Spares or repairs...

[jemdna]

Hey everyone...

Looking to get something cheap as a project through winter/new year. Idea being I need a 124CC engine to chop up into a frame I will make as a bit of a cruiser/chopper thing. Purely for fun and a learning experience.

Now I brought my CG OTR with 6months Tax and Mot for £450 a few months back. So i figured for around £100 (or less?) I should be able to get a spares or repairs project...

A quick glance on Ebay/Gumtree/Local sale etc has put even fucked bikes at over £500... madness ensued recently?


Bry

[itsallgood]

Ask around - that's how I got my cg.

I was talking to my boss about getting a 125. Turned out he had a cg lying in his garage which he sold to me for £200.

new battery / fork gaiters / service and it passed mot.

Total expenditure on getting it roadworthy £300 including tax!

There are bargains out there if you avoid the usual channels
____________________
1995 Honda cg125 SOLD
1993 Jawa 350 twin sport (haven't found the "sport" aspect yet)

[Teflon-Mike]

It's the muddle-market, where there's a lot of 'different' interests, looking for 'something'.
You have a lot of 17yr olds looking for thier first wheels, you have a lot of newbies looking to 'get in to' bikes, including people wanting somthing cheaper than the car and more convenient than the bus.
Pocket-Money teen-agers want cheap thrills; Bus-Fare dodgers want cheap-dependability.
EVERY-ONE wants a bargain.
Fixer-Uppers, still make most people think they are getting a bargain. If they pay £200 for soemthin they can 'fix up' then in thier head, they are £200 up from the start.
Then there's people like me, or you, in this instance, that just want something as a big mechano kit, to play mechanics with... and they want cheap too.
There are only SO many cheap bikes out there, and unfortunately, they dont get cheap by being quick and easy fixes....
Hence more buyers than bikes, supply and demand, you pay a lot for not very much.
There's actually an 'optimum' in how much bike you get for your money, and thats in the middle market, well above the muddle-market, in the £800-1500 region.
If you want a bike that has decent performance, reliability, durability life and residual value, that's the region where bikes tend to prove 'best value'. Spend more, they cost more in depreciation, spend less, they cost more in maintenence (or hassle).
For what you are contemplating though..... personally I'd bide my time, and look for something Like snowie's old Cruiser-Thing.
It was taxed, tested and ready to ride, and £300 notes would have hapily pried the V5 it out the girls mits. Seen scruffier examles of similar Chinky cruisers sold Spares or Repairs at first MOT for £150-£200, but I'd look a bit higher and go for a more viable, working bike to begin with.
Shoving the budget up that tad, can be useful.
Building your own 'special', you are into Radically altered Vehicle terratory, and full ident and construction approval checks. (check out the rules on registering a 'special' with the custom builders and DVLA, BEFORE you spend a penny!)
If you 'adapt' a standard frame, rather than completely build your own, you get a lesser set of tests to pass.
'Adapting' a frame can mean many things, but if it still has the original head-stock stamping..... its still the original frame........
And starting with a complete bike, with pretty much everything there, and working, you have a lot more 'meat' to mess around with and adapt, or e-bay off as parts, then having to buy all the piece parts indicidually.
I mean, just a simple wiring loom. From scratch, few rolls of cable and some connectors from VWP, and you have probably spent £50 or more, start searching for forks, foot-pegs, mirrors indicators etc, bought individually, costs can quickly start racking up. Complete bike, you have plenty of bits in boxes to pic from and 'make do' if you are having to make choices on where best you really want to spend the money.
Bottom line is, that a 'project-build' is rarely 'cheap', and as often as not, you can buy a complete working stocker, for less than you'll spend, and depending on what you do, how you do it and how far you take it, full custom build can cost more than a brand-new show-room bike, and the cost of the 'scrapper' that you based it on, be pretty insignificant in the greater scheme of things.
Just for the sake, where's the steel for your frame coming from?
Before mig-wire and gas, paying ameteur price for your tube, you are probably looking at around £100 for the metal to make your frame. If you want some custom spoked rims for it; you'll probably pay around £200 for new hubs, rims and spokes, before you stick rubber on the outside or bearings on the inside, or try building them. A pair of second hand wheels, that might suit or scrub-up, off e-bay, are likely to be £50, a piece.
Then lets look at dressing out. Lets presume you go hard-tail, to save £50 on budget shocks; Handlebars £25, grips £10, switch gear? Levers? Mirrors, cheapest start at £10 a pair. Indicators, £40 a set for cheapo's.
The couple of hundred quid you spend on the bike is likely to be one os the SMALLEST bills in the build, and spending 'just' that bit more, £100, can get you a WHOLE lot more stuff that you need, and can use, or might use, or can claw back dosh off trading to get the bits you want.
Might be gauling to spend 50-100% more for a project bike, but at the end of the day, if you dont have that money to chuck at the project now, at the start, at one of the cheapest parts, then you probably dont have the money to see it to completion.....
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Pete.]

125's are always over-priced because there's more market for them, a higher attrition rate and simply that many younger riders will ride any old wreck so long as it moves under it's own power.

You'll find a bargain but you have to be patient and keep looking.
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[jemdna]

Thanks everyone for the replys, Teflon especially

Aye the budget is small and I appreciate that its only going to get more expensive as things move on in the build. In one respect im lucky that I have access to a huge range of tools, the guy I share this workshop with builds trikes (featured in a few magazines now) and will help me build frame etc keeping some of the cost down.

I was hoping that the donor bike would also help cover a lot of the details regarding switch gear etc, ebay being the other. This isn't going to be a "ooooooh shiny bits" type build. More of a rat chop built in a shed... type

99.9% of it though is purely so I can have a giant mechano set and play with tools n stuff... (Oh yea and learn... must remember that...)

Do you think Im just looking to unrealistic at the moment? Definitely worth waiting?

Bry

[G]

The less money you have to spend, the more work you're going to have to do looking for it and the more obscure places you're going to have to look - ie local supermarket ad walls, etc.

I suspect a pit bike may be the only way to get the deal you want for the price you want without TOO much hassle. Still won't be getting one in that good condition.

[jemdna]

Cheers for the comment G, as I say im not afraid of doing some of the work myself, afterall we all have to learn somehow!

And the bit about the Ad, sorry, wasn't directly meant as an advert, Ill remove it now

Bry

[Teflon-Mike]

Its just a rough reckoner, but it takes around £5-600 to get a decent serviceable standard bike.
with that as base-line, anything cheaper is going to be compromised, either reliability or performance or as likely both.
So, a custom-build, you REALISTICALLY need to be expecting to have to spend at least similar money.
I mean an MOT's £30 FFS, let alone what an RAV approval might cost you!
Keeping costs down, and sourcing a better donor, good way to do it is to go bigger than 125, and look for unloved bikes that aren't being fort over by hopeful provisional licence holders, or optimistic post test newbies.
Plenty of stuff oit there for a couple of hundred quid, that could easily lend itself to a custom build, but not with a 125 motor.
I was offered a K75 BMW not long ago, complete as donor for a trike or custom; had to have new frame, it was a Cat-B write off.
Also got offered an old CBX550 with siezed inboard discs (I know them TOO well) for £50, and plenty of others I've dismissed or passed over over the years.
thing is, you have to know what your looking at, and what its weaknesses are and its pottentials.
CBX motor was a cracking little thing in its day, made 75bhp, but had fragile cam chains and tensioners, but the bigger problem was the stupid inboard discs Honda fitted. When they size, they are nie on impossible to pull apart, let alone salvage, but, rest of the running gear's pretty good, and in a custom frame, with wheels from another bike, a new cam-chain & tensioner as precaution, could make a very interesting, useful and potent little bike.
K75. It was a bit gutless, and decidely unloved. Fuel injected motor makes it a bit tricky for low rent wiring, and shaft drive makes it more suitable for a trike than a hard tail, but doable, with enough imagination.
And end of the day, a custom build is pretty much as much work, and expense whether you use a big motor or a little one.
But if you want to stick with a really cheap donor, then thats what you are best looking for.
£100 will get an awful lot more bike if its over 125cc.
The old 200cc two-stroke twins used to be very-popular for 'youth' build classes in the custom world, for that very reason, bit thin on the ground now, but you get the idea.
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'