I had a quick look at the bike just now. Seems a pretty tidy, straight, unmolested example to me. No obvious signs of being dropped. The only major cosmetic fault was an area of paint missing off the left hand mirror stem. Some corrosion on the headers and the joint with the can. Experts can judge whether it is enough to worry about (except that the close up joint photo is even more blurred than the rest). Looks in much better nick than the other one. Swinging arm seemed sound. The chain and sprocket are far from new, but teeth could be worse. It was hooked up to an Optimate when I arrived. They reckoned this was routine and that they were working round all the bikes, but it may raise a question mark over the battery. It certainly fired up immediately and sounded sweet enough to me. If you look closely the shininess doesn't come anywhere near Lozzo standards down at the fastener level, but far better than the previous candidate IMO. Sat on it and cycled the forks and suspension as much as my puny weight would allow without any nasty clonks or over soft or hardness. Couldn't detect any play in the swinging arm or wheel bearings. Front brake seemed good and firm. Clutch lever action heavier, although smooth enough, than I expected for a 600, but I am used to a hydraulic actuated one on the tart. A bit cagey about service history, but I checked the last MoT certificate, which was in May 2009 and it has only done about 300 miles since then. I dare say it would come with a full ticket as part of a deal. They said it would be serviced but didn't mention the suspension and bearing greasing your buyers guide talks about at 16000. I see the valve clearances shouldn't need doing until 28K. As you will see I am not very good at driving a digital camera, cold shaky hands and forgetting to check depth of field, but some not particularly hi-res photos here: http://www.flarefox.com/TC/ A link with original camera images plus some MPEG [1] of it being started and run is available for cat's eyes only on email request. [1] Including a running commentary by the very friendly 'yamyam' I talked with, to get you used to the accent. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Thanks ever so much, I booked my train ticket last night to come up tomorrow. The optimate isn't TOO baffling because in a fit of panic I called up to check if it was road legal. I sort of plan on riding home. They said that they can MOT it inside the day, so yes, a year's ticket. Not sure what happens about tax, mind. The cleanliness looks ok to me, the swing arm looks nice. Not all manky like the last one. Concerns over the exhaust might be worth me mumbling about, they're £200 odd for a SS set. 2000 miles away from the large service, ho hum. I'll drop you an email in a sec for linkies to videos. It was very good of you to check it out for me, thanks.
In communiqué You wouldn't believe how many times I have to redo Ebay shots. Should have taken my reading glasses to check the results on the tiny LCD screen. I made sure the first one in the directory was particularly blurred for maximum amusement and impressionist effect. The rest are hopefully just about good enough for the intended purpose. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
I emailed what's in the headers from a hotmail account btw, no idea if that will have arrived, but fyi it was sent. I think if I can make it across the roundabout alive I should be ok by legs. Cheers.
Arrived OK. Video links emailed. OK. It's easy enough to find. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
The exhaust doesn't look that bad at all. Rest of it looks clean, nice blob of copper grease on the brake pins as well.
There's nothing wrong with that exhaust, they look like that after 6 months. You have to remember it's a mild steel system with some pretty cheap matt black paint waved at it, so it will look a bit brown after a few years. There's not what I'd call corrosion on those pipes, in fact the ones on my GSXR1000 were far worse and so were my Thunderace and ZX9R ones. That bike there has hardly been used in the wet and I dare say it's never seen a salted road... buy it.
See, I told you I knew nothing of fours - particularly fully faired ones. I regularly (well once every couple of years) have the pipes off the Morini and redo the high temperature paint, but that's pretty easy on a naked twin. The Nordwest had stainless headers and so does the Voxan. It did look pretty well cared for, but I'm sure Cat will do a road test before making a final decision. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
