtf? people are seriously trying to help you here. There's a reason that Suzukis are cheaper than other Japs, it's because (imho, and I've owned two) all of them except GSXRs and SVs are crap, and most of the GSXRs get crashed! The RF series was out of date before it appeared, and unreliable (trying to extract too much power from outdated engines.)
There's also a good reason why Korean is cheaper even than Suzukis, and Chinese cheaper again than Korean... You get what you pay for. For starting out you want something reliable rather than flash. Good value is a lot better than 'cheap', remember that spare parts, repairs and resale value have to be added into what you pay to buy it.

hannable80

okay fair enough i apperciate everyones advice

Krusty_Clown

Maybe if you're doing short journeys, but if you're covering longer distances, the Transalp would be a godsend (if you don't mind your mullet flapping around in the wind).:D

I had an CBR250, RF400, SV650, SV1000, and all caused my back ache over long distances.. Then I got my GS... Bliss... Now I just need the slippers and pipe.

hannable80

`CBR'S are a nice bike

turbodiesel

Just wonder if you got a bike to suit your 6ft 4 frame. I'm also the same height but 39. Just got myself an '07 TDM 900.

Chris

seanybiker

i know a chap who is 6ft 8 and he used to go around on a bandit 6. He done 78000 miles in under 3 years on her so he must have found it comfortable.

Cuddlesworth

Threads nearly 3 years old. Let it die.

seanybiker

post before mine was only yesterday.