Is motorcycling allowed?

[Spokey]

So…..I have asked here before but……..things change. I recently sold my Tiger 800 XCx and Aprilia RS125. Reasonable money achieved. I was looking at a few bikes but my brain  has been scrambled!!

initial choice was 1998 Yamaha TRX 850 then a BMW RacerRnineT, 2019 then a Ducati 2016Monster 1200R. And along came a 2008 Aprilia RSV1000R Factory……..eeiiishhhhh. All fit my collection of twins but arguably the Aprilia fits better alongside the Ducati 1098, 749, Suzuki TL1000S and KTM RC8.

cost wise……Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, Ducati. That little Yamaha really is beautiful!

please give me er 5 cents worth!

 

Edited 18 hours ago by Spokey

[WaynejG]

The Yamaha followed by the monster

[IceCreamMan]

56 minutes ago, Spokey said:

So…..I have asked here before but……..things change. I recently sold my Tiger 800 XCx and Aprilia RS125. Reasonable money achieved. I was looking at a few bikes but my brain  has been scrambled!!

initial choice was 1998 Yamaha TRX 850 then a BMW RacerRnineT, 2019 then a Ducati 2016Monster 1200R. And along came a 2008 Aprilia RSV1000R Factory……..eeiiishhhhh. All fit my collection of twins but arguably the Aprilia fits better alongside the Ducati 1098, 749, Suzuki TL1000S and KTM RC8.

cost wise……Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, Ducati. That little Yamaha really is beautiful!

please give me er 5 cents worth!

 

All beautiful, all fantastic. Tough choice. 

me, I would go for the BMW or Ducati. BMW cos of the tech and robust motor, monster cos monsters are just plain fun. 
 

but.all 4 would be great additions. 
 

 

[Spokey]

9 hours ago, WaynejG said:

The Yamaha followed by the monster

I am thinking on those lines. I like the look of the TRX. Nice little bike for considerably less than the others.

[WaynejG]

Nice little review at the end of the spec sheet

https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/yamaha/yamaha_trx850.htm

[RocknRolla]

Aprilia, and then the monster.

The bee-em is nice, but it's very uncomfortable for any amount of time.

The TRX, probably more collectable than the BM and the Ducati.

[Hairy]

Aprilia 1st, 2nd and 3rd

[Hairy]

On 5/3/2026 at 3:25 PM, Hairy said:

As far as I see it, with Donald working on the bike I have caught "a break" ... if he finds the gremlins and sorts them out I am happy. Even though I am not thrilled with the delays, at least I know the bike is going to be reliable, or so I am hoping.

Will give her a few short rides around the area before venturing too far from home to test things out, even thinking on holding with buying new tyres too in order to see if she is going to run properly, though I will prob. get a set of new D606's on the day of collection, and just play it safe.

 

Today is day no. 300 that my bike has been in a workshop.

By all accounts, unless there is another mishap along the way, I would hope to get her back on 303 Wed, 304 Thurs or 305 Friday ....

Jokes on me .... Donald is down with bronchitis

So that race number is going to be going up a bit.  

[Andymann]

16 hours ago, Spokey said:

So…..I have asked here before but……..things change. I recently sold my Tiger 800 XCx and Aprilia RS125. Reasonable money achieved. I was looking at a few bikes but my brain  has been scrambled!!

initial choice was 1998 Yamaha TRX 850 then a BMW RacerRnineT, 2019 then a Ducati 2016Monster 1200R. And along came a 2008 Aprilia RSV1000R Factory……..eeiiishhhhh. All fit my collection of twins but arguably the Aprilia fits better alongside the Ducati 1098, 749, Suzuki TL1000S and KTM RC8.

cost wise……Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, Ducati. That little Yamaha really is beautiful!

please give me er 5 cents worth!

 

I can only comment on the TRX seeing as I own one myself.

It's a great bike, nice and light and handles really well.  Fast it isn't - and below 3000rpm they do have a classic V-Twin type vibration which I guess is what they tried to mimic with the cross-plane crank.  But around town it can be a bit tiresome because that's the zone you ride in.

Above 3000rpm it's lovely and smooth and pulls nicely up to about 180kph which is where I chicken out.  But it definitely doesn't give you a kick up the arse - I remember I always wanted one when I worked at Yamaha but they would never let me ride the sample one because I couldn't be seen "promoting" it because we didn't bring them in.  But when I did I was pretty disappointed having come off R6's and R1's.  I think that's why it didn't sell well.  But when I finally got mine in my 40's I then could appreciate the concept of what they were trying to achieve.

I looked at that CT one - it's a nice example but I think R70k is too much.  Remember, they aren't particularly rare - there's a bunch in the UK and in Aus - they are just unusual in SA because there aren't many of them.  Good ones in the UK are GBP4000 and having recently sent a Velocette over and losing 35% to Duties and transport etc that GBP4000 becomes GBP2600 which is about R60K.  It's been available for a while now - so you might even get it for R55k.....

Personally, I think the Aprilia would be a better investment - there would be a bigger market to sell an Aprilia to in SA than the TRX if you ever needed to sell for cash.

But if you wanted something unusual for not a lot of money then get the TRX!