[DandyDoug]

I would like to take a moment and comment on my experience as a life long motorcyclist and one time Burgman owner. For many reasons I have decided to hang up my helmet and move on to other endeavors.

1. Maxi scooters are a great thing and the Burgman is at the top of the list for reliability and fun. The Maxi community is growing world wide, just very slowly in the USA.

2. For prospective buyers, forget about anything you read or have ever heard concerning the reliability of the CVT, it's BS period ,they are no less reliable than an anvil.

3. When you decide a maxi is for you, do not be afraid to buy a used one , especially if it has a good service history. Mileage on most is minimal and not really a factor.

4. Be advised ; if you decide you are only comfortable buying a new one vs a good used one, the residual value of the Burgman is right in there with old FIAT's, YUGO's, Renault's, and various other mill stones that will hang around your neck. So be sure you really want/need/lust for a Burgman before you plunk down the cash.:drunken:

5. Not much cash is required to buy one, either new or used ,
I bought a 2012 rode it for 5300 miles and took a flogging when i sold it this week ain10:
I believe the residual value of the new one is the lowest of all the motorcycles i have ever owned , and i have owned a bunch in almost 50 years of riding.

 

[Desert Rat]

You might have given up riding but you have passed on some great insight with this post. Hope it wouldn't be your last one. :salute:

 

[ChipDoc]

I'm a commuter and I ride the snot out of anything I own. The day I purchase another bike is the day I've already accepted that it'll have a resale value of essentially zero.

 

[DandyDoug]

Personally I never looked at any motorcycle or car purchase as an investment, They are toy's after all is said and done at least in this country. But to take a 3k hit in 13 months is a bit over the top IMHO.
I understand i did not need , or have to sell it at this time, but the spring selling market looked even worse so i took the hit. Rather than more of a loss later on.

I have owned everything from high end BMW, Harley, and Honda motorcycles , plus some really collectable British bikes,to Jaguar and Porsche cars .
But honestly I was stunned with the Burgmans poor residual value.

Not sure if it's a Suzuki problem in the market , or just the market in general.

 

[ChipDoc]

It's all a matter of public fickleness. But I'm surprised that you figured the spring market would be worse than the fall one. It's generally the other way around. What made you think it would change this year?

 

[osbornk]

Personally I never looked at any motorcycle or car purchase as an investment, They are toy's after all is said and done at least in this country. But to take a 3k hit in 13 months is a bit over the top IMHO.
I understand i did not need , or have to sell it at this time, but the spring selling market looked even worse so i took the hit. Rather than more of a loss later on.

I have owned everything from high end BMW, Harley, and Honda motorcycles , plus some really collectable British bikes,to Jaguar and Porsche cars .
But honestly I was stunned with the Burgmans poor residual value.

Not sure if it's a Suzuki problem in the market , or just the market in general.

I think it's the market. I bought my Burgman at a very good price but I recently bought a V-Star at an even better price. I also sold 2 BMWs at a good price for the buyers.

 

[Chappy]

I bought my k7 400 for 3k at a dealership, they wanted close to 4k and could see their desperate twitch to see it gone .... it only had 5000 miles. I'm gonna ride her 10 years up to a 100k and then sale her for 500 lol

They couldn't get it gone quick enough, I could see them laughing under their smiles... I agree it's like buying a trailer house , but I think cars are the same way!

I take a lot of dribble around here for riding a burgman, but I am slowly converting their thick skulls!!!

 

[itlives]

Personally, I don't mind the low resale value. I got my K8 400 with 9,400 miles on it for $2,000. I'm loving it!
I wouldn't buy a new vehicle, period. Let someone else get rid of the hiccups and then get it.

 

[TheReaper]

I think it's the market. I bought my Burgman at a very good price but I recently bought a V-Star at an even better price. I also sold 2 BMWs at a good price for the buyers.

Hey Doug , osbornk has it right , its not as much Burgman 650 as it's the market in general . I've said it more than once on this forum , that this is the worst sellers market I've ever seen in my 50 plus years of riding . That said the 650 Burgman does have a reputation for catastrophic failures which scares a lot of people off .

It used to take 2 years to get a Harley , now it takes 2 years to sell one . I've seen bikes of every kind on Craigslist get relisted over and over again , with people eventually almost begging for even a low ball offer . I LMAO some times when I see an over priced bike listed with this famous sentence "NO LOW BALL OFFERS" , I always think to myself "this guy will be begging for ANY offer in 6 to 12 months .

Believe it or not the above is the good news , the bad news is yet to come . I owned a fairly large company with over 300 employees and 38 locations . I have a very strong back ground in economics and demography , strong enough to get me totally sold out well before the crash in 2008 . What the vast majority of people don't know is the worst is yet to come .

TheReaper!

 

[Chérie]

Hey Doug , osbornk has it right , its not as much Burgman 650 as it's the market in general . I've said it more than once on this forum , that this is the worst sellers market I've ever seen in my 50 plus years of riding . That said the 650 Burgman does have a reputation for catastrophic failures which scares a lot of people off .

It used to take 2 years to get a Harley , now it takes 2 years to sell one . I've seen bikes of every kind on Craigslist get relisted over and over again , with people eventually almost begging for even a low ball offer . I LMAO some times when I see an over priced bike listed with this famous sentence "NO LOW BALL OFFERS" , I always think to myself "this guy will be begging for ANY offer in 6 to 12 months .

Believe it or not the above is the good news , the bad news is yet to come . I owned a fairly large company with over 300 employees and 38 locations . I have a very strong back ground in economics and demography , strong enough to get me totally sold out well before the crash in 2008 . What the vast majority of people don't know is the worst is yet to come .

TheReaper!

It law of supply and demand, here use 650 burgie rare animal, private seller and dealer asking crazy price and they sell them for very good dollars because they are so few use unit available.

 

[osbornk]

It law of supply and demand, here use 650 burgie rare animal, private seller and dealer asking crazy price and they sell them for very good dollars because they are so few use unit available.

It is a supply and demand situation here. Where I live, there are not a lot of Burgmans of any kind. However, the demand is low because the supply of funds to pay for them is low. We kinda have a double whammy in my local area. Our changing healthcare situation makes people afraid to spend money on anything but necessities. They don't know what health insurance will cost, whether or not they can afford it and if it will impact whether they have a job or if their work hours will be cut. Also, recent and upcoming EPA regulations have cut job and potential jobs in the nearby coal fields. TVA just announced they are closing 8 coal power plants. That is a lot of lost jobs.

The uncertainty of people's financial situation has depressed the market for almost all recreational products including motor bikes, RVs, boats, etc. One market that has not been impacted is firearms. People fear the government will restrict the right and ability to own them so they are stocking up while they still can.

 

[Chappy]

Well said reaper!!!! As a Brit, i have found that the scooter is not taken seriously in the USA ... The motorcycle is still a recreational vehicle for a big amount of people, most Harley-Davidson riders are not hard-core riders they are club riders ,sunny day riders like RV club ownership etc ....

If you're going to be a flash rider with flashy pipes you're not going to Buy a scooter! That being said, in European countries as in Britain, the scooter is and maybe the only transport, no car!!!!

I know before I bought the burgman that the resale value is low, but I wanted to be scooteresque because I know how great they are, but we're not going to convince the majority of American big bike riders of that , they're still laughing at me but @60 mpg, I'm the one that's laughing! Lol

Around here I have had so many people ask at a fuel station: what kind of bike is that???
How much MPG? They're jaw drops when I say 60... Then they tell me how lovely looking bike is.
Lack of marketing is a big problem for the scooter world here. The big bike manufactures don't want the little boys get ahead and put their 30 mpg hogs into history!

This is the time to be buying scooters people, not Range Rover Chevy suburban and Dodge pickup truck, you can't afford what you already have so Scooter might be the answer to your economical hardship.. You'll be surprised how many make $10 an hr and drive SUV at 15mpg.. I ride mine 100 miles per day down to 45 degrees. They think I'm a strange duck! (Smile)

 

[davidmiller]

Motorcycles or scooters are not cheap per mile to operate. My Burgman 650 costs me about 13 cents per mile just for tires!!! You ride because you enjoy riding, not because the maxi scooter is cheaper to operate than a car. If you think otherwise you are just kidding yourself. Like the op said, there are many good used scooters out there. I paid $5600 for a two year old Burgman 650 with 1000 miles on the OD. This bike still had 2 years remaining on the $900 extended warranty.
respectfully,
David Miller

 

[osbornk]

Motorcycles or scooters are not cheap per mile to operate. My Burgman 650 costs me about 13 cents per mile just for tires!!! You ride because you enjoy riding, not because the maxi scooter is cheaper to operate than a car. If you think otherwise you are just kidding yourself. Like the op said, there are many good used scooters out there. I paid $5600 for a two year old Burgman 650 with 1000 miles on the OD. This bike still had 2 years remaining on the $900 extended warranty.
respectfully,
David Miller

I've had a lot of people over the years ask me about saving gas riding on two wheels. I tell them you can save gas but your won't save money.

 

[bikersmurff]

the days of buying a motorcycle to save money are long gone some hybrid cars get better fuel consumption than motorbikes. I started riding in 1977 the same time I started my apprenticeship with Kawasaki race team as a mechanic, and my bike was my only transport for some years(it was a Honda though and they would not let me park it on the premises lol) and being on apprentices wages it was all I could afford, that was the way in those years .Now retired I can afford the toys I used to lust after when young, so I don't care about fuel consumption ,if I want the toys and big v8 then I just live with it ,Remember you cant take it with you,, so I will grab all I can get now.. generation Y can pay for it later

 

[Liamjs]

People think MCs and scooters are just two wheeled cars, so they must be half the cost to operate. They don't factor in tires that last 1/5 as long, cvt belts that need replacement, jackets, gloves and all sorts of paraphernalia, higher maintenance costs. Etc.

But hey, the cagers supply bikers with a good deal of used bikes when they figure all that out. So I'm for letting the low-cost myth perpetuate.

 

[ChipDoc]

Another thing nobody seems to be factoring in is insurance. The insurance on my pickup for a six month period is three times the same insurance on my Burg costs for a whole year. What's more, as a Florida resident I'm not actually required to have the bike insured, but if I let the auto insurance lapse, the state will suspend my license.

 

[bigfoot]

I've never bought a toy with a high expectation of resale value.

I put 38,000 miles on my 2007 Burgman 650 Executive over 3 years and then traded it ($3,800) on a Victory Vision which has accumulated 61,500 miles over 3 years.
The 2011 Vision listed for $24,000 and I was given an unsolicited offered of $10,000 trade-in on a new Vision.
$14,000 drop in value over 3 years.
I have no intentions of selling the Vision as I feel I can easily get another 40-50 thousand miles out of it and Alaska still beckons.

I can easily see myself returning to the Burgman 650 in the future, and it will be a new one.

 

[Liamjs]

One more cost item to factor in is that new bikes generally do cost half that of a new car, but they last, generally, half as long. What 100k maybe? Many cars will go to 200k now-a-days. So bikes really do cost as much as a car, mileage wise.

True, you can buy a used bike, but you can buy used cars as well, and I bet the economic would be about the same.