I need advice

[TUG]

I bought a bike from a member on here under the premise that all was required for it to pass an MOT was a new rear tyre and a new speedo, it had an oil leak which he said could possibly have been due to oil pressure controlled by and oil pressure relief valve on kawasaki engines as the leak was near the pump on the clutch casing. I thought fair enough, sounds like he's on the ball mechanically and granted he's a nice guy in person.

However I feel like a bit of a mug, If you look in my thread about the project bike at hand as it's turned into, I've replaced much more than just a tyre for it to actually be safe for road use. The bike has been run dry of coolant for quite sometime now and the oil now stinks of petrol, so much so when I went into the garage today I thought my fuel tap repair had failed and had started to leak again. I've messaged the member but I suspect he's just going to say well it was £200 and he didn't know it was out of coolant.

What do?
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Haz ER-5, innit!

[thx1138]

Well, it was only £200.
Fix it, or sell it, or throw it away.

[P.]

I bought similar for £200, I made no profit and for £200, its pretty much pocket change.

This is why I tend to try and sell my bikes with a big MOT. At least I know its been checked by another person and is sound in that respect.

Oh and best advice, keep between 2 members that did the sale rather than broadcast and make previous owner look a wang

[covent.gardens]

PhilDawson is in my enemy list, so it doesn't surprise me he ran the coolant dry. Everybody in my enemy list is there for one reason or another, usually to do with a lack of intellectual ability, maturity or honesty.

However for a £200 bike, I wouldn't really be complaining.

[mentalboy]

£200 is peanuts for a bike.
I'm sure that had the seller in question known that the coolant was low he'd have mentioned it. Trouble is that unless buyer and seller are savvy mechanics then there are bound to be points missed (and even a savvy mechanic may not know all the faults on his own bike)
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Make mine a Corona.

[TUG]

[mentalboy]

[TUG]

[covent.gardens]

[mentalboy]

[331X2]

For £200 it was a cheap bike, I considered it when it was for sale but I already have a money pit with a little more character so didn't bother. My bike was £125 as a non runner, getting it running cost me 50p in capacitors but to get it to a roadworthy and reliable condition has cost a good chunk more than the original price, that's how these things go unfortunately but I was aware it would go that way. Stick with it and be happy in the knowledge that the parts you soft won't need touching again for a while.

On a side note, be very wary of people on the internet who shout from the rooftops about their mechanical aptitude, its usually bollocks

[gavbriggs]

Bandits fill the sump with petrol when the fuel tap leaks/carb floats are stuck/left on prime etc so maybe it's worth looking at that first?

Do a pressure test on coolant system and on the engine. Then if it fails these and there's no external coolant leak you can look at stripping the engine.

It's a bit pointless slating the previous owner. You should always check anything you buy and price/offer accordingly. Even with a £10k used machine you would have to check it over and take the risk.

Your energy is best spent fixing the bike than crying to/about the p/owner!

[Pete.]

For £200 you get what you get and like it IMO. Can't say you've been ripped off for that money. You can still turn a profit even if the engine's a goner.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

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

[Nb]

Man the fuck up and fix it, i see you have enough diy skills to do the headstock bearings so you can obviously work on your own bike. Just spend a little time and money on it and you will have a reasonable commuter? For 200 quid its hardly going to be a show bike.
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Cbr1100xx blackbird gone, mk4 golf gt tdi chav now
Colin1 wrote 'Im grateful for what i can get, which isnt all that much.'
Columbus travel insurance are crap!! Do not use!

[69.9mph]

[Teflon-Mike]

[unluckyluke]

You're complaining about a £200 project bike? At that price anything you buy is a punt and the £200 is probably recoverable by breaking the working parts and weighing in the rest. Nothing ventured/nothing gained sort of thing so what's the problem?

[MC]

Wouldn't have an ER-5, even for £200, but anyway... cheap bikes are always money pits. Decision is if you keep spending money on it or sell it on. Having looked at those photos try & flog for spares or repair what you've put into it, eventually you'll get bored of having to fix stuff, and you'll still have a $hit bike at the end of it.

Tl;dr you can't polish a turd.
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Yamaha MT-03 '08 (crashed)
Honda XR-125L '04

[_Iain_]

If the oil stinks of petrol then you have a carb/fuel tap issue.

If it has no coolant in it, put coolant in it and run it before pulling the head off etc, I've ridden the same loan ER-5 dry twice @ 60k and thrashed it. It's still going strong.

Imo, a £200 bike is fit for parts only. A £500 bike you buy expecting to spend minimum £200 to get it propperly useable. It's budget biking & you do get what you pay for.

What do?

1. Stop the BAWWW. It's a project & sold as such.

2. Fill it up with water. Run it. If the oil turns to mayo then worry about the head etc. If it doesnt let it get really hot & see where the water leak is. Report back, I have many hoses & stuff that are useable. Don't take the head off as it won't help you if theres anything broken, and it'll cost money to replace if nothings broken.

3. If it doesnt cream up or piss water everywhere get the carbs off & clean them as you likely have a sticky float, or a worn needle valve. Assuming you fixed the tap correctly in the first place. Check that too. After you've sorted this, change the oil. The fuel is coming from the carbs. even on A1 condition rings if fuel will seep down through them if its left sat in a big puddle on top of the piston.

4. Stop using genuine Kwak parts on a £200 shed, you'll spend a fortune. Get pattern gaskets from Wemoto or ebay at 1/3rd the price.

Apparently we've sold the one that got rear ended (with the good engine), ones got a fragged engine & the other has no engine at all. However, many bits still there.

Myself I'd make it go, make it stop, get a years ticket on it & sell it as a nearly finished project bike on ebay. Someone else can then piss oodles of money into it doing disc brake conversions & making it pretty.

You cant go buying bikes privately for peanuts and then publicly making the seller look like a scammer, it's a proper dick thing to be doing. I saw the ad & he's been perfectly honest about it, bullshit like this really does wind me up.
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Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[N cee thirty]

I wondered how long this would take to happen, you bought a shit bike to start with and then moaned that its not a ducati 1199 after messing about with it and spending too much money on it.

you'd probably moan like fuck if you got the bike for free, some people
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'00 Aprilia RS50 > '92 Honda CG > '99 Yamaha Fazer > '91 Yamaha RXS > '79 Suzuki X5 > 01' Honda Cg > 07' Honda Cg > 82' Kawasaki Z200 > suzuki gsxr 400 gk73a > honda vfr 400 NC30 Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

Jewlio Iglesias wrote: I actually did vote BNP once

[lihp]

I listed all faults in the advert that I was aware of.

The bike was sold with spare parts I thought was required, and the bike was in constant use everyday for approximately 300 miles per week, never once did I have a reliability issue or an overheating issue while I was using, nor any fuel mixing with oil, or evidence of such.

The issue of the oil leak is what prompted the sale, and that alone as I could not resolve it. However, I made it clear in the advert that I did not know the cause, it could have been serious, or it could have been something simple that I had missed.

It is unfortunate that there seems to be a serious fault, but I was unaware of it, and I sold so cheap as I could not correct the fault, but I did not mislead, and provided details of every fault I knew about, I accurately described the condition of the bike, and when you collected I pointed out every single issue I knew of.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=288319

Advert is there, as I said, I do not know the fault, only that I could not see any physical damage on the area of the leak (again, pointed out when you collected)

I went out of my way to be sure I did not give the impression that the bike was a "cheap fix" as I stated many times, I did NOT know the cause of the leak, it had done 16000miles previously with no cooling issues.

To summarise, I am sorry that this has happened, and it is unfortunate, but I feel that I did my duty in making you aware of any issues that I knew of, and sold the bike honestly at a fair price, and did not mislead anywhere in the sale.

[dydey90]

[CaNsA]

[lihp]

[HotdogMcDraw]

£200 for a project bike is a bargain. As stated already in the post going to Kawasaki for 'genuine' parts is going to cost more than sourcing around the net for parts at a cheaper price, that's usually what i do when i buy 4X4's for projects and it's tons cheaper (it's the same for bikes).

If you paid a grand fair enough i would not be happy, but £200 when the faults were listed already? Did you check it over yourself properly or did you just hand the money over and ride off?
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https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=284963 - What to expect on a MOD 1 (contains video footage) - Posted by BG5067

Honda Rebel 125 (L Plate Warrior) - Nov 2013 to Aug 2014, BMW G650 GS ABS - Aug 2014 to Current