[phoinixpyre]

Just felt the impulse to join the forums. At 25 I’m making the jump from 4 wheels to 2. After shelling out so much for gas on my commute to work and staring at a $1200 repair bill for my car I started thinking.

I remembered tooling around on an ’86 honda hawk a friend had given my dad and how great it was to just ride (mostly around an empty lot, but even as a passenger on some backroads I just felt like I was flying even at just 50 mph). I talked to my fiance about the idea and she’s all for it especially after pricing insurance on a financed bike (beat the insurance on my car by 50 bucks)

I’m taking my written test for jersey next week and found out a MSF course is openening 10 minutes down the road from me in a couple weeks!

My big question though is I’m debating between a new Honda Rebel or V-star 250 (i’m kinda partial to the cruiser style). My work commute isn’t much on the highway. Prolly a good 5-7 miles, but a good 30 minutes one way. Any opinions? I’m looking new cause I’m saving up for a wedding and to move so i’m prolly gonna have to finance

[Artemis]

As a muscle car junkie, I can tell you straight up from past experience you dont have to buy new to finance…. in fact, financing through a dealership is almost always a bad idea, whether you buy new or used.

All you have to do is find the car, or bike, you want… and make sure its blue book value isnt way less than the asking price. Then go to your local bank or credit union with the VIN number, and make model info, and get them to give you a loan…. they will give you either a secured or unsecured loan… the interest rate on the latter being slightly higher… but 9 times out of 10 you are going to get a WAY better interest rate from the bank or CU than you will the dealership. The bank will either give the money directly to you in an account for you, or cut a check to the person/business you are purchasing from. Then you are made in the shade. I bought my old 88 Iroc z this way….. felt good to only have to finance 5k instead of the 12k the dealership wanted for the same ride.

That way you are free to look for both new and used, and save money both in the short term (on the price of the bike) and the long term (with a better interest rate).

Hope this helps!

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