advice on Rider plans, nothing came up.   Anyone got one? if so good, bad or ugly dealings???   I've never considered one so am just exploring options.                                                                                                                                                                             

could this be a sat.nav your talking about?                                                                                                                                                                             

I don't want to sound more stupid than usual but what's a rider plan?                                                                                                                                                                             

  I'm glad you asked first lol                                                                                                                                                                             

suzuki do a rider plan for buying new bikes. it seems to be a cross between hiring and purchasing, but not hp as we know it. it looks to me like you pay a deposit, then monthly payments for three years and if you want to own it after that you pay a huge final payment, or you can give it back to the dealer and walk away.

  Sounds like a real can o worms to me   But what would I know   I only buy bikes not "rent" them   If I don't like em I sell em again   Which doesn't happen often                                                                                                                                                                               

Kawasaki have an option to do this and triumph as well i think but , as mentioned above , it leaves you having to come up with a pretty hefty payment at the end if you want to keep the bike. Better to pay a decent deposit at the beginning and pay the rest up in manageable payments then at least you're not left worrying about a massive payment at the end                                                                                                                                                                              

You can do the same with cars, it's basically a Personal Leasing Plan and somewhere there will be a mileage limit included and if you exceed it then you can fall into a big problem.  Either charged a forune per mile exceeded or you have to pay the balloon.

Like Emzed said, it is a can of worms but can work for someone short of loot to pay in the normal way.  The Balloon payment at the end reduces the monthly charges greatly.  The bike will be tied in and show as having a HP against so you can't sell it.

Not something I would do with a bike but have done it with a car and it worked out for me but you have to manage it properly.

Well that's the limit to my knowledge.

From what I've heard you risk never owning the vehicle if you can't put aside enough to pay up at the end. I never ends up being yours. Sounds like a good deal to start with, I considered it, but something just made me think it was too good to be true.

I looked at this when i wanted a car before but the deposit was same as always and the monthly payments where not a leap away from a loan so for the sake of a couple of pints and few takeaway meals I though feck you you robbing barstewards.....You end up paying a lot of money for nothing, if leasing is your thing so you don't actually own anything then why not but I don't really like the idea of paying hard earned money for 3 years and a deposit then be left with nothing at the end except the choice if having to take a big loan to pay the balloon payment at the end.... Nope not for me....

I've done this with a car before now and it worked a treat.  Car was on 0% finance though so don't know if that makes a difference.  I put the balance into a 3 year bond and made a few hundred quid on it so I had a bit of cash in hand when I paid the balance off.  Of course, this only works if you have the cash to put into the bond in the first place.