Sig change: Am I mad ?

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.dll?ViewItem&item=200353457377
With any luck it will just need a fresh battery and some carb cleaning.
Did I pay too much ?

 

Um, it may have only done 680km because it keeps breaking down.

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.

 

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.

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.

 

Heh. Bidder 18 probably did the same thing and is now thanking his
lucky stars that you were there.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I'm the only person I've seen quote it on ukrm, and I nicked it from a
newspaper columnist - can't remember which.

 

So it was probably Champ quoting you quoting someone else. Either way
it's a good quote.

Though possibly with a few exceptions, the one person that thinks it's
worth more than the winning bidder is the seller.

 

Well....
Bodged a spare battery onto it, cleaned the plugs, drained the tank.
A gallon of fresh fuel, drained the carbs, refilled, drained again.
Started after a quick sniff of Easy Start but only running on the
right 2 cylinders. Rechecked spark - 1&2 both OK.
Smelt fuel, found that carbs 1&2 are flooding out of the overflow pipes
so it looks like the floats are sticky. If sitting in fresh fuel
overnight does not fix it I will have to pull them out and do some
cleaning.

General condition is not bad but not good. It needs a left side panel
and a good cleanup. Some twerp has sprayed the chrome rear mudguard
matt black, the visible parts are actually OK but the usual rot under
the seat.

So far, so good. It is only costing time which I have plenty of as a
pensioner.

 

Or the float valve seat seals have hardened and are no longer sealing.
See this month's Classic Bike for an ilustrated article on how to fix
them.

 

Progess is being made ....

The carbs were badly shitted up, as can be expected for something left
standing since the tax disk ran out in 10/01. Much cussing getting the
damn things out with short stubby fingers. I have a nice box of Lidl's
assorted O rings so the silicone bodge was not required.
The engine now sounds nice and sweet so no worries there.
If nobody asks me for the engine I will continue fettling.

The brakes are sticky, a strip and clean should fix that.
I need to find a BOL or at least a wiring diagram, the indicators are
not working and it does not seem to be charging, I suspect both problems
are due to corroded connections rather than expensive parts.

Onwards and upwards....

 

Good start.

They all do that and it's the front so it'll be a stuck arm.

Good luck, you'll need it.

 

Brakes - see Timo's answer. That'll be the silly pivoting arm front
caliper.

Charging - almost certainly the connections, as the old SOHC fours all
have super-reliable charging systems, in my experience.

 

Not on this one, it has the Superdream forks and wheels [1]. The rear brake
was dragging, fixed with some WD40 where the armspline enters the drum.
BTW I also have the (tatty) original forks & wheels - they could be
restored but ICBA at the moment.

Thats what I thought. Do you know of a downloadable wiring diagram
or BOL, if not I will order a Haynes BOL from Spamazon.

[1] Is this a common modification ?, the superdream wheels look quite
good, are lighter, and take tubeless tyres.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot.

Um, I've got some decent wheels and forks, actually. Obviously, you'll
need the original brake assembly, though.

I've got two or three Haynes BOLs in my garage. Drop us your snail mail
address (my addie in sig) and I'll post one off to you.

It's more common to see a 400 Super Dream front end, because that gives
you the double disc. The 250's single disc is no better than the 400
Four's. I don't think the Comstars are much lighter, actually. They do
look nice, as you say, but obviously these days everyone wants
originality.

 

In my experience on a 250 SuperDream, Comstar wheels are terrifying in a
strong crosswind, even if they do look nice.