04-11-13, 12:11 AM
Hi buck, speaking as someone who was in literally near enough the exact same predicament as you, I have to say the news isn't great. I bought my boxeye 600 back in May 2012 after lots of research on the internet. All reviews pointed me in the direction of the Fazer with the budget I had and criteria I needed. There weren't many for sale near me at the time except a couple in Exeter both priced at around £16-1700 in standard condition with about 16k miles. The one I ended up buying was in excellent condition and I got a new rear tyre and carb rubbers too. I liked the look of it, it seemed comfy enough at the time sat on it in the showroom and on the test ride (I could only go as pillion as I was on a restricted license) I was truly sold as it was far more comfortable plus seemed so much more smooth and powerful than my dads SV from my perspective on the back.
The following weeks afterwards were great, especially when I finally derestricted the thing! The bike is excellent and I was really happy I had made the right decision, however some problems arose that I didn't read in any reviews, the main being at 6 foot 4 I was actually a bit too tall for the bike. This became especially apparent on longer journeys where my knees and hips would feel awful and I would have to get off or try and stretch whilst on the move. At this point, I was in a bit of a tricky situation as annoyingly a fork overhaul and some consumables had resulted in me spending about £500 on the bike on top of the £1700 i'd paid. I love it, its by far the best bike I've owned and with the new Metzeler tyres on and the fork refurb and some other odds and sods it was amazing. But I still had the issue of it being too small. I then started looking at supermotos and was obsessed with them for a while, all the while forgetting how effortlessly quality my Fazer was and how much better a rider I was becoming on it.
I actually in August this year tried to sell it and dropped the price to £1200 in the end from £1449 as I was getting a bit desperate. I still only received one phone call. I spent (wasted) £30 on auto trader, it was on for almost a month and I advertised it here too but nobody fancied it. Then on ebay like you say there were bikes equally as good going for silly money, below a grand sometimes. I decided to keep it and to be honest I'm really really glad I have. I've now started modifying the bike to try and fit me better, I have been extremely lucky with one of the major parts of this and I will be making a thread about it in the future when it's finished. A bike I did look at as a possible similar but more comfortable replacement was the Yamaha TDM 850, but they all seem to have high mileage and don't perform quite as well as the Fazer anyway.
This has been a bit more of an essay than I anticipated, but to sum it up I would say try and keep yours, at least for now and see if you can make it work for your height like I am. I would have lost loads of money on mine for absolutely no reason other than others are willing to sell theirs for far less.
The following weeks afterwards were great, especially when I finally derestricted the thing! The bike is excellent and I was really happy I had made the right decision, however some problems arose that I didn't read in any reviews, the main being at 6 foot 4 I was actually a bit too tall for the bike. This became especially apparent on longer journeys where my knees and hips would feel awful and I would have to get off or try and stretch whilst on the move. At this point, I was in a bit of a tricky situation as annoyingly a fork overhaul and some consumables had resulted in me spending about £500 on the bike on top of the £1700 i'd paid. I love it, its by far the best bike I've owned and with the new Metzeler tyres on and the fork refurb and some other odds and sods it was amazing. But I still had the issue of it being too small. I then started looking at supermotos and was obsessed with them for a while, all the while forgetting how effortlessly quality my Fazer was and how much better a rider I was becoming on it.
I actually in August this year tried to sell it and dropped the price to £1200 in the end from £1449 as I was getting a bit desperate. I still only received one phone call. I spent (wasted) £30 on auto trader, it was on for almost a month and I advertised it here too but nobody fancied it. Then on ebay like you say there were bikes equally as good going for silly money, below a grand sometimes. I decided to keep it and to be honest I'm really really glad I have. I've now started modifying the bike to try and fit me better, I have been extremely lucky with one of the major parts of this and I will be making a thread about it in the future when it's finished. A bike I did look at as a possible similar but more comfortable replacement was the Yamaha TDM 850, but they all seem to have high mileage and don't perform quite as well as the Fazer anyway.
This has been a bit more of an essay than I anticipated, but to sum it up I would say try and keep yours, at least for now and see if you can make it work for your height like I am. I would have lost loads of money on mine for absolutely no reason other than others are willing to sell theirs for far less.