Rolo Tomazi

The CBRs are an interesting pair - 150cc for 83K and 250cc for 105K (correct me if I'm wrong).

But I think most people know if they want a 150 or a 250. Most farang go for the 250of course, which is small for them, but here in TH lots of people want a small, light bike because they are afraid of handling a "big" 250. Many adults ride 125cc Waves so a 150cc DOHC watercooled 150 with sport-bike looks and a clutch is already a statement.

The ones who have the cash go for a new one, most of them finance because that's the only way they can get their hands on one, they don't have 80 or 100K cash sitting around.

But there should be plenty of people who would buy a used bike in good comdition with low mileage for a decent price. Of course 10K off is not impressive, might as well get a new one, but 24K off a 83K bike should be tempting.

Some suggest 50K is a fair price; that would be 60% of the original price for a bike less than 2 years old with only 5K km - sorry, I disagree.

That would mean a CBR250, if it is new 105K, would be 63K in the same condition. A comparable Ninja 250, maybe 155K new, would sell within a week for 93K.

A Nouvo, new let's say 60K, would be 36K - well if you see a clean 2011 Nouvo135 with 5K km for that price, let me know, I take it!

Well I've sold several bikes, three years old, 15 to 25K km, mechanically sound, for a decent price.

A few thousand over half price for an immaculate bike with less than 5000km is not acceptable IMO so I'm going to keep it!

What I don't get is that there were no calls, no emails, no interest in the little CBR, not even tire kickers. Like a new model is going to come out next month.

Here's one for sale in Nakhon Si Thammarat - also 2011 but 12,500km and a scratched exhaust cover, looks like he laid it down. 55,000 THB.

A good deal on Ko Samui, same low mileage as mine, 5000km, but a 2012 model, good as new, 65,000 THB, save 18K over a new one.

A red one, not even three months old, 200 km, not even broken in! 75,000 THB. For the 8K you save you could get Pirellis and an aftermarket slip-on.

Another red one in Phuket, 2011, "some scratches", 21,000km, 50,000 THB.

None of these bikes sold.

I am wondering why I haven’t had any success selling my 2011CBR150R. I

t is not even two years old, 19 months to be exact, has only about 4700km on the clock and is very clean.

It has always been garaged or was covered, looks shiny likea new bike, has no scratches or dents, no repairs or anything.

I've been advertising it since the beginning of the year, for 66,000 THB in January, for 60,000 THB in February, now for 59,000 THB; I
won't go lower than that. The bike is now 83,000 THB new where I live (Songkhla).

No calls! One Thai guy offered me 50K over the phone, upped it to 55K when he saw it. I declined.

I've lived here in TH for more than ten years, bought and sold two carbed Repsol CBRs, several Waves and Nouvos, a Kawasaki Boss 175, a Phantom 200 and a AX1 250.

It never took long to sell any of the bikes and I always got very close to what I asked for, sometimes only 15 to 20% under new price.

This is almost 30% off the new price and no takers!

There are other CBRs for sale, all have higher mileage, some have scratches, small accidents, and they aren't much cheaper. They don’t seem to sell, either.

On the English speaking sites I frequent t There aren't many for sale, it's not that there are lots to choose from!

A CBR250 in the same condition sells for around 85,000 THB, there are quite a few on sale, that’s less than the 24K you save on my cheaper bike.

Songkhla is a bit off the beaten track but the other bikes I sold in Prachuap Kiri Khan province, that's not Bangkok, either. I have it advertised in Phuket now, can deliver.

Is 59K too much to ask for an almost new CBR?

I wonder if anyone else had/has a hard time selling his CBR,
too.

Here's some info on fuel consumption of the CBR250R, CRF250L, KLX250S and other small bikes:

http://www.cycleworld.com/2013/02/27/small-displacement-motorcycle-mileage-challenge/

Interestingly the CRF guzzles quite a bit more than the CBR which has more power and weight but a fairing.

Here you can convert mpg to km/L: http://www.convertunits.com/from/mpg/to/km/l

133K is a good price, especially since they don't clog the showrooms. Down here in Songkhla / Hat Yai they're 138K.

I'm waiting for the M!

Should be out next month.

All motorcycles sold under the Ryuka or Zongshen name in Thailand are build at http://www.amatacity.com/zongshen-thailand-machinery-manufacturing/

Now that's what I call facts!

Even though it says: Zongshen Thailand Machinery Manufacturing – do you know that they assemble motorcycles there or just portable compressors?

Here's another thread on Ryuka / Zongshen: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/168107-ryuka-125-motorcycles/ - quite an interesting read.

Don't want to step on your toes, but facts please, lemoncake.

"I believe I've heard/read somewhere..." usually just confuses and starts a discussion about rumors.

Too much bogus "info" on the net, try to keep the site you post on as credible as possible by posting established facts and links to support them!

:-)

We were talking about the best solution to get mud and water into the drum brake...

I don't have any experience with Ryuka but I've seen it again and again that Chinese bikes are cheap crap.

Some people don't seem to mind, they ride them and when they break down have them fixed.

Maybe they don't mind the downtime or hanging around in roadside repair shops for hours, that's their business.

Personally I buy cheap phones, microwaves, washing machines and my laptop doesn't have to have a bazillion gigabytes and look cool.

But when it comes to riding a motorcycle I want quality, I want style, I want dependability. I want something that gets me where I want to go with a smile on my face!

In short: I definitely would buy a used Jap bike for the same money I'd get a new crap bike - it'll probably last longer and I'll get some money back when I sell it.

Also I have lived in Japan and I respect the people; I have dealt with the Chinese for years and they won't get a penny from me if I can help it! :-)

But that's just me.

Obviously not all of us...

The low price is too tempting to some, and on the showroom floor they look really nice.

But bikes for that kind of price can't be any good!

About a year ago these little bikes were the fashion, they looked like Honda Monekys, but with 125cc. Chinese made.

Not expensive, people bought them like crazy. One year later you hardly see any of them anymore.

RIGHT, LET'S NOT POST HERE ANYMORE AND GO INSTEAD TO THE FIRST ORIGINAL POST!

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/612695-cff250m-supermoto/

Well the last time the dealership closed because they were taking parts off their inventory bikes to fix the many bikes that came in after only a few weeks. My buddy never got a plate on his bike because the shop closed before getting him one. No book, no plate, Then the mechanical problems started.

After wasting a lot of money on repairs he tried to sell it but nobody wanted to give him even 10,000 baht for it.

But what do you expect when you buy a Chinese product that costs you less than half as much as a KLX250?

It's not the first time that the Phuket Platipus dealership closed the doors and disappeared into the night. Contacting their headquarters in Bangkok is no use, they don't feel responsible.

But what do you expect when you buy a Chinese product that costs you less than half as much as a KLX250?

Maybe try out a KLX150, the suspension should be much better. But I prefer the practicality and the lower price of the Nouvo.

Well the best solution to mud and water getting into the drum brake is to drill some drain holes around the drum itself. Just not in the friction area though!

Agree, that's definitely a good way to get mud and water into the drum brakes.

Anyone know where the Platinum dealer in Phuket town has gone off to?

OP, if its just as you say.. for some fun around Phuket then look at a KLX250.I have a number of big bikes including 1200S Multistrada and two FZ1 fazers however for me around town and short trips where its not long highways or mountainous roads like MHS loop then the KLX is just so much fun, throw it around in traffic, traffic snarled then no problems up on the kerb Thai style.

Upright position is excellent safety wise.

I kept a cbr400rr in Phuket for a period of time and travelled allot around but to tell you the truth their really weren't any huge great riding roads there that allowed me to open it up... sure the road up to the bridge is long and can be fast but its straight line and boring as hell The back road from Kata to Rawaii is Ok but again its somewhat stop start and throw in the plethora of mini buses ploughing along that route and you dont really get to use any ponies you may be sitting on.

I can honestly say that the more I ride big bikes the more appreciation I have for the KLX around town and short trips.

Would I want to ride from BKK to Chiang mai on one.. hell no. Would I ride one in Phuket and also have the option of going off the minibus tracks.. you bet.

KTM is a great bike and I think everyone here would love to have one as I would ( and thinking about it) but its just sooooo overpriced.

just my 10 Baht comment here.... see if you can rent a KLX for a weekend and go throw her around the roads in Phuket

Rgds

What tires do you have on your KLX?

Standard road legal knobby's

I agree. I lived and worked in Phuket for two years and rode all over the place south of Thalang. Traffic is crazy and a small, light 20hp has its advantages when you ride in Phuket Town, Kathu, Patong and Kata/Karon as I mainly did. But if you have money to burn and like to go to the airport and back in record time then go for a pricey KTM.

But watch out - the tour bus drivers are stressed-out nuts (just this week a bus driver put a gun to a woman driver's head and threatened to kill her), the Tuk Tuk drivers are well organized and armed, lots of big SUVs on small streets, and if you flip someone off they come after you and run you off the road!

^

you can't expect it to have anywhere near the power of an inline 4 600cc even though it's only 100cc less , you are talking 48 bhp compared to about 120 bhp on the 4 cylinder 600

The difference between the 2013 CBR500R and CBR600RR is actual 128cc (the CBR500R is "only" a 471cc).

isn't the 600cc only 599 cc though so we can make that 127cc if you want to split hairs.

471 + 128 = 599 :-)

I'm very happy with my '10 Nouvo 135 as a daily runabout, also have done 500km day trips on it. Great bike overall, I had a new Honda wave 125i before that, nice black and gold, but it doesn't compare, the Nouvo is way better. The only little nitpick I have is the carbed version is a bit thirsty, but it's not really an issue. But my CBR150R performs way better and uses the same amount!

Guess Yamaha took the 125 Mio FI engine and stuck it in the old frame, why not, as long as it's not much more expensive.

I'm going to keep mine, 20K km and it's running great, no need to "upgrade" to a newer one!

Actually I bought the bike in BKK but the big bike shop was in Hua Hin where I lived at the time. There are plenty of shops all over Thailand who promise they can get bikes legal. This one in particular seemed trustworthy to me but it turned out they couldn't do it, either. As so often it wasn't their intent to rip me off from the start, it's just that there were "complications", understandably, and at some point the money was gone but the deed wasn't done. They greased the right people but there was a snag somewhere. They even asked me for another 10K and who knows, maybe that would have done the trick, but I didn't want to risk it. - At least they provided me with a fun memory I can still laugh about today. After we agreed on monthly payments back to me I showed up at their shop to collect. Often business was bad and they didn't have my payment. When I pulled up and asked for the boss, a young, long-haired "biker", a mechanic closed the door to the work area and told me he wasn't there. I smelled a rat, quickly went outside and looked around the corner into the side street and saw "the boss" running down the alley at full speed! I called his name and he slowed down, then stopped, turned around and came back. The look on his face was worth a few thousand baht!

I know the red plate is not really legal but it was better than no plate at all - the guy I bought it from took it off, it was an illegal one he wanted to keep.

I still have the plate as a souvenir. At the time the whole deal angered me quite a bit but years down the road it's all part of living in LOS!

Some top-of-the line rims can be expensive, plus Pirellis can run you quickly close to 50K.

The conversion above should have the smaller front disc, softer spring settings and the gearing of the CRF.

I kinda like the dark frame but the black fork legs are not as cool as the gold ones!

no book no sale, in my opinion. Don't really know why people would pay good money for a 'grey bike' and then either risk the police suddenly checking the details, or spending money to get a proper green book. Might as well spend the money on a legit bike in the first place.

I bought a real nice VTR250 from a Thai guy in BKK for 50K. It had only 3,500 original km on the clock and looked liked brand new. Tried to get a green book through a Thai big bike shop who told me they could do it for 50K. That would have been 100K for a "legal", almost new Honda 250, a dream deal in 2006.

But the shop was dragging its feet, it took months and many visits to realize they were scamming me. I got a red plate from the shop and since I did not live in BKK I never had a problem.

After a year I told the shop that I want my money back; it took me that long because they promised they could do it and since I had no problems riding it in the area I hung on. It took another year to get the 50K back, had to threaten with police and force them to make payments. It was a pain in the butt!

Sold it after two years and 10,000km for 45K.

Was it worth it? Definitely! Loved that little bike and and had a great time doing short trips in the area.

Would I do it again? No way! Things have changed, fortunately there are more bikes to choose from, even if your dream bike is not among them.

TIT - make do!

Also in Thailand less is more - I had 1000cc+ bikes back in the US but around here I think that's overkill. Many riders discover here that a 250 can be fun.

Is this thread only about used bikes with no green book?

Anyone knows if or when those models will be sold in Thailand?

Suzuki TU250

Honda VTR 250

I think they both look great and would be perfect for my use (beginner riding in phuket).

Probably never. If Suzuki starts assembling bikes here my guess is that they will bring in new models with FI. It wouldn't make any sense to offer an import 250 since the price would be too high.

Honda wouldn't bring in the VTR because it would take customers away from the other 250s Honda offers.

I had the carbed VTR for a couple of years here in TH and really enjoyed it. It's not a CBR600R of course but since 95% of the traffic is 100 to 150cc I felt like on a racer.

Top speed was a bit over 140km/h and it cruised fine all day at 120km/h. It's perfect for backroads where going more than 80 is risky because you don't know what's around the bend - potholes, buffaloes or a truck on the wrong side of the road.

The VTR handled really nice and was a great bike for the money. I've had lots of bigger bikes I forgot about, but the time on this little rocket was big fun!

Not many second hand CRFs for sale, and not many have been "converted". And the few who were are pricey, a set of quality rims and good tires can cost easily 50K.

Why not buy the factory version and change the plastics? The white plastics should be easy to paint a light color of your choice.

Down here in Songkhla the CRF is 135K.

Get a brochure for the Ninja, show it to your better half, tell her you want to buy it.

Then settle for the CRF250M - cheaper, safer and she can come along!