Cheep Bike Challenge <$1500

Got another cheapo bike:


Non-running china scooter my room-mate saw on craigslist for free. Less than 30 minutes after it was posted we were lifting it into the back of his SUV.

Apparently it's a 2008 JONWAY YY50QT-6 (which is confusing because the bodywork says SUNL SL50QT-7). Only 177 miles, sitting for a few years it looks like. I cleaned the carb, flushed the tank, lubed the cables and changed the oil and she runs like a champ! GY6 engine with 155psi compression, valves look great, no metal in the oil screen. The only real problem with this scooter is that somebody did a sweet duct-tape paintjob over some of the panels. I'm sure that looked really cool for about 2 weeks...

Between the 1 quart of oil and the 1/2 can of carb cleaner, I'm into this scoot for about $5.

Well I've definitely been eclipsed by the chinese scooter find.

Took the first Triumph for a ride yesterday, then down to the practice parking lot where I let my sons and my friend ride it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdJTL5sVrXM

I could listen to the exhuast all day long.

Good work

Bought this bike for $50 with a title. It had sat outside for a few years. Cleaned the tank (added a fuel filter), and the entire bike. Carb kits and sync'd them up (Thanks Brady @ RetroSpeed). New front tire. Took the brakes apart and cleaned them numerous times last year. Runs really well, put 6,000 miles on it. Here is what it currently looks like. I am going to have the calipers rebuilt (again Brady), valve cover gaskets and valves checked this spring. Really a fun bike to ride!

Custom, with the 10 spd transmission? LOVED mine, sure miss it. What size engine? Mine even had the same backrest. Now that I think about it, I paid less than $1500 so it fits here too... nowhere near as good a deal as yours though.

Yeah, mine is an '82 CB900 Custom. 10 speed, but I usually just keep it on the "HI" setting. Fun bikes! BTW, I run Iridium plugs in my old bikes. Really improves performamce.

so last august i bought a 73 cb350f project from an inmate here for $200, came with about $200 worth of parts, so not bad. full engine gasket and seals kit, chrome spokes/nipples for both wheels, (4) full carb rebuild kits, service manual on CD rom, etc. PO bought it as a project, but stalled out, next PO started to refresh a bit but stalled. along came i.

full refresh on each sub-assembly, too much (and too boring) to list here. sanded and painted the chassis, triples and headlight bucket with spray-bomb enamel. rolling chassis is now complete w/fresh Avon road riders and ready for power. yanked the engine from the parts bike (only 11.4K miles) for cleaning and pulled the engine cases for polishing. ready to install tonight!

next up: pull and clean the pan, pull and check/refresh the head and reinstall with new top end gaskets and valve guide seals, relocate the electrics, fab a seat, fab a battery box, exhaust.

have removed a ton (ok, about 27lbs so far) of weight, installed a set of dragbars, cb750 headlight, single instrument, no blinks.

bike really needed a tank, front fender and rear rim, so a few months ago i bought a nice $400 parts bike, and parted the rest. have sold $530 so far on sohc.net

a coupla pics









will have a total of $890 in the bike, less what i have sold (and will sell) off the parts bike.

haven't serviced the beemer yet, but i think they'll both be ready by riding season. maybe 6 weeks? hope so, and regards.
bobp

Very nice build project.
Wish I had the patience to tear my project down like you did.

Bought this bike for $280.00 working on the final price but looks like its going to be around $750 running titled driving

Picked up this '96 DR350SE a couple weeks ago for $600. It has 6100 miles on it and I've put about $75 into it to rebuild the carb, and replace the busted turn signals and levers. It runs well, just have to set the valves, adjust the chain, and get it registered.



Eventually, I'll repaint it to get rid of the PO's horrible rattle-can job but I got it for use as a commuter that I won't feel bad about getting beat on a little, so the way it looks doesn't bother me too much.

Before...

After...

Just picked this out of a shed 15000 miles even has the key for $120 everything is accounted for just needs to be put together. last time it ran was 1996 massage her abused heart, threw lightning into her soul, put blood into her veins, and she breathed fire aka cleaned the carbs hooked up a battery put clean gas in and it fired right up!

Had it been sitting since 96 with the valve cover off?

IDK but took me a couple hours of scrubbing, and I took out a lot of crud. But I think the crud saved it because it was soaked in oil so the rust was just slight surface.

free bike

Do tell

yes, i'd like to hear about the white speedster too.


jk. isn't that little 50cc Yami promotional thingy bike?

Yeah it is a Yamaha RX50 promo bike that was built to look like their midnight specials. Each dealer got one to raffle off in order to bring people into the showroom to look at the bigger bikes for sale.

The bike was parked in a corner of the building I rented for my business when I changed locations. I pushed it from corner corner a couple of years and finally did a title search to try to find the owner. Turns out he was a good customer of mine. He said he sold it at a garage sale years ago, but couldn't find the title at the time though did later. In Idaho the last registered owner is the owner regardless of alleged sales. I told him that and even mentioned that if he wanted to be cruel he could claim it legally. He declined and brought the title down to me the next day signed and legal. I offered him money for it, "name a reasonable price" I said. He told me "no, I have already sold it once." Nice guy.

I cleaned the carb and fixed a couple of things and now it is my fun little parts runner. Revs to 10,000 RPM readily and feels real peppy till you look down at the speedo after running through a few gears and see you are doing 30 MPH. It is a kick to ride though regardless.

The Speedster belongs to another customer of mine, he brings it in every year to check it out and revive it after sitting most of the year. Obviously a collectable car, 55 Speedster, 5600 miles on it. Looks like new. Even has the original sticker on the windshield that shows gear pattern. He has other cars too, we just finished up the carbs on his Healley 3000, black with red inserts, a joy to look at. I meant to get a picture of the 50 in front of it too but missed my chance, at least for this year.

I was planning to take a shot of the 50 in front of all of his collectables one by one. Soon to come, 911. 996, Mercedes 220 convertible, maybe more that I don't know about yet.