Start of the week topic

[squirrelciv]

Been playing with Sophia all weekend checking the valve clearances and balancing the carbs (bloody twins!). Whilst twiddling the spanners I noticed every bolt I undid had a healthy smear of copperslip on it and that got me thinking she must have been well looked after by her previous owner.

I remembered another bike I bought (CX500) and discovering a bolt on the rear suspension wishbone with it's head cut off! Someone had tried to service the suspension, got in a pickle cos it was all siezed, bodged it up and sold it on.

So what were your favourite 'finds' on a new bike and what are your worst fears.

[robG]

I was chuffed to find my Rs still had its toolkit in the toolbox and owners manual in the pouch ,velcroed to the side panel .

My Xs came with the original Yamaha padlock and chain ,'bout as much use as a chocolate fire guard .Oh ,and the bike has managed to retain it's child like sense of humour 

My Kh400 came with three spare spark plugs , still in the purpose made holder and a god given ability to devour petrol ,like nothing else {except my Kh500  }

Rob .

[guest18]

I've probably mentioned it before but my worst find so far was on a sporty 125 where I discovered that some ham fisted bodger had most of the bolts retaining the front disc whilst replacing it... and instead of sorting it properly they'd fitted the disc with iirc three bolts (may have been two) and then glued the sheared heads back on to make it look like it was securely bolted on  

Nice... I thought at the time!  

[guest27]

Had a DT250 that handled 'odd' - turned out the clods of mud and gek on the frame had been covering up two broken tubes - still because of this I met a guy who made one-off parts and whole cars for Aston Martin - and a wonderful shed full of stuff being sorted - including the Bulldog

R

[robG]

Just remembered a tale told by Tiny , the foreman of a main dealer I worked for in about 1985 . Turns out a Starfire came in running poorly in the late sixties /early seventies . The engine was stripped to reveal a perfectly engineered replacement crankpin ............in mahogany.

Did just enough to gain a trade in ..............

Rob .

[niblue]

Worst was probably the Krapasaki AR125LC I bought as a teenager (after by beloved CB125TB was destroyed by a driving instructor) that turned out to have stripped kick-start splines and the kick-start spot-welded on.

Not sure about best - little things like getting each and every tax disk & MOT slip from new for my 20-year old XBR500 made me smile though.

[guest27]

Ahh reminded me - the gearbox sprocket was welded on to the shaft on the DT250 too, was a real bugger to grind off, guess they had used some special hard welding rod.  I eventually sold the bike on with a seized engine to a mate of a mate, who turned up about a month later with the DT250 lump out and some how a T500 twin in - looked real wonderful.

Mind as DT it had a full Fresco pipe on it (probably why it seized) and sounded real zzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggg   

R

[Jez F]

Bought an Aprilia RS125  frame and forks off fleabay. They came in one lump and got put away until oneday I had time to strip out the forks.The forks turned ok, lucky I didn't just build it up and ride it. The ejit that had the frame before had used the top bearing cover in place of the top half of the bottom taper roller bearing and wound it up nice and tight.
Jez

[Andy M]

The first bike I owned (CB100N) had had the crank case drilled. After an extra 17 years of riding I still can't figure out why you'd do it. They'd drilled through the one of the bolt holes in the clutch cover and into the crank case with something like an 8mm bit. The web round the formerly threaded hole had collapsed and 99cc's of Jap 4-stroke then used oil faster than the MZ that replaced it. It didn't actually **** oil due to a nut epoxied to the crank case near the hole and an o-ring, two copper washers and a lathering of silicone on the bolt . Best imagined scenario I can think of is some sort of hideously failed helicoiling, but there were no signs that the clutch had even been opened up. Why would you use Honda Gaskets but put it back together with glue and bits from B&Q.

My concience is clear (well at least as far as this bike goes). The MZ dealer offered me £100 unseen if I could ride it into his yard with the exhaust too hot to touch. An hour and 16 miles after leaving home I turned up and he already had a plank up the side of a skip to dump the thing in as soon as he'd drained the petrol and had the battery off it. I'd dumped my pop bottle of "top up" oil in a bus stop bin about 100 yards from his shop  

Andy

[guest7]

One of the most obviously dishonest sellers I have encountered was selling an XBR frame (and log book) on Ebay, described as being in good sound condition.

When I walked into his garage I could immediately tell, from 6 metres, that the frame as bent. Someone who hadn't had as many XBR frames hanging around as I have wouldn't have known until they built the bike up. Just plain dishonest.

GC

[guest7]

One of my best bits of luck came when I picked up the GB500 outfit I'd bought on Ebay. It had a nasty king and queen saddle fitted but when I got there the seller said, "I've chucked the horrible original saddle in the chair just in case you want it"

Bloody marvellous, GB saddles are like hens teeth and consequently very expensive, even second hand. The K&Q saddle turned out to have been intended for a Bonneville so I sold it on Ebay for £40. Double result.

GC

[Steffan]

My best find would be the ETZ250 I bought down the Rhonda for 50.00 quid. Mostly all there and with a motor that was an absolute sweety. Ended up in a 301 framed bike that my mate got when he returned my XT, he painted it white and red with ddraigiau goch on the side covers. It sold recently on ebay for an unbelievable 220.00 quid. The original engine from that bike had the topend refurbed and went to Mr Metcalfe when we did the deal for the green machine. The rest of the Rhonda bike is in the shed with a rebuilt 301 motor (251 bottom end out of my original black bike; which I cadged off the same mate in exchange for a set of tyres but which Mike Cater seized on the M4 and the 301 topend from Andy) in the frame awaiting a few hours work and an MOT and Tax.

Steffan

[guest7]

Small world innit? Mike Cater was a TC member, but also an MZ racer at the same time as Boyd. He's also an Ixie so lots of us know him from the Ixion mailing list.

I sometimes wonder if the 'genuine enthusiast'™ world of motorcycling is actually quite small, I keep tripping up over the same people via all sorts of biking links.

I liked Mike, although I know he did rub some club members up the wrong way.

Cheers
GC

[squirrelciv]

Tell it as you see it Jules 

[Richard]

I rather liked Mike too.  Memory says he uses the sig. "A disaster waiting to happen."  Rare honesty.

Still hear from him occasionally, though I rarely bother with Ixion these days.

Richard