The Best *Used* Cruiser Motorcycles For UNDER $2500!
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Check out this video where we dive into our top 5 picks for cruiser motorcycles in and around $2500! its an in-depth guide so strap in and enjoy!
Here is the link for the VN900C Vance & Hines Exhaust video: • FULL Vance & Hines Aft...
Thank you for this video!
#1 Yamaha XVS 650 Custom (avoid the 1100 model)
#2 Honda VTX 1300 C
#3 Kawasaki VN 900 Custom
#4 Yamaha Roadstar 1600
#5 Kawasaki VN 1500 Nomad
Thanks for the break down! imma pin your comment. that is super helpful for folks!
@@GuysGearsAndGrit I appreciate your work. Wish those were available here, especially the XVS.
Great video! I see early 2000s 650s everywhere in Ohio for under $2,500. They are the easiest bikes to convert to a bobber as well.
Noticed no Suzuki's or Honda Shadows. I also thought there was a Yamaha V-Star 950, that should be roughly in that range. For the money, the Vulcan 900 Custom is the one I recommend the most.
@@englejas they are great bikes to convert!
The Yamaha Roadstar is by far one of the best cruisers out there. I love mine. They will go 200k miles with basic maintenance. Plenty of power, good suspension, and can be built into exactly what you want.
They absolutely will go the length when you take good care of them! like you said basic maintenance will take them a long ways! How many miles do you have on yours?
@@GuysGearsAndGrit 60k on mine and been in the family 10 years now. Still runs with new bikes and gets compliments everywhere it goes.
@@blowinmoneygarage dang man that's solid, that's a lot of life left!! What a good bike to be handing down!
vulcan vn 1500 and vn 1600 and vn 1700 and vn 2000cc
I take it you like the Vulcan series lol. They are some good options!
I spent 2700 for my 1999 Shadow 1100, but it needed tires. Live and learn. I still own and ride it, so it's mechanically sound. I've jumped on the highway a few times, so I'm glad I have the extra power.
Hey, $2700 still isnt that bad, you can find them for under $2500 but it sounds like its been a good bike for you!
Kawasaki Vulcan VN800 1996-2006 👍👍
V-twin, single carb, 5spd, chain drive, 525 lbs, disc front, drum rear, looks & sounds great.
Thats a solid bike! we got the VN900 though, any reason you would choose the 800 over the 900?
If I had a choice for the same price, I'd get the 900 too, for it's EFI and rear disc and belt drive. But for the right price, the 800 shouldn't be overlooked. 👍
@@FnLn55Yeah I get that, you would probably be able to have an easier time finding some good deals for the 800 so makes sense!
Thanks for following up!
I’ve been riding for 50 years and I still love $2500 bikes. Bought one last month.
They are some great bikesunder that $2500 threshold, both reliable and good looking!
@@GuysGearsAndGrit yeah it sure seems like a buyers market out there right now to me😀
@@tommygriffith9594 Absolutely!
Curious, why you have a royal Star (V4) as the link click picture, but don't include it?
Great question, it really just came down to quality of the thumbnail (link click picture). We try our best to use as many of our own bikes/photos where we can as possible, while still being able to create the best thumbnail. The bike I used just happened to have the perfect photo for the thumbnail I had envisioned!
Any other photos with cruisers we had on hand didn't have great lighting, wasn't the right angle, or the bike itself had damage or missing parts!
Dunno how the shadow 750/1100 doesn't make this list.
A few people have mentioned that.
We tried to stick to 5 motorcycles, which would you have personally swapped out for it?
I have owned three of these bikes. I had the Yamaha XVS 650 v-star for a couple of years. It was a very good bike. I actually like the looks of the classic one better than the custom. The only problem with that bike is that to me it seemed a bit too low geared for the interstate. 5th gear is shorter than it should be and there is no 6th gear. Nevertheless, if you don't mind running at sorta high rpms on the highway then you won't have a problem with this bike. It will go 70 mph all day with no problem. At 80 it seems a little strained.
I also had the Kawasaki 1500 vulcan. It was a big bike, pretty heavy but once you get it moving it's fine. It was fantastic on the interstate and you could cruise at 90 mph all day with no problems in spite of the fact that the ones before the year 2000 were just a 4 speed. Only problem with this bike is that when you shift from 1st to 2nd the tranny will make a grinding noise unless you put a little pressure on the shifter before you pull in the clutch and shift. Also it gets bad gas mileage.
Finally I now have the Honda VTX 1300 spoked version. I have owned 13 bikes and of all of them it is by far the best. I have put over 100,000 miles on it and it did that many miles without any mechanical problems on the engine or transmission or clutch or shaft drive. Amazing. It's powerful, it's pretty fast, it handles pretty well for a cruiser and it sounds great and looks great. It isn't slow... I got it up to 113 mph gps. I still have no rust in my tank after 15 years but I didn't let the bike just sit. I ride it year round so the tank is fine. I did have to adjust the fuel/air screw on the carb because it was cold natured until I did that.
Dude, thanks so much for this comment and your synopsis! it sounds like the ones you pointed out are each reliable, but each have there things you need to get used to?
This is a great comment for anybody to read who came to this video to get some solid information. Thanks again!
#1: Kawasaki VN 750 Vulcan. Each contributor has but only so much experience and knowledge. I have been riding 49 and a half years, I have owned 10 to 12 bikes at a time for most of my adult life. I have bought and rode just over 50 bikes in the last 3 years. I currently own just over two dozen bikes. I compare bikes from different categories to what I still call the standard. It's hard to find a better example than the Honda CB750 series that ran in one iteration or another from 1969 to 2003. It is my impression that cruiser riders do not demand good handling. I live 20 minutes from Skyline Drive and I ride twisty two lane mountain roads to get there. By way of comparison, Cruisers compel me to slow down riding up and down mountain roads compared to my 2003 Honda CB750 Nighthawk. I won't bore you with a long list. Suffice it to say that I can relax and ride my Vulcan 750s like a standard. That does not include the Vulcan 1500, or Vulcan 800. I will confess to not riding the Vulcan 900. A corollary to this story is that the first gen Suzuki Intruder 800 is a surprisingly good handling cruiser, not the Intruder 1400s. No, Sportsters do not handle nearly as well, a Roadster is not bad, but then it's a standard, not a cruiser. Shadows need not apply. The VN 750 easily bumps off the Yamaha XVS 650, I have ridden both.
Some fair points! Thanks for the comment this would be a great comment for anybody viewing this video to read. I appreciate you!
Harley Davidson sportster.
Man, they are good, and classic looking, I just feel like the parts are cheaper and if you want to own a Harley you’ve gotta want to like working on your motorcycle.
They are good classic bikes! Just not sure if top 5 in the $2500 market
As long as you own an 883 or 1200 Evolution based Sporty you're golden. Never own an Ironhead, they're awful and only run right when they sound like they're falling apart. The 84-86 1100cc Sportys were awesome, but because they were only made for 3 years parts are beyond hard to find. There is such an aftermarket for the Sporty that parts are cheap and easy to find, they're easy to work on, and they have the straightest valve train for a Harley. But I will say this, if you have to have fuel injection, buy a Yamaha Bolt, they have an awesome aftermarket and you cam actually flash the ECU itself instead of a damn Power Comander that cuts signal to the ECU and sends a wrong pulse signal to your ECU for fuel and air ratio delivery.
@@lotuscorpse Great synopsis boss! thanks for sharing.
Honda shadow 750?
That’s also a worthy mention, we just feel like it doesn’t stack up as well as the 5 we mentioned. It is a pretty reliable bike, plenty of them out there, good starter bike.
There’s plenty of great bikes out there under $2500 but we were limiting ourselves to 5, and wanted to get a variety of displacements up there.
Do you think we left out any notable cruisers? comment them below!
VT1100... Shadow Spirit, and other Shadow versions.
@@gphilipc2031I can see that! Those are some pretty reliable motorcycles that are on the low end, great beginner bikes and cruisers.
I am a HUGE fan of my Triumph America cruiser. With six bikes in my collection when I want to grab a cruiser ... it is my America every time.
@@CreativeFocus365 Those are pretty sick! is that one you could find running under $2500?
@@GuysGearsAndGrit Yep, they are out there.
i had a vstar 1100 when i sold it it had 135,000kms on it...only replaced the starter at 102,000kms
just a testament to how reliable it is! thats awesome! what do you ride now?
I like the cruiser look but don't like the cruiser weights. I owned a 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 LTD. It weighed 438 pounds with 51 horsepower. It was just as quick as the 800 cc motorcycles of the time because it was 200 pounds lighter. It wasn't a comfortable ride. It was sold after a year with 8000 miles.
Even that 650 Yamaha weighed 550 pounds. Someday I want to try riding a cruiser in the 800-1600 cc range just to see if they are really more comfortable and worth the difficulty moving them around while parking.
I'm not a poser. My current only motorized vehicle is a 125 cc scooter. It will go 55 mph and weighs only 237 pounds. It is easy to move around. I can push it on grass or dirt with ease. Doing that with a huge motorcycle is very unlikely.
Yeah I get that! which 800-1600 cc range cruiser would you give a shot first?
@@GuysGearsAndGrit Probably a Suzuki C50 because their center of gravity is low and they have shaft drive.
@@MrMoneyHelper The boulevards are pretty sick, and its just over that 800 cc range that you are looking for so it could be a could starting point.
Any reason you wouldnt want to go for something like the VN900?
I understand. I had a Suzuki GD110 and a Yamaha YB125. Each was a LOT of fun to ride, because they were so light; they'd go anywhere.
@@Paul-in-Viet-Nam the lightweight makes them fun to throw around!
i guess you are not Suzuki fans i would take a c 50 over all your small bikes and c90 or c109 over all your big bikes Or the M versions i just like the look of the C versions more :-) but if the budget is a bit more the VN 1700 the yamaha 1900 and the vtx 1800 i would look at ;-)
Its not that we are not Suzuki fans, and we actually like the Suzuki M109r, the look is pretty sweet. We were just trying to limit our list to 5 bikes, which obviously when you are narrowing it down that much you are going to have to cut out some good options. We just felt for the budget, reliability, price of used parts, these were some of the best contenders. maybe we will find some Suzukis when we do a best cruisers under $5k, or $10k ;)
Wasn't able to learn,should've known
How do you mean?
@@GuysGearsAndGrit when to shift and downshift
@@Pault3788 ah gotcha, that can be tricky but it just takes practice :)
@@GuysGearsAndGrit after 2 years ?
@@Pault3788 do you have someone who is teaching you, or are you just doing self taught?
Click bait no rstd
Lmao, which bike would you swap out in its place?
what about the Kawasaki 454 LTD?
Yo! we skipped out on the Kawasaki 454 LTD because it was only made for a limited amount of years, its super cheap. not overly reliable and is undesirable by a lot of people. so its just a bit obscure for the list here.
@@GuysGearsAndGrit My friend had one of them and he let me ride it. I liked the looks of it and enjoyed riding it. It isn't a big bike though so I think it was more of an around town and back roads type of bike but I didn't take it out on the interstate so perhaps I am wrong.