Next project

Selling the GS500 resulted in some vacant garage floorspace and some
cash burning a hole in my pocket.

In a moment of weakness I bid for a pile of crap otherwise known as
eBay item 220766700748 which may or may not have enough good bits
to make a working Superdream 400.

I did not expect to win but now it is mine. I foresee much tinkering
and fettling to occupy my retirement for the next few months.
Or possibly a visit to the tip. Time will tell.

 

Bwahahahahaha.

You twat.

 

FFS. You can't half pick 'em.

Have you ever actually owned, or even ridden, a decent or even
half-decent motorcycle?

 

The seller should be paying crn to haul that lot of shit away.

The Capitalization Of Every Word In The Auction Description Is
A Dead Giveaway The Seller Is A Mong And Should Be Avoided At
All Costs.

Birds of a feather, I suppose.

 

Cheeky ****.

More than I care to remember. See sig for the current stable, the
CBR in particular is a minter.

You are missing the point - fixing up sad old piles of shite is a
hobby which keeps me out of trouble in my retirement. Sometimes I
make a few quid, sometimes not, but the fettling is the objective.

 

That looks like a Craven top box on the remains of the bloo one.

You should ebay that; I understand they're quite collectable.

 

Yes, it does.

Indeed. I sold one for over £100. It went to Norway. I recently sold a
three-piece set for well over £300 - that went to Greece.

 

You utter mong.

Flog the topbox and any bits that look vaguely serviceable - there must
be some - and get rid of the rest.

 

"No V5 For Either Bike And I Will Not Be Attempting To Get One.
Five Weeks And Still Waiting For Previous Vehicle Registration
Documents."

You've obviously got far too much time on your hands if you're prepared
to try & sort that out.

 

Thus spake SteveH () unto the assembled multitudes:

I'll not hear a word said against Superdreams. Well, not many anyway. I had
one for 3 years. It was pretty reliable. So what if the exhausts and front
mudguard rotted away before my eyes. So what if the rear hub virtually
self-destructed. So what if the steering head bearings wore out in
doublequick time. So what if the camchain tensioner never worked. So what if
the Comstar wheels were lethal in crosswinds. So what if the cambox cover studs
stripped the first time I took them off. So what if the bottom end went
and I ended up having to fit a Dream engine from a scrappie. Er....

Come to think of it... god what a pile of utter crap that bike was

 

Got to say that Number One Child's 250 Super Dream performed
absolutely flawlessly through a year and a half of teenager abuse.
True, it was ultra-low mileage when bought (13k) but it was still 30
years old and had the tits thrashed off it up and down the M40, to
Oxford and back.

I changed the oil and filter religiously, and every so often checked
the tappets, adjusted the tensioner once (there was a work-around for
a seized unit) and that was about it. Those cam cover studs were
notorious for stripping, but that was only because people didn't
realise they only had to be nipped up - there was no oil pressure
under there, and as long as the rubber gasket was in decent nick, it
wouldn't leak.

It rather changed my perception of the 250, that bike. It was
definitely a tad dull, and it needed lots of revs to get anywhere, but
it did the job.

Bought for £225, IIRC, and £150 spent on new pattern silencers, air
filter, oil filter and a new chain. Only other thing that needed
replacement was the speedo drive and cable after the presence of the
disc lock was forgotten :-/ And those were replaced by used Honda 400
Four items I had knocking around, which were exactly the same parts.
Rear tyre was replaced by a nearly-new one off the back wheel of
another 400 Four, too. Ultra-cheap motorcycling.

Sold it for £475 on eBay when the replacement Kawasaki GT550 came
along, and the bod who bought it reckoned it was the sweetest he'd
heard in a long time.

Now I think of it, neighbour had one until recently, as a hack., That
had done nearly 60k miles when he sold it, and still plodded along.

The trouble with the 400 - yes, I had one, once - is the engine is
certainly pokier, but it vibrates a lot more, and the bottom end is a
shade weak.

 

Thus spake TOG@Toil () unto the assembled multitudes:

Took mine (also a 250) from Brighton to Shrewsbury a few times to visit my
mum & dad before I acquired a wife and a car, and it too performed flawlessly
each time, apart from, get this, suffering a rear puncture (a slow one which
was only discovered the next morning) *on each visit*. This was before the
M40 opened, and I used to ride across to Gloucester, then across to
Ross-on-Wye and then up the A49 to Shrewsbury. Lovely ride it was too.

 

Coincidentally, this week's More Crap Than News pitches a modern Honda
CBF250 single against a concours-restored[1] 250 Super Dream, and the
gap isn't that wide. Can't help thinking that a CB250RS would have
been a better comparison - now tht really was a great bike.

[1] Cost the owner £2500, which is more than I'd pay for a Super
Dream, but then as MCN pointed out, that's still a grand less than the
new 250.