Chunk11

Shock! Oh wait not really....🤣 The main question is which bike has caught your eye? Im looking forward to you getting another bike to see you detail it and bring it up to scratch 👍

Without going onto google Steve what’s the difference?

Don't worry Gyp everything went to plan on Saturday.... Turned up at Preston Motorcycles and was initially taken back by how many motorbikes they had in their showroom rows and rows of bikes up to 4 deep in places! A very large variety and a lot of high spec expensive bikes. The staff were very friendly and helpful with my bike all ready including all the paperwork with the fresh service and MOT they had done for me. A couple of bits to sign and happy to let me check the bike over for as long as I wanted and that was it away I went! Just under a 50 mile ride home and considering my last bike was a GSXR 600 the Versys was lovely to ride. Yes it doesn't have a great deal of power but the seating position is great and very comfy and was just a lovely ride home. A good basic no frills bike that you can just ride for hours (again coming from sports bikes after 30 mins I started having back,wrist, leg aches!) I have ridden it to work for the last two days and put another 65 miles on it so around 110 miles so far. It already has heated grips but I think a better touring screen and some handguards are in order if I am going to keep commuting. I already feel at home on the bike and don't find the 68bhp a problem it is still more than enough to complete overtakes with ease and as the saying goes you just use all of the power all of the time. I have joined a Versys 650 group on facebook and whilst I think the bike only needs the couple of additions mentioned above there is always talk of more modifications on the group of booster plugs, rear tail tidy and hugger combo, Crash bars, Navigation bars/Phone mounts....etc so no doubt I will get sucked into all that not that my arm will need much twisting :-) With the weather being so great yesterday and today I have seen a lot of bikers on my commute which is always good to see so I can give the old head nod to them although not all seem to do it. Have you been out on yours Gyp? What about others hopefully people have managed an extended lockdown trip out to get some **cough **cough** bread and milk?! Oh and re the bike still being listed for sale I can only assume with the large amount of stock and how busy they are they must have forgotten to take the listing down maybe.

What keyrings/key protectors are people using? I've previously had the Yamaha one which covers the other keys so they don’t scratch the paint work. It appears that Kawasaki don’t do one similar. I will have 4 keys on my key ring including the motorbike key and don’t want 3 flapping around scratching the tank.

All working now Gyp some great bikes I especially love the exhaust on the triumph and like the ramp you have in your garage.

Nice looking bikes there I am equally impressed with the summer house is this where the bikes live? A friend of mine had a GS for a couple of years and went everywhere on it he now has an Africa Twin.

Gyp not sure if it is my phone but none of the photos have loaded

Since I’ve taken over the last day or so about my bike purchase how about you guys show off what your riding or looking to purchase....

Got an email confirming the terms I want to purchase the bike on and finance has been approved and deposit paid. All being well I should be collecting on the 27. Funnily enough when they first put the bike up for £5,295 I think they realised they priced it a couple of hundred pounds too low compared to others on the market and obviously tried to rectify this after my initial enquiry. The prices on the different sales sites all went up to £5,495 yesterday. Looking forward to getting back on a bike again...👍 Edit: Thanks for the advice re the purchase

Now I’ve had a little time to think about it I think I will draft a letter similar to what you have put Mike and get them to confirm in writing before proceeding. I’m not p/x anything just getting the bike on finance with a small deposit. I think I was more annoyed about the barefaced cheek of it trying to con me out of an extra £200 and then the rubbish that followed trying to justify it! All he had to do was be honest from the start.... Either way it’s a good price and a bike that I want so let’s get the ball rolling....

Right so after a few emails yesterday the salesman, without me asking, sent me a finance proposal at £5,495 with a £50 admin fee on top. Told me he could get the ball rolling all he needed was the deposit but forgot to answer me questions re the mot and service history as on their website it says none which I thought was strange for a 3 year old bike. I rang him this morning and asked him why the price has now gone up, conveniently for them since my enquiry yet eBay and autotrader show the original price of £5,295. He muttered some utter rubbish about a file upload and said he could honour £5,295 almost like he was doing me a favour?! It turns out that the bike has full main dealer history having had 3 services and he said they will service the bike and put a fresh mot on it for me. At this point I tried to ignore the fact that he had tried to “twirl me” originally re the price and was happy that he had at last provided the details I had asked for. Told him to send me through this deal which in my head was the original deal anyway and he sends me it through with the admin fee on top. I then ring him back up and say I thought we agreed to wave the admin fee and include a full service/mot at this price?! He then goes oh I thought we only agreed that at the original price £5495 queue me going £5,295 was the original price until you upped the price after my original enquiry. Needless to say the bike is what I want at a now reasonable price certainly not a bargain but for the money seems the cheapest around on all the usual sites and has full service history, one owner and low miles. On one hand I feel like the guy is a bit of a cowboy and what if the rest of the shop are like that? If I do purchase it and then turn up to collect will he have conveniently forgotten to mot and service the bike? On the other hand should I try and forget about him trying to treat me like a school child who doesn’t have a clue and just get the bike in the hope that once it is done and dusted I will quickly have forgotten about the experience and just enjoy the bike. The irony is they have a lot of good reviews on Facebook and google. Oh and he has just text me saying have you completed the finance agreement yet. I replied I’ve seen a cheaper one so made an enquiry re that one. Think I need to have a little breather to consider.

Had a bit of an email conversation with the salesman this morning and he outright said we don’t discount the bikes at all and there is a £50 admin charge to pay after I made a cheeky offer of £4,800 (the bike is up for £5,295). Obviously I wasn’t expecting him to accept my offer more along the lines of agreeing to a lower price somewhere in the middle. Compared to others it is already well priced so this maybe the reason but would you think this is typical salesman speak? Edit: Just noticed the price has now gone up on their website to £5,495?! On eBay and autotrader it is still £5,295 and was definitely £5,295 on their website last night. Tempted to say I would go to £5,100 but also think it might be silly to potentially lose the bike over a couple of hundred pounds.

Thanks for that bonelorry and yes it is the bike from Preston that’s on their website/autotrader and eBay. I was just interested in the long distance buying scenario should it arise for me in the future. Did you get out on the BMW today or maybe tomorrow?

Very true that gyp not the best time for me to try and negotiate a deal :-) Very comprehensive post I enjoyed reading it. £20k on a bike 😱 I’m very jealous.... I’ve found a Versys that I like and it is in my price range so emailed the dealer (only 30 miles away) with a few questions. Out of interest how does it work when you purchase a bike from a distance and get it delivered. What if you don’t like the riding position or have other issues with the bike? Would it be a case of finding a similar one more local and pretending your interested so you can try it first before looking further afield and getting one delivered blind for want of a better word?

Thanks Gyp not sure if you are a Kawasaki salesman but if you were I would definitely just have bought the bike from you 😁 Your Harley looks awesome bet you can’t wait? I know nothing about buying bikes from dealers but £1000 off sounds good to me.