Cheap bike wanted 250cc to 600cc

[Nottsbiker]

A friend lent me a gpz 500 that needed some work doing to it to get it back on the road but it is going to need far too much cash spending on it so I'm going to have to sack it off and find myself something to ride whilst building the monster.

Just missed an fzr600 for £500 near me :(

Any one got anything that runs near Nottingham?

Thinking gs500, trailbike etc but no peds thanks :)

[Nottsbiker]

Off to look at a Honda CB1 on Tuesday for £500 owned by a retired bloke, tidy but with 50k miles on her so could be good or could be hanging....

[buzzbomb]

I had a Honda 400 CB1 for commuting to work the year before I retired in 1995, it was a great little bike if not abit revvie.

A young chap like you should buy a cycle and keep fit whilst earning your wages.

[He11cat]

50k on a jap bikes ok!!
Hondas are good solid bikes usually.
Old yams good as well however the parts on my old yam xj 600 divvy where getting hard to find and very pricey even by Ducati standard.
Yam parts can be pricey.

Kwacks not had one with good build quality.
But may be just my experience.

Suzis all mine again been sound older ones can have nigg ly electrics.

Hope you find something

[Nottsbiker]

Mileage a little off putting on a 400 however the chap sounds sensible so could have been really well looked after.

There seems to be plenty of bargains out there if you are not too picky about what brand / model you want, and you can certainly get something to ride that doesn't embarrass you at work.

Cycling lol, I live 15 miles from one work place and travel throughout the day to multiple other places so it's just not practical. Plus biking and getting paid for it is my idea of where it's at ;)

[utopia]

I run a Honda Dominator alongside the monster, and find it great.
I actually have a similar affection for it as I have for the Ducati.....I think its the torque.
It does all the winter work, all the wet weather stuff, takes all the salt, and does all the short journeys when I don't want to cold-start the monster for the sake of 4 or 5 miles.
I can lash my fishing kit on it if I fancy a day on the river (I can even take it right down to the bank if I want). I can fetch quite a lot of shopping on it and I've even carried two bags of building sand on it.
Its aircooled, so simple, clean and easy to work on.
Even has handguards to keep my pinkies warm(er) in winter.
Every monster owner should have one.

Or something a little cleaner, like a supermoto perhaps ? The CCM dual sports look interesting, with their swappable sets of road and off-road wheels. ....and a bit of offroading does wonders for your machine control.

Food for thought, perhaps.

And ps....will be in touch v soon to collect frame...sorry for delay.

[Nottsbiker]

Friend works for KTM and I'm very tempted by the new Duke for a work horse as they look good, go well and sip petrol. I'd love a supermoto but cant justify the purchase cost or conversion cost of a cheap bike so this is why I'm going with something I can buy and ride straight away as I've already covered 50% of the purchase cost with ebay sales :)

Frame = I'm off work for 2 weeks mid August doing diy jobs so feel free to pop round then for a brew....

[Nottsbiker]

Saw the CB1 last night;

Scruffy as hell - well hidden in pictures, but photographs can make bikes look better than they actually are
Forks leaking
Exhaust middle mount fractured / broken off
Oil mist on top of crankcases indicating a minor leak

Bloke offered it to me for £450 but if he'd gone to £400 I'd have justified the 'saving' on some seals, oil and mates rate welding.

Now bidding on a local CB500 but expect it to go over my allowance....

[Nottsbiker]

All sorted now :)

Picked up a variable valve control 400cc Bandit last night in red for the princely sum of £350. She needs a few issues sorting, but as I recently sold some unwanted stuff from the shed for around the same amount feels like shes come for free. Need to look at;

Front tyre (bald as a babies backside)
C&S (hooked)
Fork seals
Front brakes (dragging)
Engine (got the GSXR tick)

[He11cat]

They can be a little tempremental ....

But at such a cheap price.
I like my little jap 400's .
There seems to be a fair few of them kicking about so parts will be ok .
Alot of jap grey imports can be a bugger to get parts for now.
My little 400 Kat people now have to wait weeks for parts!
But you should be fine and bargain :)

[He11cat]

Crikey going rates not much for these bikes now!
When I brought my last grey bike I paid top whack £1000 in 2008
With a few odds thrown in but nothing great.
It wasn't running as needed a CDI box :(
I had exhausts which where like gold dust as well.

It was a limited edition bike as well.
3 years on it was running and I sold it as had the monster 400.
Running with very little more miles and lots of work tax and MOT I sold it for £600.
With a custom seat and a few bits thrown in.

Admitedly it was slow in interest but after I sold it I could have sold it 10 times over.

A year later new owner tried to sell it ...
At £300 tax and MOT and lots more work couldn't get a sniff of interest.

Started having long waits for parts :(
Grey 400s used to fetch good money :(
Great fun to ride as well!

[utopia]

Glad you're sorted.
I guess I should have said this before, but don't feel obliged to stick to our arrangement over the frame. Feel free to sell it if you need to ease your budget. I wouldn't be offended, and I'm sure I could still do you a rack at a special rate, in return for a bit of road testing.
After all, the frame should fetch at least £100 I would think, which isn't to be sneezed at when funds are low.
I'm sure I'd eventually manage to unearth a scrap/written-off frame or rear subframe that would suit my needs from somewhere.

[Nottsbiker]

ok - its not safe to sell as it looks iffy to me fella - last call before the tip gets it...

Hellcat - I've had a couple of imports in the past, including another 400 variable valve control Bandit, DT200WR and a CRM250 mk1 so am used to having to hunt for bits but to be honest I quite enjoy trawling ebay / gumtree etc for bargains and rare bits.

Redcar in Loughborough have already told me that they can get some grey parts, and Suzuki are renowned for using bits from ye olde parts bin so I expect to find stuff from other Suzukis once I've done some research.

[urbanfireblade]

Ooh i had a CRM 250 years ago, Mk2 one, peppy bikes, was exactly the same acceleration as my mates Honda Xr400r(4-stroke) from trickling along to top speed! Always wanted a DT200R but really rare, i ended up with the CRM. Talking about 13yrs ago now!

[Nottsbiker]

CRM had way more grunt and would pop lovely wheelies in first and second, DT-WR was way more revvy but a lot lighter and as a result more agile. I put a full FMF system from a WR200 onto my DT and it really woke the motor up.

My friend spanners for Leisure Trail so I'd probably be tempted to get another CRM one day, although the KTM200 is getting seriously cheap these days and is light years ahead of both of them.