Thoughts on buying press bike/ test ride bike

Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
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Bangkok
Hi everyone, (David apologies if this is posted in the wrong place)

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on buying a press bike or test ride bike here in Thailand from Honda (Honda official dealer). I've seen a few on offer with 500-2000 km on it and they're sold at a reasonable price. I assume one needs to change tires right away and perhaps have it serviced but will these bikes have been trashed so badly that it's incurred any damage or would it be as 'safe' an option as buying a bike with 10k but a few years older. I'm looking at two models that my wife is interested in CBR150R and CBR250RR. The latter might have been abused a bit more I guess than the former.

Thanks
 

Heineken

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If the price is right I would not hesitate, both them bikes you mentioned are bulletproof.


Usually testrides have a salesman follow them so I wouldn't think they would of been abused.


Why would you want to change tyres ?............................change when they are bald IMO.......................................my stepsons Yamaha M-Slaz 150 didn't need the tyres replaced until after 28 000km
 
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Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
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Bangkok
If the price is right I would not hesitate, both them bikes you mentioned are bulletproof.


Usually testrides have a salesman follow them so I wouldn't think they would of been abused.


Why would you want to change tyres ?............................change when they are bald IMO.......................................my stepsons Yamaha M-Slaz 150 didn't need the tyres replaced until after 28 000km
Hi Heineken, thanks for your reply. This is the reason i was asking. I didn't know a salesman would ride along. One of the three cbr250rr bikes had a bald rear tire which made me believe it was a press bike that had been used for a burnout at an event somewhere. Obviously that one is off the list.
 

Alamo

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Whoa !!
Three CBR250RRs.?
Sweet.
250,000baht new.
How much they asking?
 
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Alamo

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my wife is interested in CBR150R
ceeber is swell bike
[ran +60,000km& going strong, on mine], but
the CB150
with more comfy upright bars,
hidden exhaust system,
nice sound,
&c. ... gets my vote.
;-)
....
 
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Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
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Bangkok
ceeber is swell bike
[ran +60,000km on mine], but
the CB150
with more comfy upright bars,
hidden exhaust system,
nice sound,
&c. ... gets my vote.
;-)
....
It's interesting how the 150R has a pretty comfy upright riding position. Although I'm not a big fan of sports bikes etc. I think both are really well designed. A long time ago I tried a 150R of a friend of mine (10+ years ago.) one of the earliest 150Rs or the new gen that were sold. I sat on one during the BKK motorshow last week and was surprised although it might not be a bike for me (6'4") besides some shorter trips. I'm just not entirely sure if it holds enough power if we want to do some day trips. Doesn't have to be a power house but keeping up with traffic would be nice. The other option we have is an older model CBR250R (not the RR) it has done abou 28K km and is owned by a foreigner.
 

Alamo

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Yes they are all good.
I like the olde carby ceebers;
I'm now on a sweet '09 .
Have owned CBR 150 & 250 FI.
Both real good but,
being puny, I prefer the much smaller early model.
All of these bikes are great for day trips.
Plenty power up there at 10 to 11.5k rpm.
(One-up. No personal experience 2-up)
 

Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
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Bangkok
Yes they are all good.
I like the olde carby ceebers;
I'm now on a sweet '09 .
Have owned CBR 150 & 250 FI.
Both real good but,
being puny, I prefer the much smaller early model.
All of these bikes are great for day trips.
Plenty power up there at 10 to 11.5k rpm.
(One-up. No personal experience 2-up)
It's meant as a bike for her. She's quite short as well and I think the 250r could actually be too high for her. Tip toeing at the traffic lights is not really confidence inspiring when getting back in the saddle again after quite a few years not riding.

Anyhow looks like they're all good fun to ride. Maybe buy both... 55555
 
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Alamo

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That's the sprit.!
It's meant as a bike for her. She's quite short as well and I think the 250r could actually be too high for her. Tip toeing at the traffic lights is not really confidence inspiring when getting back in the saddle again after quite a few years not riding.
/////////
Anyhow looks like they're all good fun to ride. Maybe buy both... 55555

I'm thinking the CBR150R and 250R are about the same size.
/////////
That's the spirit.!
 
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Fritzltouw

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Jun 1, 2018
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OK so we ended up not buying the CBR150R. We actually were able to talk them down from 70K to 60K. They wanted to get rid of the bikes. We went to the shop last week and talked to them. Both CBR150R looked pretty bruised. They had a number of scuffs, dings and scratches on the fairing, exhaust pipe steering bar ends, a bend clutch and brake lever etc. from having been dropped multiple times. Now personally I don't mind cosmetics of a bike too much but when I asked how this happened they explained that these bikes had been used just for test rides in the soi next to the shop. (Now I was thinking to myself.... how do you drop a small bike like this when you're just driving down the soi????) So that meant 2,300 km of trips not more than 1-2 km at the time. I didn't feel comfortable with that thought and the exhaust bend clearly showed signs of that as well being rusty and light brown. That's quite a bit of abuse for an engine, especially at the beginning. I know standards are pretty high at Honda in producing parts but I'd rather have a bike with 10-15K on it that has been used for longer trips than 2,300 km where the engine and oil never properly warmed up.

The CBR250RR looked great and at 152Kthb it's a great price (probably can take it home for 140K). No scuffs or dings or scratches and it had never been dropped. 526 km on the odometer. I'd have loved to buy it but the mrs doesn't fit comfortably on it and it would just be a play bike for me which is at 152K great but a bit pricey.

Anyhow, I'll keep my eyes open for a used cbr250r or cbr150r. Found two so far but since we're in BKK and other provinces are not that welcoming to us sadly at the moment.

Fritz
 

Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
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Bangkok
OK so here's the follow up. I decided not to buy the press bike. Overall it didn't feel good at all. So after a bit of searching I found another bike on Kaidee, 2 years old, 6K km, excellent state, good price, so I decided to go with this one. It's not a powerhouse (CBR150R) but lots of fun to ride, super nimble and great for the mrs in terms of height and to get used to riding motorcycles again.

We're very happy with the purchase, just waiting for the BKK license plates to be finished.
We did a short trip today and it was so much fun riding together, so we definitely made the right decision to buy another bike.
5202021_210522_0.jpg
 

Heineken

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Bike looks great, cant go wrong with a very low kilometre bike ;)


And Honda's are very cheap to service, shops are everywhere :cool:
 
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Fritzltouw

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Jun 1, 2018
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Bike looks great, cant go wrong with a very low kilometre bike ;)


And Honda's are very cheap to service, shops are everywhere :cool:
Thanks!

There are a few things I need to change or adjust but overall I'm happy with it. Stupid me for instance didn't fold out the wing mirrors the first time and I found out one is actually broken at the ball joint so that was another 1,000 thb. Also the turn signals on the front or cheap lazada 45 bt pieces of crap. You can't see them from the front, so I ordered the original Honda blinkers. I like riding smaller displacement bikes, they're so much fun, especially in and around Greater Bangkok.
 

Ughetto

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i see one friend sell last days honda cbr 300 cc 11.000 km for 80.000 baht
i need much more cross bike but for this price was very interesting
motorbike was looking new but someone buy already
i think now with the international crisis can get good opportunities....
i forget to check the quality of the tires is was in good condition or not
i remember when i have cbr 150 cc i sell to the shop second hand beetween 40.000 and 60.000 thai baht
also one my friend get the same money
 
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Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
105
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28
Bangkok
i see one friend sell last days honda cbr 300 cc 11.000 km for 80.000 baht
i need much more cross bike but for this price was very interesting
motorbike was looking new but someone buy already
i think now with the international crisis can get good opportunities....
i remember when i have cbr 150 cc i sell to the shop second hand beetween 40.000 and 60.000 thai baht
also one my friend get the same money
Yeah we got a good (i.e, fair) price on this CBR150R. I'd love to get another cbr300R but it's too high for the mrs. Maybe I'll still get the 250RR for myself haha. One can never have too many bikes right?
 

Ughetto

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You right.
Him sell with this new spend 3000 baht for buy and change it transmission kit
This i need to change in my bike I pay 150 euro in Italy.
I have 2 honda cbr 150 cc. in the past in thai around 15 years ago when they start to produce it in thai.
Very good bike.
Before of cbr many honda wave and yamaha scooter.
Is not important to have big bike if you like to travel
me and my girlfriend we went 5 time until singapore
honda wave125 cc.,honda sonic 150 cc. and cbr 150 cc.
Here a Phuket newspaper february 2004
in the picture mae sai kuala lumpur and singapore border
i choise chiang rai for a second holiday house in thailand for the winter time
i always think i want to live in Phuket
i never think i will stay here for ever like i do
because here was more cheap to building we start first here
and after this we stop
tsunami 2004 also make us scare.
in italy and spain travel with the passenger we call it ZAVORRA
may be in english is package or i don t know.
i have more zavorra follow me in my trip europe and africa.......
but this is another story
bikers are not so normal......
most of us are son of the wind.
 

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Fritzltouw

Ol'Timer
Jun 1, 2018
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Bangkok
That's awesome you made it to the newspaper! You choose the bike that makes you the happiest/gets you where you want to go within the budget you have. A British guy did a tour around the world on a Honda C90 and was perfectly happy with it.

I must say I was quite impressed with how well built the new cbr150r engine is. It runs very smooth, and if you find the right powerband it has enough to be fun. Also very nimble. This is quite different from the CBR150r that a friend had back in 2008. Was a fun bike but smaller and the engine felt a bit more mechanical.

I haven't looked into changing gear sets or ratios yet but I might do that in a few weeks based on how we like it.