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From what I have read, a bike doesn't seem too practical for your situation. If I was a college student on a budget, I'd sell that Monte Carlo and get a smaller car to deliver pizza and drive those 5+ hour drives.

In Washington, the riding season can't be much more than 6months. During the winter, do you really want to be making payments on a bike you can't even use while trying to make ends meet? I sure wouldn't.

Good-luck with whatever you decide.

No I know my budget limits fully. That is why I am looking for something that falls under one of the nice promotions that are (and I assume regularly pop up) taking place. And since I also enjoy working I will be working through college so I am not worried about that either.

I know I need gear, I am mostly concerned about helmet obviously lol, other gear I am not sure how into I am. I know a lot of people reccomend against riding without the protective gear but especially at first I am not concerned because I will be taking it so slow. Secondly I will have some more money to purchase gear that I am not including in my available finances.

Maybe it's better to put it this way, I will have money, I just don't want to spend it on the bike at first, I would rather end up spending the extra (probably at most if I can get one of these professions) 1,000 in financing to have the ability to sit on all my money, and easily make payments. Does that make sense? Rather than put a huge down deposit and have easy as heck payments, id rather have larger payments but in turn have the money in the bank to make them.

Somewhere I think I mentioned I won't be buying a bike under any plan until/if/when I have at minimum a full years worth of payments in the bank.

Selling the monte carlo isn't an option, A) Its brand new to me, B) I don't want to, which ties into it was a *very* generous gift from my parents and grandparents for getting my Eagle Scout and for graduation (and my grandma claims since my moms grandma bought her a car in college its a tradition, hopefully I go grandchildless lol). So it wouldn't be fair or nice of me to sell it. And also the car will have nice financial value out of college when I am looking at things like mortgages potentially (as collateral), which one of my major concerns is finances after college (more so having a good history than the actual income of money).

As for the 6month riding season, baloney lol. For one I am a friend of the cold so a little chilly wont scare me off. In fact potentially (though not so much in Spokane) there will only be a better riding season because the winter means mostly a little chilly and the sporadic rain, rarely does it mean snow, hail, or other conditions I would consider more halting on the riding season.

To summarize the finances issue, basically I am concerned about getting financing, not on having the available finances. I may know more in a couple weeks too as I am hoping to procure a job before every other college student is looking for one. It shouldn't be too difficult, I have a good construction (concrete to be specific) background that should be rare in 18 year old freshmen hehe. And I still havent found out if my employer has operations in Spokane in which case I would have an extremly good chance of an easy transfer.

You sound like a very painful accident waiting to happen. I'm washing my hands of the situation.

i think you sound like you are actually doing things right and have a good idea whats going on.

my suggestions would be though seriously dont get your hopes up on financing a bike and getting a good deal. those ads you see all the time offering those low payments and super low rates most likely wont apply to you. a younger guy with a low paying job isnt going to get the best finance options, you mentiond your credit card is only 600 bucks. if you do finance and get a higher rate through a lesser known company you can face some serious finance issues. you mention wanting to pay it off faster, alot of these loans will have a pay off penelty which costs a fortune(they want you to pay the interest that would incur through the full term). also its not effective to make big payments one month, lets say you get a 100$ payment setup. one month you have an extra 300$ laying around so you want to make a 400$ payment. bad idea, its better to put that money in a bank account and do the payoff when you can afford it.

you may be lucky or in a good situation to get a good finance deal but just dont get your hopes set on that and be ready to walk away if you dont get a good offer. whatever you do though get the GAP coverage, either through your bank(mine offers it) or at the dealer, it might be a few hundred bucks but it IS worth it trust me, my gap insurance saved me about 8 grand(and cost me 50$ to buy it).

as for your gear, Really with the mind set 'ill be taking it slow, i dont need full gear Yet' isnt the best. your learning so chances are higher youll make a mistake and have a fall. thats why i would really say buy full gear and have it now and it will last you. buying it piece at a time isnt the best way, if anything buy cheap(ebay.com) gear and slowly replace it with the good stuff as you go.

I'll look more into the gear, one thing was I read leather needs to be a perfect fit or can do more harm than good, though I didn't think about non-leather options. Because of my size (and determination to lose it) I don't want to spend a ton of money on something that will hopefully not fit soon after.

I'll look more into that though.

I went by the local shop and he said my best bet is at a finance-specific office, he said even with good credit I just don't have enough that most shops or banks are going to give me a loan that size.

However, that being said he wasn't a very enthusiastic guy and clearly wasn't too interested, I would imagine some shops would at least sit down and crunch some numbers and say well we have this bike we could do a financing on, it isnt as new as you were hoping for or whatever they worked out, it just seems it would work that way. Especially when (if the payments were in the 100-150 range) I would be offering my car up as collaterall, it isn't like they have so much to lose when there is a 30k dollar car on the line.

My parents are still pretty against it, at least though they are willing to discuss it now. I told my mom basically, look I'm 18 at college I can go buy one without you even knowing, and/or you can keep just saying no anytime I mention it, OR you can accept the fact I'm legally an adult and actually discuss things with me.

As it turns out my mom's fear (big suprise to me actually) isn't the safety factor, she just thinks it's financially a stupid thing. Of course her tune may change to safety if I find a good used bike I can easily afford. Only time will tell.

If anyone knows something similar to the BMW R1100s let me know, while I havent sit on anything yet it looks like it would suit me well. As far as being more of a standard looking position rather than the tight crunched sportbike, but manages to look more like a sport bike (I really can't stand the "standard" look, I would rather go cruiser or sportbike than the "standard" mix).

Not sure how long they have made that, but maybe I can find a used one from early 2000's. I know it has more power than I will need but one advantage is BMW dealerships are going to be able to work more when it comes to financing (and be more interested in a car as collaterall) than little "mom-and-pop" type shops that are in large numbers here.

My Dad talked to my brother and he told my dad I was out buying a motorcycle so my dad is in on it all now. I guess I will bring up the idea of him teaching me how to ride tonight, see how it goes hehe. I wasn't going to bring it up until I knew more but looks like that chance is gone lol.

However, if my mom truley is more concerned about the financial aspect, my dad probably is in the same boat, my mom would certainly be the first one to worry about safety concerns. My dad seems to actually be capable of acknowledging he was a teenager once upon a time lol.

Somewhere I think I mentioned I won't be buying a bike under any plan until/if/when I have at minimum a full years worth of payments in the bank.

I guess I made too many assumptions in my previuous post. When I was in college (about 6 years ago) we didn't drive $30,000 cars or finance brand new motorcycles.

I would seriously consider proper safety gear and insurance, as others have suggested. Riding without is irresponsible, IMO.

Listen to your parents. Believe it or not, they are smarter than you and have more life experience than you.

Good-luck!

Joe Mc wrote:

Somewhere I think I mentioned I won't be buying a bike under any plan until/if/when I have at minimum a full years worth of payments in the bank.

I guess I made too many assumptions in my previuous post. When I was in college (about 6 years ago) we didn't drive $30,000 cars or finance brand new motorcycles.

I would seriously consider proper safety gear and insurance, as others have suggested. Riding without is irresponsible, IMO.

Listen to your parents. Believe it or not, they are smarter than you and have more life experience than you.

Good-luck!

Hehe I come from a disturbingly well off area, I am in the minorty not getting a nice car until I graduated (and it was used, its worth around 20k, but in 2003 was a 30k car hehe).

What about the Harley range of Buell bikes? I haven't seen them mentioned too much, one advantage I saw when browsing quickly is the local Harley shop says they will finance the entire package (gear and whatnot) which would be helpful, again doubtful I could get financing but worth the 5 minute drive to be sure. And they also seem to have a good sporty appearance but more of an upright style.

I am browsing the finds off CycleTrader.com in my area for used ones, I got about a dozen to look into that are in a better price range.

This is probably the most promising used sportbike I have found so far for local.

1996 Honda VFR 750. It also has that BMW dealership financing advantage (if you missed it earlier I am guessing they can work better with me on financing as well as be more interested in my car as collaterall).

10k miles, just over 5k.

Edit: From what I am finding online it looks like it may be overpriced, though with dealer markup that is probably to be expected (should be able to get it down a bit or throw some gear in kind of thing maybe).

Just to add to some of the things people have mentioned so far. Get insurance. Besides the fact that you do need insurance to get a financed bike (even in Washington state, think of it as buying a car, you can't leave the lot until you can prove you have insurance for it), you can say you're going to be the most careful rider there ever was, but you cannot control others. You can never 100% guarantee that you can predict what everyone else on the road is going to do. Remember, when riding, most people don't even see all the motorcycles around them when they're driving. Next, gear. Get the safest gear you can afford. For all the reasons regarding safety mentioned above. Can you really put a price on the value of your head and skin?

As for the northwest only having a 6 month riding season, I agree, thats not true, however, take it from a native Seattlelite that went to school in Pullman, it does snow over there. And when its not snowing in the winter, its icy as all get out. Very, Very Cold. More good reasons to get insurance and good gear. And just because it rains doesn't mean we don't ride in it, you just have to be more careful, and again, have the right gear.

And just an FYI, you'd be surprised how many college students will have bikes. You have the right idea, get over there early to get a job. You'll also be surprised at how many students do that also. You may think you're getting a head start on getting a job, only to find out there are not as many jobs as you may think. Although that may not be as much the case in Spokane since its many times larger than Pullman.

As for the bike, I would agree with some of the other posts, don't get anything larger than a 750 or 800cc. Even with your size, an 1100 will just be too much bike to start with. I'm looking for my first bike myself and am this is the maximum size I would even consider. I'm looking at used Suzuki Volusia's and Honda Shadow's. Both cruisers that new riders can be somewhat comfortable riding for a while.

All that being said, it sounds like you do have a plan and are trying to be as smart as possible. I understand wanting to get something that bad, even if its not the most financially responsible thing to do, just try not to get in over your head. That can happen very quickly.

Oh, and take the MSF course. It does help with your insurance (which may be somewhat higher to begin with considering your age) and as long as you pass it, you don't have to take the DOL test.

Happy shopping!

Well just to update some changes to my *plan*. I am definately looking used, this may mean a 2004 some guy ended up not being able to pay for, but unless I get sold on some perfect bike and financing works out for some weird reason easily on a new bike... lets just say I'm looking used lol.

I will use some protective gear (which I planned on, just wasn't going to go blow $500 on some leather jacket). As someone pointed out via PM if I plan on losing weight my best bet may be finding cheap heavily used gear I can use until I get to a more "final" resting place.

I am going to look more into the possibility of a used dual-purpose bike. While it may not be optimal for a 5+ hour commute to school, it will let me get some good experience and maybe give me a chance to decide if I want to go cruiser or sportbike, and also confirm the feeling I don't want offroad.

I am however going to pursue the bike in the link above. From what I have seen it is a rare find of a local big-time dealership, and my assumption, and soon to be confirmed/wronged idea is a major BMW dealer will be not only able to work more with me on financing, but also be more interested when I offer my car as collateral. I would imagine with so much more money at their disposal, and also repot'ing (I would bet) being a daily task they aren't as weary to enter a "risky" contract as these local smaller motorcycle shops.

I also didn't bring the teaching me to ride idea by my dad, the dog peed on the carpet so he wasn't in a good mood lol.

The bike above (the URL is sparse in details) has a 748 4-stroke, and 100hp @ 10,000 RPMS. A little more power than reccomended as a starter bike, but also should be enough to keep me happy through my financialy sparse college days. Also at 460 pounds it seems heavier than the average reccomended starting bike (so is what I am assuming is that 100hp doesnt go as far as it would on a lighter bike, which I think is safe to assume lol).

So that about does it for me.

In response to the last reply, I am not too worried about a job. I have a friend at a college a few blocks away and says jobs are easy to come by, and I cant remember if I mentioned this or not but hopefully I wont be competing against many 18 year olds with over a years concrete/aggregate experience (and thats where I will look for jobs first).