My bike is knackered, what would you do?

[c_dug]

Hi Guys,

My CBR is knackered, the exhaust has a massive gaping hole in it and bodge repairs keep failing. Minimum cost of replacement will be £100. My front tyre needs replacing asap, thats another £100 or so. My back tyre has another month or so in it, that'll be around the £150 mark. Front brake pads need doing, oil needs changing, have no mirrors yada yada yada..... It all adds up to about £450 of bits and pieces minimum.

In other words the bike is knackered!

The 2nd gear is as good as useless for anything more than light acceleration, and the bike itself is just shy of the 50,000 mile mark. Because of these I'd estimate the value to be less than £500.

On top of this I now have 9 points on my licence so even if I repaired the CBR insuring it next year isn't financially feasible.

On the plus side for the CBR I know it to be very reliable and economical to run - any replacement would need to cope with 1000 miles a month and be as economical for the commute (55mpg average).

So would you keep throwing money at the CBR until this years insurance is up, or sell it now and buy something along the lines of a Honda NTV? It seems to me that spending money on it now is pretty pointless as it wont be worth any more come sell time anyway.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[Burnside]

If it has tax & MOT I would sell it as it is.
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I started out with nothing and I still got most of it left.

[c_dug]

Oh yeah I forgot, tax runs out on Wednesday!


edit: Though I would tax it for 6 months if I was to sell it.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[WULFSTAN]

i say keep it an do everything that needs doing done on the cheap. ie part worn tyres. Also u might find that changing the oil helps with second gear it did on my old cbr.
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Your backside is better enough for you to run again, if need be – bristle up the courage of the cornered rat, put on a bold front, and to hell with them. Bluff my boy – bluff, shift and lie for the sake of your neck and the honour of Old England

[LeanIt]

As above, as it's got MOT and tax I'd sell it now and get something to save the pain of the insurance hike. It's only worth spending that kind of money on it if you're gonna' keep it IMHO.
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Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less shit you eat.

[sickpup]

Just buy an NTV, you know you want to. Theres a minter 13000miles on the bay at the moment for £900.

[RIDINGforKICK...]

Looking at your sig...

You keep buying bikes at the end of their life, that is a very expensive habit. You are taking the biggest hit, apart for the first year of a vehicles life, the most expensive time is likely to be for the poor sucker who the bike dies on.

Get rid of the bike, trying to run 20 year old performance bike as a hack is not a sensible thing to do.

Get something that make sense as a commuter, is cheap to run and will have some resale value when you come to sell it.

[.Chris.]

Might be a good idea to do a bit of research into how much you'd get if you broke it for parts. A bit of effort, but could raise significantly more than selling the bike as-is.

Given that you've got to get rid of it anyway, I doubt I'd bother spending any money on it. Otherwise it might be worth sorting it out, given that replacing an old bike with another old bike often just ends up exchanging one set of problems for another.
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Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[WULFSTAN]

[RIDINGforKICK...]

The OP posted

[WULFSTAN]

it sounds like it needs some tlc. wouldnt cost as much as the op seems to think. ive a 1990 cbr that is hardly a money pit but still only cost me 500.also getting a slower bike dont mean you anit going to get more points and get banned. keep the bike ffs.
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Your backside is better enough for you to run again, if need be – bristle up the courage of the cornered rat, put on a bold front, and to hell with them. Bluff my boy – bluff, shift and lie for the sake of your neck and the honour of Old England

[Rogerborg]

I'd sell it to hahadumball, sounds like his ideal bike.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Sako]

the only issue i can see in your description of problems is 2nd Gear.

All the other 'issues' you have mentioned that are contributing to the bike being knackered are basic consumable/service items - tyre's, oil and exhaust (same as with a car).

so i would say keep it and get it sorted up.

[Teflon-Mike]

[Jayy]

If it were me and it was my only form of transport which I needed, I would see if I could afford the £450 and keep using it until it gave up or I was in a position to buy something better.

Unless you can get another economical bike for £500, then sell it.

[Welshd1k]

exhaust pipes on the bay for pennies like £40 ish . front tyre 17 or 16"? i can help you out with a super sticky in either for £30 + post . and 2nd gear is a easy fix ... dude i know for a WHOLE engine for £150 thats done 13k miles .... so new exhaust and engine for £200 ish ?? .... but then again a old cbr aint worth much sell it for £2-300 and get another better condition one or a gpz wtc for £600 ish ?
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Current >Cb600fx hornet, ns125rk90 21.7bhp@wheel<
Sold >,zxr400 h2 (33bhp kit) rd350 n1 rd350 lc2<

[0l0dom0l0]

How much would you want for the bike as is?

I might be interested seeing as I binned my CBR the other week and I think it needs a new engine casing.

I could make one decent engine out of the 2 engines etc and a few other bits.

Let me know.
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CBT Passed: 30/08/2009, Theory Passed: 31/08/2010, Mod 1 Passed: 6/9/2010, Mod 2 Passed: 13/09/2010. Restriction ended 13/09/2012.

Bikes: 2007 Derbi GPR 50, 1998 Yamaha Fazer 600 (written off), 2002 Yamaha Fazer 600, 1994 CBR 600F, 2003 Triumph Daytona 600, Kawasaki ZX6R J1.....Current: 2006 Yamaha FZ6, 1998 Suzuki TL1000R and a Honda VFR 400 NC30.

[G]

2nd gear seems to be the only big issue - the rest could be fairly easily done cheaply keeping an eye on ebay etc.

[1cyl]

Depending how much time you have,
Research what the bike in bits could potentially sell for (wheels, frame, top end, bottom end, forks etc, etc, etc). If that comes to a tidy some which is more than you would get as is. Break the bike yourself and sell it in bits.

After the gearbox wrecked, I stripped the WR to its frame in under a week of evenings, and got back just under double what i paid for the bike, even after ebay final valuation rape.
just got 1 small box of odds, yokes and swingarm to go.

of course i've never broke/stripped a sports, so i might not no what the fuck i'm talking about
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Chase my Witch up, Catch my Snitch up.
The SMC | The Pit | Stable

[grant965]

Donate it to me as a project so you can see your pride and glory up and running again
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Ex bikes: 05 Suzuki En 125, '98 Yamaha Thundercat, '08 Honda cbr125, '05 Kawasaki z750, '03 Triumph Daytona 600, '91 Kawasaki ex250, '03 Hyosung Comet 125
Current Bike: '02 Suzuki TL1000R

[Pie-Roe]

You should sell it, and buy my 450 quid divvy with 8 months test and 5 months tax
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Previous: GSF600, FZR600 x2, ZXR750, XT600 Tenere, CB125, CZ125, ETZ 250, ER5, CCM R30, DRZ400, RF600x4, RF900x2, GS500, VTR1000F, 640 SMC, CB250 NIGHTHAWK, GT550x3, GPX750 TE610, CB500, X11x2, SV650, ZING 125, TL1000R,CB250 Superdream, CBR1100XX

[stinkwheel]

Sell it on gumtree.

Advertise it as "Mint Condition".
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[johnsmith222]

150 quid for a back tyre is rediculous.

Buy a pilot road 1 for both front and rear. Remove the wheels and take them in to the bike shop for fitting.

It doesn't matter what bike you buy, you will have to pay for oil changes, brake pads, tyres etc.

All of these shouldn't be added into the "my bike is buggered" because they are normal running costs. The issue is your lack of money rather than the bike being buggered.

The only "issues" I would really say are the exhaust and second gear. If 2nd gear went on my bike, I would leave it, unless it was summer and I had the time to fix it.

[pits]

So in short, by high performance vehicle
Don't maintain it
Complain it is in a bad state because of lack of maintenance which comes over as if it is the bikes fault it hasn't maintained itself and/or stopped getting old.


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Stinkwheel: You have no right to free speech
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[Moxey]