The cost of different bikes!!

Katy M

Katy M

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At the risk of outraging my fellow 1290 pilots: I was thinking of jumping ship and getting a new 1250GSA. With the current finance deals to sweeten the bitter pill I may yet face, that means a ‘rental’ price of about £110/month🤢

We are told the GS/GSA’s hold their value more than most bikes. So, there is a 1 year old, well specced GSA local to me that has lost…£6K…in one year🤑!!!

My 2 year old SAR has lost…£6K in 2 years - £3K in a year. So who to believe and what to do? KTM are currently doing deals which for me means a brand new 1290 SAS for an extra £6K to change. If I were to buy my specced new GSA it would mean £12K to change!!! That’s almost the price of a whole new SAS at current sales figures. I could of course buy a 2nd hand GS which would mean a price to change of about…£6K. But I do ask myself why someone is selling such a bike after just one year? Unreliable or just not the right bike?

There’s an ongoing argument as to which brand is the more reliable. To me it seems very much luck of the draw. My current SAR has been faultless over 15K but I have had minor issues with some others (990’s/1290). Reading this forum BM’s are not entirely faultless and some of those faults are more than minor. At £20K+ a bike I can understand the owners anger/frustration.

With £12K to play with I could fix/repair/replace bits on a new SAS for quite a while!! I may well be staying with the big ORANGE.🍊 I unless I go to the big ‘T’ -Triumph; but even owners of them are complaining about issues.

What to do?
 
The new Triumph 1200 has had many improvements over the old one, according to MCN, even said it could be a GS1300 beater.
But I agree with your luck of the draw comment.
 
With the new 1300’s out I would be unsurprised there were one year old 1250’s about. Some folk want the latest and greatest so I wouldn't naturally associate short ownership with reliability.
 
............buy whichever one you fancy or just keep the current one and wait for the 1390 Super Adventure to be launched later this year ;)
 
I was invited to test ride new Suzuki GSX-S1000GX. I'm dreaming of returning to 4 cylinder bike for many years now but it was nothing serious. But, after receiving the invitation I started investigating that bike and found it quite interesting. It's nothing certain, still just a tought. But, if I exchange my 2021 1250GS sometimes next year for new GX it would cost me arround 5K euros (£4300). It made me think...
 
Katy M said:
At the risk of outraging my fellow 1290 pilots: I was thinking of jumping ship and getting a new 1250GSA. With the current finance deals to sweeten the bitter pill I may yet face, that means a ‘rental’ price of about £110/month🤢

We are told the GS/GSA’s hold their value more than most bikes. So, there is a 1 year old, well specced GSA local to me that has lost…£6K…in one year🤑!!!

My 2 year old SAR has lost…£6K in 2 years - £3K in a year. So who to believe and what to do? KTM are currently doing deals which for me means a brand new 1290 SAS for an extra £6K to change. If I were to buy my specced new GSA it would mean £12K to change!!! That’s almost the price of a whole new SAS at current sales figures. I could of course buy a 2nd hand GS which would mean a price to change of about…£6K. But I do ask myself why someone is selling such a bike after just one year? Unreliable or just not the right bike?

There’s an ongoing argument as to which brand is the more reliable. To me it seems very much luck of the draw. My current SAR has been faultless over 15K but I have had minor issues with some others (990’s/1290). Reading this forum BM’s are not entirely faultless and some of those faults are more than minor. At £20K+ a bike I can understand the owners anger/frustration.

With £12K to play with I could fix/repair/replace bits on a new SAS for quite a while!! I may well be staying with the big ORANGE.🍊 I unless I go to the big ‘T’ -Triumph; but even owners of them are complaining about issues.

What to do?
Click to expand...
Don't over think it and get the bike you want the most.

After all, you can't take it with you!
 
Katy, keep the bike you love and trust and use the money for your epic journeys. Jump off the hamster wheel for a while and revel in the fact you are doing everything you did before without shelling out money whilst stuck at work.
 
the 1250 Adv has a new version in the pipeline. Hence the loss on a new one and subsidised finance. That is not a specific BMW thing. I recall days when KTM effectively held a fire sale every autumn offering big discounts to shift stock. This shafted those who bought new in the spring as their residuals were affected.

The question I would ask is, "what is actually wrong with your current bike that means changing?" If you are worried about costs and depreciation, surely keeping the 2 year old bike longer is the way to go?

There again, my rationale seems to have different parameters. Sytner threw a new 1300GS at me yesterday. I rode 50 miles the long way home and it is parked on the drive as they wanted the bike 2 days to do the service and the shaft inspection/change on my 7 year old R1200RS. The 1300 is an okay bike, just that. No way will I be raiding the piggy bank to spunk up my bike and £14k for a new one. I have been "saving" a notional £400 a year to cover non-routine maintenance costs, which is what an extended warranty would cost. I have not spent any of it so far.

Before you start using financial rationalisations to stay with KTM, ask yourself if the current bike meets your needs at a practical and emotional level. That is the primary rationalisation. Once you have that decision come back for more guidance ...
 
I just spent £397.85 on renewing my used BMW warrnaty for my 1250GSA, which means getting it dealer serviced.

If I have now successfully sorted my issues with the bike and its a keeper, I will start to service the bike myself once the warranty expires in a years time. I'm not bothered about stamps in the book and resale value once the bike has aged and depreciated, its about to hit 20k and is approaching 5 years old now.

I can't see me ever needing another bike this one is more than enough and if it keeps running sweetly, the long term savings of home servicing easily offset the expense of the annual dealer servicing and warranty costs.
 
On my 4th GSA over a 10 year period and not had any issues whatsoever, apart from my last one having a clattery engine. My latest one (new in March this year) is excellent.
 
G&T is spot on.
Avoid the hype and the marketing all driving 'envy'.
You need something you can mostly fix yourself without costing a kidney. (I'm still looking for a missing one of mine putting an old Xcountry back to what it should be).

Unless you can afford to buy these expensive toys, most of which get sold once passed 10k ish mostly or a new model comes up, get one you like, really look after it and put the cost down to riding a motorcycle.
And as G&T says, use the 'spare' to view the world or do something with it.
 
Take the money out the equation and look at pros and cons of what you're considering first. Let's face it a Bike is a Heart>head decision, no matter which way you cut it.

Once you know what you want, then look at the options and the associated costs. You don't have to go new and shiny for a new to you Bike.
 
Katy M said:
At the risk of outraging my fellow 1290 pilots: I was thinking of jumping ship and getting a new 1250GSA. With the current finance deals to sweeten the bitter pill I may yet face, that means a ‘rental’ price of about £110/month🤢

We are told the GS/GSA’s hold their value more than most bikes. So, there is a 1 year old, well specced GSA local to me that has lost…£6K…in one year🤑!!!

My 2 year old SAR has lost…£6K in 2 years - £3K in a year. So who to believe and what to do? KTM are currently doing deals which for me means a brand new 1290 SAS for an extra £6K to change. If I were to buy my specced new GSA it would mean £12K to change!!! That’s almost the price of a whole new SAS at current sales figures. I could of course buy a 2nd hand GS which would mean a price to change of about…£6K. But I do ask myself why someone is selling such a bike after just one year? Unreliable or just not the right bike?

There’s an ongoing argument as to which brand is the more reliable. To me it seems very much luck of the draw. My current SAR has been faultless over 15K but I have had minor issues with some others (990’s/1290). Reading this forum BM’s are not entirely faultless and some of those faults are more than minor. At £20K+ a bike I can understand the owners anger/frustration.

With £12K to play with I could fix/repair/replace bits on a new SAS for quite a while!! I may well be staying with the big ORANGE.🍊 I unless I go to the big ‘T’ -Triumph; but even owners of them are complaining about issues.

What to do?
Click to expand...
The moment you roll a new bike out of the showroom it lost roughly 25%…If you have the money buy the 1250GSadv because its better than the 1290 KTM in any way except having a little less steam between 8 and 9000 rpm…More comfortable , better handling , bigger tank , no chain to mess with , TL and easier to ride…fast 👍
 
Well, I didn’t really wait for too many replies here before I made up my mind! It is, after all, a very personal thing: MY requirements/desires and the bike that most suits them. Only I can therefore really make that decision.

When I took my first 1290 for a test ride I was, literally, hooting in my lid - it was such a blast; amazing, ‘prison-sentence’ performance. I kid you not, I was still hooting reading in bed later that night. All that fun AND a comfortable 55mpg!!! I’ve had two now and I do love them. But…they do take some riding - in a good, engaging way. I get off after a days’ touring and I can be spent! If the weather is bad then I suffer more than my GS friends due to lack of weather/wind protection. Also, it is quite a heavy and tall machine (so is the GS I know but it’s lower down) and it cost me a badly smashed shoulder when I dropped it in a freak ‘slip and fall’ whilst at a stand still. It was still worth it for the fun factor alone though.

I approached 4 BM dealers asking for a PX value. The first (who will remain nameless) quoted an embarrassing £7K - I nearly gave up at this point! The second offered a more realistic £9K. The third took so long to get me a price they missed the boat. (It seems to me BM dealers rely on 3rd parties to move non-BM bikes and this costs time and money for potential purchasers and in this case, a potential sale for the dealer!)

I went back to No.1 who got rather shirty with me for trying to get my best deal - he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, after nearly 2 weeks of waiting, a colleague of his came back to me and offered £3K MORE - how can that be? By that time, dealer No 4 had given me all the answers I needed in the space of a couple of days.

Dealer No. 4 offered a package that equated to nearly £12K with a ridiculously low monthly repayment (for such a bike anyway). They also had a greater choice of bikes with a better spec than the other dealers. I spent 1/2 an hour on the phone to a friend and long term GSer and it was he who finally persuaded me - pro V cons and not many cons to boot!

I have therefore put down a deposit on a new GSA. Only time will tell if I have done right by me.

I now have a stack of KTM bits ready for EBAY.

Thanks for your input - despite my opening lines they were appreciated.
 
Katy M said:
Well, I didn’t really wait for too many replies here before I made up my mind! It is, after all, a very personal thing: MY requirements/desires and the bike that most suits them. Only I can therefore really make that decision.

When I took my first 1290 for a test ride I was, literally, hooting in my lid - it was such a blast; amazing, ‘prison-sentence’ performance. I kid you not, I was still hooting reading in bed later that night. All that fun AND a comfortable 55mpg!!! I’ve had two now and I do love them. But…they do take some riding - in a good, engaging way. I get off after a days’ touring and I can be spent! If the weather is bad then I suffer more than my GS friends due to lack of weather/wind protection. Also, it is quite a heavy and tall machine (so is the GS I know but it’s lower down) and it cost me a badly smashed shoulder when I dropped it in a freak ‘slip and fall’ whilst at a stand still. It was still worth it for the fun factor alone though.

I approached 4 BM dealers asking for a PX value. The first (who will remain nameless) quoted an embarrassing £7K - I nearly gave up at this point! The second offered a more realistic £9K. The third took so long to get me a price they missed the boat. (It seems to me BM dealers rely on 3rd parties to move non-BM bikes and this costs time and money for potential purchasers and in this case, a potential sale for the dealer!)

I went back to No.1 who got rather shirty with me for trying to get my best deal - he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, after nearly 2 weeks of waiting, a colleague of his came back to me and offered £3K MORE - how can that be? By that time, dealer No 4 had given me all the answers I needed in the space of a couple of days.

Dealer No. 4 offered a package that equated to nearly £12K with a ridiculously low monthly repayment (for such a bike anyway). They also had a greater choice of bikes with a better spec than the other dealers. I spent 1/2 an hour on the phone to a friend and long term GSer and it was he who finally persuaded me - pro V cons and not many cons to boot!

I have therefore put down a deposit on a new GSA. Only time will tell if I have done right by me.

I now have a stack of KTM bits ready for EBAY.

Thanks for your input - despite my opening lines they were appreciated.
Click to expand...
......enjoy the new bike when you get it 👍

Had 10 GS's over the years and enjoyed them all although 2 of those were rejected back to Mr BMW :augie

Now on my 4th 1190/1290 KTM Adventure and they are IMO great bikes and so far had no significant issues.

Worth posting up the KTM bits on here as there are a fair few 1290 owners on here including the Janitor ;)
 
all the best with the new steed..I had the same predicament , as im sure we all do. Took my 1190 (2015) to local dealers and went thru the motions re p/ex on a 1250rt. Test ride proved im still too young for an RT :). The biggest shocker was the price they offered me for the ktm. the 30k mls apparently was too high and therfore around 5500 was the p/ex price , which I now believe was reasonable from a dealer. Either way I decided to keep the ktm as it does what I need it to without more cost.
Overall the 1190 has been reliable , change oil at recomended intervals , run a unifilter and keep battery in gwo.
Tubless wheels are a pain , screen is useless , other wise quick , fuel efficeint and reliable. Sometime what we want aint what we need.
 
Katy M said:
Well, I didn’t really wait for too many replies here before I made up my mind! It is, after all, a very personal thing: MY requirements/desires and the bike that most suits them. Only I can therefore really make that decision.

When I took my first 1290 for a test ride I was, literally, hooting in my lid - it was such a blast; amazing, ‘prison-sentence’ performance. I kid you not, I was still hooting reading in bed later that night. All that fun AND a comfortable 55mpg!!! I’ve had two now and I do love them. But…they do take some riding - in a good, engaging way. I get off after a days’ touring and I can be spent! If the weather is bad then I suffer more than my GS friends due to lack of weather/wind protection. Also, it is quite a heavy and tall machine (so is the GS I know but it’s lower down) and it cost me a badly smashed shoulder when I dropped it in a freak ‘slip and fall’ whilst at a stand still. It was still worth it for the fun factor alone though.

I approached 4 BM dealers asking for a PX value. The first (who will remain nameless) quoted an embarrassing £7K - I nearly gave up at this point! The second offered a more realistic £9K. The third took so long to get me a price they missed the boat. (It seems to me BM dealers rely on 3rd parties to move non-BM bikes and this costs time and money for potential purchasers and in this case, a potential sale for the dealer!)

I went back to No.1 who got rather shirty with me for trying to get my best deal - he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, after nearly 2 weeks of waiting, a colleague of his came back to me and offered £3K MORE - how can that be? By that time, dealer No 4 had given me all the answers I needed in the space of a couple of days.

Dealer No. 4 offered a package that equated to nearly £12K with a ridiculously low monthly repayment (for such a bike anyway). They also had a greater choice of bikes with a better spec than the other dealers. I spent 1/2 an hour on the phone to a friend and long term GSer and it was he who finally persuaded me - pro V cons and not many cons to boot!

I have therefore put down a deposit on a new GSA. Only time will tell if I have done right by me.

I now have a stack of KTM bits ready for EBAY.

Thanks for your input - despite my opening lines they were appreciated.
Click to expand...
You wont regret your decision getting a 1250GSA because you will see after a few weeks that the KTM is a lot of hype and the BMW a much better bike…Also getting the 1250 over the 1300 as there is still much to do too make it better pointed out in my recent thread…
 
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