Financing or Paying Cash for a Bike

[SWriverstone]

This poll was prompted by the thread called U.S. Bike Sales down 50% since 2005.

Just curious to see how STNers have paid for their bikes...

Scott

EDIT: Dangit...I meant to allow people to choose more than one option (so you could also pick one of the last few options). Oh well. Just pick the one that best matches you!

[gradus]

For my current bike, I floated the purchase price for a few weeks and then paid in full within <30 days.  So I voted 100% cash.  

I typically don't hold cash, but instead aggressively contribute to my mortgage and retirement.  Unused home equitly lines are available for large purchases.  With a car fully paid and no credit card debt, the equity line balance goes back to zero pretty quickly.  

[kevin_stevens]

I financed $5k worth so I'd have a recurring payment to boost my credit rating.  Also paid for part with a previous bike.

KeS

[garry]

Technically I paid cash for the KTM, but then filled in part of the hole in my savings by selling the Wee Strom and Ninja bikes over the next 6 months.

[cultureslayer]

What if the bike was less than $1k?  

[SilverHound]

Technically I paid cash but also financed and sold two other bikes.

I paid half in cash but took advantage of Yamaha's 0% financing for six months for the other half however I paid that off before the end of the six months.

Then after I bought the new bike I sold two others and replentished my bike fund.

At this point in my life I do not intend to ever have another bike or car payment.

[Mr.Black]

HAD TO RIDE!!!!!!!

Financed. Payed off with a 401K loan within the first 2 years.

Now I am paying myself back. (I don't care to hear any of your opinions on this)

[photomd]

I've paid from $325-$6500 for all my bikes. All paid in cash. I'm with Mr Black. There were times when sacrifices were made to get a bike: Had to ride.  

[SWriverstone]

I've always suspected that sport-tourers are predominantly upper-middle and upper-class folks. This poll seems to confirm that! I only say this because I'm amazed at the number of people (10!) who paid cash for bikes costing $10K or more.

Lectures on the importance of saving aside...I know very few people who have $10K (or more) in cash just sitting around. In fact, with savings rates at an all-time low these days, I'd say it's only upper-middle and upper-class people who have that much (or more) in savings...but I could be wrong—and I'm sure someone will pipe up saying "I make $20K/year and live in an efficiency apartment, but I have $50K in savings!"  

It would be impossible for me to save that much cash. No way. Yes, we pretty much live paycheck-to-paycheck...and if something bad ever happened, we have decent credit and insurance to fall back on—that's it. It may not be "smart," but it's reality for us.

You've either got to make damn good money or be frugal for decades to maintain a middle-class-or-better standard of living and still have enough leftover to sock away thousands in savings. Not saying it can't be done, but it's not easy.

Scott

EDIT: I was just thinking...I financed my Wee-Strom 5 years ago and paid it off. Could I have saved my $180/month payments for five years instead? Sure...but I wasn't gonna wait 5 years to buy the bike!

[Cablebandit]

You would have only had to wait 3 years....two years worth of those payments were interest.  

[jay547]

I've always suspected that sport-tourers are predominantly upper-middle and upper-class folks. This poll seems to confirm that! I only say this because I'm amazed at the number of people (10!) who paid cash for bikes costing $10K or more.

Lectures on the importance of saving aside...I know very few people who have $10K (or more) in cash just sitting around. In fact, with savings rates at an all-time low these days, I'd say it's only upper-middle and upper-class people who have that much (or more) in savings...but I could be wrong—and I'm sure someone will pipe up saying "I make $20K/year and live in an efficiency apartment, but I have $50K in savings!"  

It would be impossible for me to save that much cash. No way. Yes, we pretty much live paycheck-to-paycheck...and if something bad ever happened, we have decent credit and insurance to fall back on—that's it. It may not be "smart," but it's reality for us.

You've either got to make damn good money or be frugal for decades to maintain a middle-class-or-better standard of living and still have enough leftover to sock away thousands in savings. Not saying it can't be done, but it's not easy.

Scott

EDIT: I was just thinking...I financed my Wee-Strom 5 years ago and paid it off. Could I have saved my $180/month payments for five years instead? Sure...but I wasn't gonna wait 5 years to buy the bike!

i could've written this, except my name's not scott. i also suspect that some of these posters are being a little less than honest.

[SWriverstone]

You would have only had to wait 3 years....two years worth of those payments were interest.  

Yeah, I thought of that too.   But that's still 3 years too long to wait!  

Scott

PS - If I buy a C14 anytime soon, it's definitely gonna be financed—100%!

[black hills]

I paid $5500 for my '09 KTM300, and borrow $3500 from the credit union. A wealthy relative told me you are a fool to pay cash for a car or bike. You can usaully finace them below 10% and your money will make more than 10% in most decent investments?? I simple finance because I don't have the money to begin with

[SWriverstone]

See...that's the (in my opinion) messed-up thing about this country: if you already have a huge pile of cash...there are LOTS of ways to turn that whopping pile of cash into an even BIGGER pile of cash—without having to lift a finger!

Seriously—the existence of an entire industry dedicated exclusively to making money without actually doing any work is absurd. I admit that may sound prehistoric...(and I'm pretty progressive when it comes to most things)...but I guess I still believe in the antiquated notion that you actually have to WORK to earn every penny you make!  

But in the good ol' US of A, the more you make, the less you work! Logical, right!

Scott

[black hills]

See...that's the (in my opinion) messed-up thing about this country: if you already have a huge pile of cash...there are LOTS of ways to turn that whopping pile of cash into an even BIGGER pile of cash—without having to lift a finger!

Seriously—the existence of an entire industry dedicated exclusively to making money without actually doing any work is absurd. I admit that may sound prehistoric...(and I'm pretty progressive when it comes to most things)...but I guess I still believe in the antiquated notion that you actually have to WORK to earn every penny you make!  

But in the good ol' US of A, the more you make, the less you work! Logical, right!

Scott

My former boss, now retired, used to tell me he made far more on his investments every year than what his salary was. I'll be happy when I get to that point.

[McHack]

See...that's the (in my opinion) messed-up thing about this country: if you already have a huge pile of cash...there are LOTS of ways to turn that whopping pile of cash into an even BIGGER pile of cash—without having to lift a finger!

Oh I dunno...     if one has a big pile of cash,  they've certainly shown they know how to handle money & therefore,  are more likely to handle the debt appropriately.

[Tejasbusa]

i could've written this, except my name's not scott. i also suspect that some of these posters are being a little less than honest.

I don't consider myself upper middle class, or even close to the middle of middle class.  I got out of motorcycles in the late 70's because my ex said sell the bike because she had spent the money.  So I HAD to sell the bike and then got rid of her (but that is another story which we don't need to go into here)  Fast forward to 2002 after finding a great girl and raising 6 kids. (none the ex's)  She let me save my lunch money and scrimped until I had the money.  After getting all the debts my ex helped run up paid off and getting settled into our home I was able to buy my Busa outright.  The last new car we had was back in 1985 when we bought a new pickup.  Since then it has been good used keeping them till at least 175,000 on the clock.  We have NEVER had cable or dish TV.  Our TV that we had up till four years ago was one which I bought before we got married, so it was about 23 years old.  (see a trend developing?)  All of the bikes in the garage now are paid for and were when I drove them off the lot.  It is possible to do, you just have to have your priorities where loans are of the devil.  Now we have a pretty fair nest egg to work with and it is growing nicely since the house is paid for and the kids are finally getting their own addresses.  

Now if I could just get my wife to ride further than to the monthly Ride To Eat meeting it would be nice, but she lets me ride and she also was the one who suggested to buy some guns (I was also stupid and sold them all because of the ex) so all is not lost.

Am I suggesting that everyone should wait 20 plus years to get back into riding, NO, what I am saying is you can have consumable items without going into debt.  During the last 28 years we have done what some of the above posters have done, used other people's money to purchase something for "6 months same as cash", etc, but we worked hard not to overextend ourselves so we did not have the worry of payments.

[jay547]

I've always suspected that sport-tourers are predominantly upper-middle and upper-class folks. This poll seems to confirm that! I only say this because I'm amazed at the number of people (10!) who paid cash for bikes costing $10K or more.

that and i've always been amazed at the number of people here who take multi-week or multi-month long vacations to ride. i've never been able to take more than a week off except when i was unemployed, and then i couldn't go anywhere because of lack of money.

maybe we should do an income poll?

[MadOzodi]

I funded some of the purchase with a trade-in, paid cash for part of the remainder and then financed the rest.

Previous bike was paid for in cash.  Next bike will (hopefully) be paid for in cash.

[ANZAC]

HAD TO RIDE!!!!!!!

Financed. Payed off with a 401K loan within the first 2 years.

Now I am paying myself back. (I don't care to hear any of your opinions on this)

That's a good way to do it - the 401k loan is sweet