Buy New or Secondhand?

[DaveT7]

Is it better to buy a T7 secondhand?

 

There's still a bit of a waiting list for new bikes here in New Zealand and the price has gone up again recently, which got me into looking at used bikes.  Most of the bikes I found were only a couple of years old and some had very low milage on them. Almost all had a heap of accessories thrown at them.

 

The one I chose only had 3.8k on the clock and about $5,600NZD worth of accessories onboard. New T7s are a shade over $19k on the road here in NZ. Of all the extras on the bike, I might take the centre stand off and will absolutely have to replace the 90Nm spring. Otherwise, the rest of the adornments all make perfect sense to me. Some of them I just wouldn't have done because of the expense, but I am very pleased to have them on the bike as "included stuff". 

 

I guess where I am going with this is, if you are in the market for a T7, it might be worth considering secondhand. I'm pleased I did!

 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by DaveT7
spelling

[Windblown]

There are some bikes I will absolutely not buy 2nd hand. They tend to be bikes that are known problem children or maintenance whores. If either is the case then I want to get it new so I can ring the piss out of it while under warranty and personally know every detail about it's maintenance from the time it left the crate.

 

Luckily the T7 is not one of those types of bikes.

 

I bought 2021 with 700 miles on the ODO at the end of 2022 in a private sale.  With no meaningful changes I didn't see any reason to pay new bike price. 

[S.Ga.Rider]

I bought mine used with 2k miles on it. It has almost 19k miles now.

[TenereTragic700]

I would not be concerned buying a T7 2nd hand.  They are hard to kill.

Edited April 13, 2023 by TenereTragic700

[winddown]

If I was buying now I'd probably go second hand, perhaps?  The thing is I bought it as a keeper so I wouldn't want to pay for a lot of mods that I'd rather have alternatives for, or a bike that wasn't White!  I wanted a White one so it would stick out in the shadows, a safety thing.   I must have spent 6k extra on mine but the mods are some of the best, like the scotts damper with the second 'slow-speed circuit' that the other ones don't have.  The HP high pipe that tucks in under the rear guard.  Of course I didn't know about any of these until after I had bought so it pays to do your research before hand hey.  But a bare bones as new one, no worries.

 

It's no surprise that a lot of these are coming up for sale.  I have read accounts on other forums where riders mod them to death then move on to another bike so they can mod that to death.  If you read there posts it's obvious that these are often the highway riders, the coffee shop jockies, and on that note I suspect there are more than a few who bought this bike and began to realize that it's not as comfortable on the highway as many other adventure bikes.  It truly is an adventure bike, but not in the sense that many riders today view such bikes.  It has no cruse control or widescreen color display to entertain you on those long mornings traveling out for bacon and eggs.

 

I see hundreds of adventure bikes out here at my small country town, I pass them at the coffee shops as I ride up into the hills to have some fun.  And I can assure you very few of them ever get out on those gravel roads.  I'm always alone up there, thankfully.  There is nothing wrong with being a coffee shop addict, lots of good riders make a day of it that way, but you know what I'm talking about.

[Kiwi]

For me it would come down to the individual bike I was looking at.

 

Saving $5k on a bike with a few thousand on the clock that some accountant in Parnell bought so he could ride to his batch at Piha vrs one that had been owned by a 20 something Red Bull addict who couldnt keep up the finance.

 

I have never regretted buying a new Vehicle but man have I regretted buying a few used ones.

 

$19k for a basic Tenere isnt too bad. Could you bring one in from Aussie ?

[john_aero]

id happily buy second hand so long at condition is good (same for all bikes)

 

Reason I went new is there was a great deal on and very few used bikes around.

 

joys second hand is there will be few marks so wont be a worried about cosmetics and may have some useful extras added at no extra cost.

[Oxxa]

When buying second hand, you want to buy from someone who knows about bikes. They should have done the break in service in time, etc.

[Dougie]

I had been waiting for one to exist when I was looking for a twin cylinder engine to go into a 1vj. Wet myself when they showed the t7. Knew it was a keeper. As @winddown says, some people probably bought them for the wrong reasons and didn’t get on with it, so handed them back. Good news for others. I wouldn’t see a problem with secondhand, but the feeling of taking the new smelling bike from the dealers blows me away every time. They should bottle the bike dealership smell for women’s perfume. They’d smell awesome. 

[winddown]

18 minutes ago, Dougie said:

Wet myself when they showed the t7.

Well I didn't have quite that reaction   but I knew it was something special, and I hadn't even seen one in the flesh.   There is a good thread on the Africa Twin I visit every now and then, like the T7 threads it's just all smiles, it's a great bike.  Go to a ktm thread though and don't forget your anti-depessants.   I just don't understand why people put a brand name ahead of real-world practicalities like reliability

Edited April 13, 2023 by winddown

[S.Ga.Rider]

Right now in my area, you can buy a new one for what used ones are selling for.

[TwoBeers]

So what would be a reasonable price for a used 2021 model in the USA?   I know the demand is high and supply is still sketchy but some of the used prices are crazy.  

[Jesse]

I bought mine used I don't see any reason to buy a new one once the market has used ones available.  I have about 20,000 miles on mine now, there are a few used ones available in my area all are selling for a few thousand less than the current model year all have low miles. 

 

[Ray Ride4life]

I never bought a new motorcycle.
Don't know how it is elsewhere but here in the Netherlands the moment a bike is registert in your name the bike isn't new any more and loses about 15% of it's value before you even ridden it.
So best buy here is a low mileage bike.

[motonap]

I was in pretty much the same dilemma when I was looking at picking one up towards the end of last year in Auckland, New Zealand. It could have been 2-3 months of waiting before I got my hands on one. 

Looked around on classifieds & marketplace and found one that had 2.7km that was a Sept 2022 registered motorcycle. Turned out to fantastic deal with a fantastic price and a couple of accessories already installed!

 

Seems like in NZ there are T7's picked up with lots of enthusiasm and then a couple of months later, they go up on sale. So definitely worth exploring the 2nd hand route, will save you some money, that you can use to get all em add ons you want.

[NeilW]

Buying used and still in warranty is the way to go. 

[Dougie]

I suppose it’s all a matter of availability. In uk they’ve just dropped the price again for the new, unsold 2023 models. There’s good deals to be had and dealers are usually left with some they can’t shift for a while. It’s a bit sick when you guys overseas are struggling to find them. 

[CoreCass]

i have seen t7's with over 170 000 km on the clock.    dont know what thy did as maintenance but i can amuse its nothing to spectacular as thy were going trough africa.

winding weels    thy are called on youtube. 

 

and my own already 55 000.  id say 2e hand is just as good. if not better as most mods dont increase the value, even if we hope / wish it does.  it mostly means nothing!

so low milage as the bike is reliable. and add in bonus the mods of the bike you can get.