IT doesn’t seem long ago that the average brand new 1000cc superbike was selling for £9k or less and supersports 600s were below £7k, but those days are long gone and now the bleeding edge of motorcycle technology is likely to set you back a five-figure sum.
And the same sort of inflation has hit lower down in the market, too, with bikes that would have been in the region of £5k back in the mid-to-late 2000s now sitting with £7k-plus tags dangling from their mirrors. With increasing numbers of bikes being sold via PCP or HP schemes, for many riders the total is less important than the monthly repayment, partially explaining the rise in list prices, but there are still plenty of old-school cash buyers for whom the bottom line total is the number that matters most.
But just because some of the obvious choices have gone up in price, it doesn’t mean there aren’t cheap-and-cheerful options out there. We’ve scoured the price lists to come up with the top 10 cheapest offerings in the 499cc-and-over market to see just what you can get.
And while we’re using list prices for the ranking, bear in mind that cash is king and there are deep discounts to be found. Just check the offerings for pre-registered and ex-display machines on eBay or any other selling site to see how low they can go, before haggling even begins. And in some cases, you might get as much as another £1,000 off if you play your cards right.
The entry level to this list is £5k, and that means we miss out on some great cheap machines – not least Yamaha’s all-conquering, £5,349 MT-07 and Kawasaki’s £5,399 ER-6N, both bikes that would be well worth a look if you’re in this part of the market an which come so close to the £5,000 mark that a canny haggler might well ride away on for less than £5k.