Having flogged the LE and the CB250RS I had some vacant space.

First the not-quite-so-daft bit, my cage is 2.5 tons of Renault Master
minibus chewing 90 quid in diesel every month, and half of the miles
are short trips to the supermarket which is not good for the engine but
ICBA to get a bike out and put it away again for a 5 mile round trip.
Enter a (sort of) bargain. A chinese scoot with only 680km in 3 years
for the price of 3 months diesel. All I need now is a top box and I have
a disposable plastic shopping trolley that can live outside ready to go.

The next bit is a bit of an unknown until I collect it, a 500/4 project.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=200353457377
With any luck it will just need a fresh battery and some carb cleaning.
Did I pay too much ?

--
03 GS500K2
76 Honda 400/4 project
68 Bantam D14/4 Sport (Classic)
06 Sukida SK50QT (Slanty eyed shopping trolley)

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Having flogged the LE and the CB250RS I had some vacant space.
>
> First the not-quite-so-daft bit, my cage is 2.5 tons of Renault Master
> minibus chewing 90 quid in diesel every month, and half of the miles
> are short trips to the supermarket which is not good for the engine but
> ICBA to get a bike out and put it away again for a 5 mile round trip.
> Enter a (sort of) bargain. A chinese scoot with only 680km in 3 years
> for the price of 3 months diesel. All I need now is a top box and I have
> a disposable plastic shopping trolley that can live outside ready to go.

Um, it may have only done 680km because it keeps breaking down.
>
> The next bit is a bit of an unknown until I collect it, a 500/4 project.
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=200353457377
> With any luck it will just need a fresh battery and some carb cleaning.
> Did I pay too much ?

It's a 400 Four, not a 500. You outbid me on it. The wheels are off a
250 Super Dream. Carb cleaning could be an utter nightmare. Rear guard
is dead. Front guard is one of those universal chrome thingies. And you
can see what the left-hand panel is, or isn't.

I'd budget £100 for a carb ultrasound clean. Another £100 on new oil,
plugs, air filter, battery, oii filter and one or two odds and sods.

Plus add 50% for the stuff that's buggered but which you can't see.

And another ton on tax and ticket, as near as. So you're up to over a
grand and we haven't got the cosmetics sorted yet. Yes, you paid too
much. As a breaker, the parts will fetch about a grand, so you won't be
out of pocket. The exhaust alone looks near-perfect: I sold one two
weeks ago for nearly £300.

If the kickstart knuckle isn't broken, that's another £40-60 depending
on the chrome. Always sell the kickstart separate from the engine. The
engine itself - £75 as is, of closer to £300 if you can get it running
and prove it runs sweetly.



--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F & XBR500 Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER
If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. And RTFM.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

In uk.rec.motorcycles The Older Gentleman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Having flogged the LE and the CB250RS I had some vacant space.
> >
> > First the not-quite-so-daft bit, my cage is 2.5 tons of Renault Master
> > minibus chewing 90 quid in diesel every month, and half of the miles
> > are short trips to the supermarket which is not good for the engine but
> > ICBA to get a bike out and put it away again for a 5 mile round trip.
> > Enter a (sort of) bargain. A chinese scoot with only 680km in 3 years
> > for the price of 3 months diesel. All I need now is a top box and I have
> > a disposable plastic shopping trolley that can live outside ready to go.
>
> Um, it may have only done 680km because it keeps breaking down.

Actually no, it belonged to a woman FOAF who used it for a month, had
a scare, and put in the garage for 3 years. All it needed was fresh fuel
and a battery. An oil change would probably be a good idea.


> > The next bit is a bit of an unknown until I collect it, a 500/4 project.
> > http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=200353457377
> > With any luck it will just need a fresh battery and some carb cleaning.
> > Did I pay too much ?
>
> It's a 400 Four, not a 500. You outbid me on it. The wheels are off a
> 250 Super Dream. Carb cleaning could be an utter nightmare. Rear guard
> is dead. Front guard is one of those universal chrome thingies. And you
> can see what the left-hand panel is, or isn't.

Yep the 500 was a tyop. How much did I outbid you by, I was rather surprised
that a last minute bidder almost beat me.
It is rather close to you, did you get to look at it ?

--
03 GS500K2
76 Honda 400/4 project
68 Bantam D14/4 Sport (Classic)
06 Sukida SK50QT (Slanty eyed shopping trolley)

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Yep the 500 was a tyop. How much did I outbid you by, I was rather surprised
> that a last minute bidder almost beat me.
> It is rather close to you, did you get to look at it ?

Didn't look at it, no, and only bid £480 because I could see the flaws.

--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F & XBR500 Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER
If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. And RTFM.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

In uk.rec.motorcycles.classic The Older Gentleman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Yep the 500 was a tyop. How much did I outbid you by, I was rather surprised
> > that a last minute bidder almost beat me.
> > It is rather close to you, did you get to look at it ?
>
> Didn't look at it, no, and only bid £480 because I could see the flaws.

Harumpf.
I got hoisted on my own bad habits with this one.
Bidders tend to fight with a load of "a few quid more" bids at the last minute
so I use a stupidly high last minute bid to make them run out of time.
On this occasion somone else did the same thing for a few quid less than
me and I got caught for my stupid max.

Time will tell just how daft I was.

--
03 GS500K2
76 Honda 400/4 project
68 Bantam D14/4 Sport (Classic)
06 Sukida SK50QT (Slanty eyed shopping trolley)

On 22 June, 09:43, c...@NOSPAM.netunix.com wrote:
> In uk.rec.motorcycles.classic The Older Gentleman <totallydeadmail...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > <c...@NOSPAM.netunix.com> wrote:
>
> > > Yep the 500 was a tyop. How much did I outbid you by, I was rather surprised
> > > that a last minute bidder almost beat me.
> > > It is rather close to you, did you get to look at it ?
>
> > Didn't look at it, no, and only bid £480 because I could see the flaws.
>
> Harumpf.
> I got hoisted on my own bad habits with this one.
> Bidders tend to fight with a load of "a few quid more" bids at the last minute
> so I use a stupidly high last minute bid to make them run out of time.
> On this occasion somone else did the same thing for a few quid less than
> me and I got caught for my stupid max.
>
Heh. Bidder 18 probably did the same thing and is now thanking his
lucky stars that you were there.

> Time will tell just how daft I was.
>
>
It's not so bad. You'll just have to be ruthless. Try and get it going
with a jump-start and some fresh petrol, and the plugs that are in it
cleaned. If it runs sweetly then, it might be worth continuing. If,
OTOH, it splutters and misfires, or doesn't even run it all, forget
it.

At this stage you'll have spent nowt, but if you think: "Oh, well, I'm
sure the misfire can easily be sorted..." then you'll be in the smelly
stuff. Just break it for parts. If you look at my completed auctions,
you'll see what 400 Four stuff goes for.

Oh, and list all the little grommets and clips. Like the clutch cable
guide that's bolted to the rocker cover. And the wire cable guides.
And the genuine engine breather pipe (if it's still on it). These are
all worth money. You'll turn a profit on it.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I got hoisted on my own bad habits with this one.
> Bidders tend to fight with a load of "a few quid more" bids at the last minute
> so I use a stupidly high last minute bid to make them run out of time.
> On this occasion somone else did the same thing for a few quid less than
> me and I got caught for my stupid max.

I was struggling with this one recently, especially when you get to
larger bid increments; is it worth putting in an early bid where to be
outbid the bidder would need to go over a psychological barrier, or is
it still worth the last minute bid of what you're willing to pay [2]

In the end I went for the last minute bid and pleasantly get it for less
than I'd offered the bloke as a cash payment during the auction :-)


[1] Pay more for something than anyone else thinks it's worth (c) Champ
[2] Rather than something stupidly high, which seems err stupid.

Gyp wrote:
>I was struggling with this one recently, especially when you get to
> larger bid increments; is it worth putting in an early bid where to be
> outbid the bidder would need to go over a psychological barrier, or is
> it still worth the last minute bid of what you're willing to pay [2]

Turns out I was talking bollocs. I thought that a bid of, say, £4920
could only be beater by a bid of £5020, but apparently not unless the
bidding is already at £4920.

If the next lower bidder is, say, £3000, a bid of £4920.01 would become
the high bidder.

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:07:30 +0100, Gyp <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>[1] Pay more for something than anyone else thinks it's worth (c) Champ

While I'd love to take credit, I'm not at all sure that this quote
should be attributed to me.
--
Champ

ZX10R (road), ZX10R (race; breaking), GPz750 turbo (classic) Hayabusa (touring)
To email me, neal at my domain should work.

Champ wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:07:30 +0100, Gyp <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> [1] Pay more for something than anyone else thinks it's worth (c) Champ
>
> While I'd love to take credit, I'm not at all sure that this quote
> should be attributed to me.

It's a good quote though, don't fight it.

--
Gyp
R1150R R80RT R65RS
replace .co.uk with .com to reply