What to do when..

[mr.z]

Maintainance or keeping mot worthy is approaching the WORTH of the bike

So many uber cheap bikes out there, if I'm going to do something and keep it I'll do it properly and using good stuff, but its looking like it's going to be about £100(ish) under what I'd get for the entire bike..

As much as you might get attached to a bike, when needed parts approach new bike money what do you do?
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>RidingSkills<->Tech Tips<->MyBikes<

[iooi]

I usually look at it from the point of view, of can you afford to replace it with something else.

I think many of us have been to the same point as you, where you are spending more than its worth. But i always come back to can i afford to replace it.

Often it is very much better the devil you know, that into a pit that be more of a cash pit....
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[crazymotorbik...]

Hey,
I've come to this way of thinking many times. For example my ageing Kawasaki 305 needs new discs, which will cost well over 100, and the belts newly gone too, another £50 (Second Hand). The bike itself maybe worth £250.

But my dad always steers me away. 'How do you know that the next bike u buy isnt going to need parts?' Especailly if its another cheap bike.

As has already been said, better the devil you know

Cheers,
Shaun.

[geordiecbrblo...]

I'm still on my first bike - 1990 CBR6 with over 60k miles on. It was knackered when I bought it (£875 3 yrs ago) and I must have spent at least the same on repairs and maintenance over the 3 years. All bikes are quite expensive to run and overall my running costs are relatively modest

[Ted]

Tart it up a bit... flog it @ more than it should be... buy another one cheaply... if its knackered, tart it up a bit cheaply, flog it @ more than it should be... buy another one... should I go on?

I might be on my first bike... but if you look at my cars... I had a Nissan Sunny 1400cc 16v, bought it for £300, it was advertised for £450, cost me near to nothing to keep running (with the exception of petrol of course!), drove it for about 18 months, realised it was about to cost too much (cat breaking up, semi-auto choke knackered, rust coming back on sills, all vacume pipes in engine splitting, etc)... so I flogged it for £400 (£100 profit already!). Saw a Volkswagen Scirocco 1800cc 8v up for sale for £750 if the guy MOTed it, £600 without MOT... got the guy to get it MOTed... failed, on a fair bit, bought it for £200ish and paid £300 getting it back on the road (saving of £250 off original price)... some guy crashed into it in a car park the other month... going through insurers now, they rang up the other day and offered £850 cash in lieu, meaning the car is still mine. Have most of the spare bits for it in the garage (cost £60), to spray the parts will cost about £170 max... so thats £620 in the bank and the car is back to how it should be... When I sell it I should get just short of £1,000 for it!

So... I have been driving for two years, and if I sell my VW after I've got the damage sorted... I will have made a profit of about £2020... if I've done the maths right! (but when you take off fuel, insurance and road tax, it turns to a minus figure, but it could be worse!)

I bought my current (first) bike last year, for £250... When I sell it, if I havn't crashed it (*touches wood*), I am aiming for about £800-900 for it!

[mr.z]

Thanks for the replys all..

I'll have to see when I'm in a position to change it, got something lined up (i hope!) i take the very good point of potentially ending up with a worse bike done that before i can tell you.. far more experience now and i know the guy I'd be getting the next one from..

Actually worked out its not what i thought it was so might turn out not to be so bad although its going to need a new rear tyre..

If you know what your doing you could make a bit (a mate has done just that with a couple of bikes) but it'd be easy to pick up a basket case and have a proper nightmare on your hands.. thing with cars is the parts are often veeeery cheap and easy to get hold of, a mate has just abandoned a trike project because he simply can't get the parts, and there just stupid little things but essential and cant be substituted
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>RidingSkills<->Tech Tips<->MyBikes<

[Ted]