New Bike Deposit - Would You?

[Phoenix]

Would you put a deposit down on a yet to be released motorcycle? One of which you have only seen photographs and have not seen in the steel and rubber - so to speak?

For me it’s a no-no. You can read all the specifications until you are blue in the face but they are just not the same as sitting on the bike to check if it ‘feels right’. For example, it may give the ideal seat height on the specifications but when you sit on it you may find the seat width changes your foot distance from the floor.

I often wonder how much the ‘Give us your deposit today’ is geared more towards dealers trying to guesstimate interest rather than it securing one’s intended new bike from the first shipment.

As the saying goes: wait awhile and another will be along soon.

Well...?

[Potter]

I have done for a limited edition bike that was impossible to try first because they weren't sat in showrooms, but for any normal production machine I'd want to wait to see it first...and even then I only put 10% down until the bike arrived and I paid the balance.

I offered a £10k deposit on a Norton and the rest upon collection, but they wanted it all up front, I smelled a rat and I was right.

[weeksy]

Yeah, no worries at all. I'd have happily done it with say a KTM 790 or indeed the new KTM890.

[Pgm]

Yeah I’ve done it twice and cancelled when seeing the bikes in the flesh, dealers are obliged to refund deposits nowadays.

[Cousin Jack]

Maybe, with an established dealer and a big manufacturer.

No way with someone like Norton, or any other small outfit. Apart from the Norton risk of outright fraud, the danger of a small firm going bust is considerable.

[Tricky]

Maybe, with an established dealer and a big manufacturer.

No way with someone like Norton, or any other small outfit. Apart from the Norton risk of outright fraud, the danger of a small firm going bust is considerable.

This basically for me too, ( except "yes " rather than " maybe") and I did do it on the first pics of the MT-10 back in late 2015 and more recently for the KTM 890R

[Skub]

I don't see why not. What's the worst that can happen?

If you don't like the bike,sell it and try again,no lives will be lost.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Definite nope from me, if I'm buying a bike I want it there and then, it has to be in the showroom waiting for me to buy it.

[mangocrazy]

Yeah, I did it 40-odd years ago for an RD350LC. Put the money down in November, didn't get it until the following August.