The Bikeshite Thread

[hairnet]

the older stuff wont be ulez friendly

[Fabergé Greggs]

1 minute ago, hairnet said:

the older stuff wont be ulez friendly

It’s a fair point but I’m commuting by cycle at the moment, this is for heading out into the countryside ?

[hairnet]

wouldnt be buying inline four anything as a first bike

bit different to 25 years ago

 

[andyberg]

8 hours ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

Question for the bikers:

I’m shortly getting my big bike license and what I’d like more than anything is a 90’s Honda with as lurid colour scheme as possible. I’m thinking CBR600 with lots of pink and green. Any others I should be thinking of? 
 

less lurid, but there’s a nice looking NTV600 reverie on eBay at the moment. Thoughts? 

You mean the cool Benetton Honda's of the 80s-90s. They are a good everyday bike, before they got all race replica and sporty. Kawasaki did some good colours on the ZZR600, they were pretty bullet proof too.

[castros_bro]

I do like twin headlight set ups

 

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Question for the bikers:
I’m shortly getting my big bike license and what I’d like more than anything is a 90’s Honda with as lurid colour scheme as possible. I’m thinking CBR600 with lots of pink and green. Any others I should be thinking of? 
 
less lurid, but there’s a nice looking NTV600 reverie on eBay at the moment. Thoughts? 

Great time to be buying 90s bikes IMO, look where prices of 70s and 80s stuff has gone of late.

Honda were probably the best built bikes of the era, so more likely to be in good fettle now. Early steel framed CBR 600s are one of the best bikes ever made, they'll genuinely do everything well.

Kawasaki ZZR600 was a very fast bike compared to other 600s from the time but a bit of a lard arse.

GSXR600 SRAD available in some loud paint schemes.

Some of the grey import 400cc bikes are more 90s than rave music. Awesome machines often more technically advanced than the 600cc bikes. VFR400R, ZXR400 etc but they seem to have already moved out of budget bike money. Great step up from a 125 mind, they have enough power to be exciting but not scare you away from bikes. And they tend to out handle most things.


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[They_all_do_that_sir]

Relieved my mate of this earlier



Originally the plan was he was keeping the headlight for his 1200, but a deal was done where I get to keep it, looks far better than the bikini fairing.

Its nice to ride but I'm used to the VTR - where it makes tons of low down grunt you need to rev the bandit hard to get it to come on song. But I'm comparing a 1000cc Vtwin to a 600cc inline 4, apples and oranges....

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[chompy_snake]

Got the old rentec rack fitted after having it powder coated mid black.

loving it! CBT booked for the 16th and Theory booked for 5tg August..... Can't wait to be riding this daily ??

[andyberg]

10 minutes ago, chompy_snake said:

Got the old rentec rack fitted after having it powder coated mid black.

loving it! CBT booked for the 16th and Theory booked for 5tg August..... Can't wait to be riding this daily ??

Good luck mate ??

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

Tomorrow's no doubt wasted journey to view a non running stood for at least 2 years aprilia 250. Unfortunately not an rs 250 but a leonardo scooter 250. Hopefully its saving grace will be it has a yamaha engine with carb that i hope to save if everthing else looks good. He better be flexible on price also. Why do i do this to myself.

Only done 10k miles,  we shall see. I have no idea how to grt it home if i can not get it started.

[warch]

On 6/29/2020 at 11:38 PM, Fabergé Greggs said:

Question for the bikers:

I’m shortly getting my big bike license and what I’d like more than anything is a 90’s Honda with as lurid colour scheme as possible. I’m thinking CBR600 with lots of pink and green. Any others I should be thinking of? 
 

less lurid, but there’s a nice looking NTV600 reverie on eBay at the moment. Thoughts? 

I had a steel framed CBR 600 for about ten years, it was an awesome first big bike, it did everything superbly and was much more practical than my Triumph, which I like looking at but which has barely turned a wheel in the year I've had it. My CBR was used continuously (45000 miles) and never let me down. 

I too have a love of 90s bikes and their trademark loud/clashing paint schemes and huge graffix (sic). This is a bit strange as I wasn't into bikes back then and didn't even have a licence until 2008, so I have had to bullshit a fictional biking heritage to fit in with the long term greasers. E.g. 'Foggy, what an absolute legend!' or 'yeah I was very much a fan of Kenny Roberts back in the day, but Sheene was the main man'.

[strangeangel]

Bikeshiters: help me out. I'm fancying this Minsk, the asking on which is 900 notes.

 

 

It's tax and MOT exempt and runs well, UK regd and comes with some spares. Madly out of the park for Soviet crap, or should I snatch his hand off?

 

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, Sir Chocolate Teapot said:

Tomorrow's no doubt wasted journey to view a non running stood for at least 2 years aprilia 250. Unfortunately not an rs 250 but a leonardo scooter 250. Hopefully its saving grace will be it has a yamaha engine with carb that i hope to save if everthing else looks good. He better be flexible on price also. Why do i do this to myself.

Only done 10k miles,  we shall see. I have no idea how to grt it home if i can not get it started.

 

They were good scoots back in the day when running, but as unreliable as shit with poor spares reliability, and the passing of 20 years or so will have done nothing to alleviate either of these problems. As the good ole UMG always used to say "Pay no more than £50".

 

[andyberg]

8 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

Bikeshiters: help me out. I'm fancying this Minsk, the asking on which is 900 notes.

 

 

It's tax and MOT exempt and runs well, UK regd and comes with some spares. Madly out of the park for Soviet crap, or should I snatch his hand off?

 

I always fancied an MZ, a while back you couldn't give them away, but now the prices are going up and up. I would say this would go the same way? It seems any 2 stroke now is worth money, quite rightly I say. Big fan of 2 strokes me.  It looks tidy. I guess a lot depends on what you will use it for, and how easy it is to get spares. If it was me and I had 900 spare I would be bloody tempted even though I know bugger all about a Minsk.

 

[strangeangel]

4 minutes ago, andyberg said:

I always fancied an MZ, a while back you couldn't give them away, but now the prices are going up and up. I would say this would go the same way? It seems any 2 stroke now is worth money, quite rightly I say. Big fan of 2 strokes me.  It looks tidy. I guess a lot depends on what you will use it for, and how easy it is to get spares. If it was me and I had 900 spare I would be bloody tempted even though I know bugger all about a Minsk.

 

 

Y'see, I like Soviet iron in spite of it mostly being 2-stroke. These little bikes are by no means quick, but heroic ride-to-work plodders built to the lowest possible engineering tolerances with a reputation for clattering on for ever. The one good thing about the Soviets never having money for R&D is that they churned these heaps out for decades, and spares can be had - surprisingly cheaply. Now I'm no speed merchant, and I could happily rattle and smoke my way to work at 38mph on just such a nail, I just don't want to take a huge hit on it when I come to sell.

 

[andyberg]

I do keep looking at MZs and Jawas. I have a great CB250, I love it. It is not quick and I am more than happy to plod about on it at 50ish, it suits me just right. Though if someone was to offer me an old dinger like this Minsk or an MZ I would probably bite their arm off. I guess another way to look at it is, how much was a Lada 10 or 15 years ago, now look at the price of them. 

[chompy_snake]

On 6/29/2020 at 11:38 PM, Fabergé Greggs said:

Question for the bikers:

I’m shortly getting my big bike license and what I’d like more than anything is a 90’s Honda with as lurid colour scheme as possible. I’m thinking CBR600 with lots of pink and green. Any others I should be thinking of? 
 

less lurid, but there’s a nice looking NTV600 reverie on eBay at the moment. Thoughts? 

Kawasaki ZX-6R was a lovely hideously gash looking machine in the wrong colour scheme. As was the Suzuki GSXR 600.

I would save the discomfort and cost and buy a gsf600 bandit though ??

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

Re mz and cz etc.  Here in italy 1980s and 90s models in working order go for €1500 /€2000 !.

I find that unbelievable as no way are they worth that. Equally unbelievable that things like yamaha 350s and suzuki rg250s cost €8000 and more.

Would still have a mz 250 for £250 in a heart beat, but no more.

These days it is very tricky to buy interesting bikes to play with for a while, get bored and sell on without it costing .

I am so guilty of always thinking , yes, i can fix that for cheap , play a while and move on not losing much on the way.?

When you want something you just have to have it.

[andy18s]

7 hours ago, chompy_snake said:

Kawasaki ZX-6R was a lovely hideously gash looking machine in the wrong colour scheme. As was the Suzuki GSXR 600.

I would save the discomfort and cost and buy a gsf600 bandit though ??

Nobody did garish colour schemes like Suzuki back in the day, with the GSXF600 and 750 Teapots getting some seriously "interesting " designs thrown at them

The last 2 are 750's which are identical to my 2 bikes from back then.

Both are very comfy bikes,based on oil cooled gsxr running gear but a bit softer

[Jerzy Woking]

13 hours ago, Sir Chocolate Teapot said:

Tomorrow's no doubt wasted journey to view a non running stood for at least 2 years aprilia 250. Unfortunately not an rs 250 but a leonardo scooter 250. Hopefully its saving grace will be it has a yamaha engine with carb that i hope to save if everthing else looks good. He better be flexible on price also. Why do i do this to myself.

Only done 10k miles,  we shall see. I have no idea how to grt it home if i can not get it started.

 

11 hours ago, strangeangel said:

They were good scoots back in the day when running, but as unreliable as shit with poor spares reliability, and the passing of 20 years or so will have done nothing to alleviate either of these problems. As the good ole UMG always used to say "Pay no more than £50".

I had a Leonardo 250 a few years back. Commuted 120 miles a day on it for a year or so until, as with all the bikes I commuted, I got bored with it. Sold it for what I paid for it, and apart from bi-monthly oil changes, did nothing to it. 

The seat was surprisingly tall. Not fast, but could hold an indicated 85mph on the flat parts of the motorway.

1 hour ago, andy18s said:

Nobody did garish colour schemes like Suzuki back in the day, with the GSXF600 and 750 Teapots getting some seriously "interesting " designs thrown at them

The last 2 are 750's which are identical to my 2 bikes from back then.

Both are very comfy bikes,based on oil cooled gsxr running gear but a bit softer

Loved the colours on my 1997 CBR600.

Great bikes, and mine was very reliable over about 50,000 with just a fuel pump failure.

There was a bloke that commuted a CBR600 from Peterbourough to Canary Wharf. When he sold it on eBay, it had 310,000 miles on it.

 

 

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

So today's plan.

And i must stick to it.

Go to see this non running aprilia,if cycle parts are in order, siphon old petrol out snd stick some fresh in. If it starts see how it feels, if no start WALK AWAY!

Walk away, walk away.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Those Suzuki’s are definitely in the right ballpark..
 

I’ve heard nothing but good things about CBR600’s and there seems to be loads about on high mileages but 310,000! Jeez

@andyberg nailed it, the one I’d been imagining in my minds eye is these Benetton ones.. this is perfection! 

[strangeangel]

37 minutes ago, Sir Chocolate Teapot said:

So today's plan.

And i must stick to it.

Go to see this non running aprilia,if cycle parts are in order, siphon old petrol out snd stick some fresh in. If it starts see how it feels, if no start WALK AWAY!

Walk away, walk away.

 

 

The Leonardo was quite popular back in the day on a couple of the scooter forums I used to frequent... I knew four or five people who owned them, and when they were going they were good, but they suffered from all sorts of electrical problems, and getting spares from Aprilia was always hit and miss (I had an SR50 for a while). If it fires straight up with clean fuel I would make a very low offer indeed, if it doesn't... as you say, walk away!

 

[Dave_Q]

56 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

 

The Leonardo was quite popular back in the day on a couple of the scooter forums I used to frequent... I knew four or five people who owned them, and when they were going they were good, but they suffered from all sorts of electrical problems, and getting spares from Aprilia was always hit and miss (I had an SR50 for a while). If it fires straight up with clean fuel I would make a very low offer indeed, if it doesn't... as you say, walk away!

 

Yeah I had a mate who had the 125 version, it did good service but needed a headgasket at least once and was parked up for months waiting for parts from Aprilia.

This was in about 2007 when they were semi-recent so can't imagine it's got better since then.

[Six-cylinder]

I love my Aprilia and I haven't even ridden it.

[hairnet]

thats a long time waiting for yer handbag to arrive :P

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

Yeah I had a mate who had the 125 version, it did good service but needed a headgasket at least once and was parked up for months waiting for parts from Aprilia.

This was in about 2007 when they were semi-recent so can't imagine it's got better since then.

 

Yep, the SR50 I mention was out of action for three months for the want of a carb inlet rubber. There wasn't one in the UK and the factory had gone home for the summer, apparently...

 

[strangeangel]

39 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I love my Aprilia and I haven't even ridden it.

 

All change on the driveway since that shot was taken! Have you still not got your CBT, Chris??

 

[strangeangel]

2 hours ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

Those Suzuki’s are definitely in the right ballpark..
 

I’ve heard nothing but good things about CBR600’s and there seems to be loads about on high mileages but 310,000! Jeez

@andyberg nailed it, the one I’d been imagining in my minds eye is these Benetton ones.. this is perfection! 

 

This was always my favourite colour scheme for a CBR:

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

1 minute ago, strangeangel said:

All change on the driveway since that shot was taken! Have you still not got your CBT, Chris??

I will have had it 3 year in Oct and I still have not done my CBT. Keep nagging!

Thing is while in my eyes the Habana scooter is a real looker and I am happy just to own it, but I do want to ride it as well.

After all your work here it sits, the picture of shame taken just now as it is only 20ft away from me.