Cheep Bike Challenge <$1500

Well another post gave me the idea. Please tell us about the bikes that you initialy bought for less than $1500 and please post some pictures. Thanks.

I bought my first motorcycle at 18. It was this 1986 Yamaha Radian (YX600S). Bought in June 2007, three months after taking MSF course and getting my motorcycle endorsement. I originally wanted a Ninja 250/500 but they command too much of a premium for anything in decent condition. I paid $900 for the Radian with 16k miles and a slipping clutch. A new clutch cable helped a ton, and acceleration was all a beginner needed with about 70 horsepower. Also had to put a little bit of money into spark plugs, oil, and a new rear tire, but the money I put into it still was way under $1500. Sold for $1500 in summer 2008 during the really high gas prices. Put almost 4k miles on it in about 4 months of riding.

1986 XL600. Bought in 1996 for $1400. I've since rebuilt the engine and added the supermoto front disk. Home made luggage rack(not installed in this pic).

bought my 1979 gs850 (pic coming) for 800 bucks...i expect i will have less than 500 in the fix up for getting street worthy

It would be fun to get toghether all the guys that payed for their bikes less than 1500 and have a big ride somewhere.

1980 Honda CB650
Bought in 2003 for $650 as a barely running bike. Quick carb cleaning and she purred like a kitten. Even with tires, plugs, a rear rack, sissy bar, insurance for a year and registration I was only around $1200

I ran into a moto club from portland doing a 5-5-5 ride. Bike is under 500ccs, under $500, and older than 1975. They helped me fix my wiring, too.

Nice bike. I used to have one of these, but it was not in nearly good shape as yours.

My Nighthawh 450. $900 in cherry shape. I replaced the clutch, chain, sprockets, cables, and just bought new carb rubbers.
So far I've put almost 30k miles on it in the last 2 years. Never left dead on the road yet, though when the throttle cable broke on I77 in Charlotte, I hand throttled it in rushour traffic to get home.

It's a great little motorcycle.

Bought this 2006 Ninja 250 for $2000 (2 years old with 700 miles), but would sell for less than $1500, if I were selling this bike. Tons of ex250s on the market for less than $1500. Possibly the best deal in motorcycling, if you want a versatile road bike.

Ryan

First bike, a CL 350 "Scrambler" I got in trade for a $400 VW Bug. I rode the hell out of that bike. (SAME BIKE AND COLOR, NOT MINE)

One of my Current bikes:


07 Triumph Scrambler I paid 13 times more for. Kinda similar though, and just as fun.

Jim

Looks just like an F800S without the lowers.

I think there are definitely some similarities between the two bikes' looks. The single, square headlight, the color, etc, etc.

For a while I had a picture on my Ninja 250 profile titled "mini f800st."

Ryan

1994 GS500 - Bought in '03 with ~30,000mi on it for $400.



I had the tank and tail plastics, just had them off trying to fix the carbs, which were FUBAR, along with bent handlebars, rusty everything, etc, etc....

Spent about a year of my spare time slowly buying parts and fixing it up, riding it all the while. Mangaged to turn it into a decent looker and sold it for $2,000 about two years after I bought it.



Of course, the guy I sold it to promptly tried to commit suicide with it.





Still not sure how he snapped both ends off my nice handlebars. Oh well. Cool bike.

trey

I like tose GS500s. I just don't understand why Suzuki painted them in purple. I love how the silver looks like.

I, too, had a Radian as my first bike. Let me tell you, they had nowhere close to 70 HP stock.

Wonderful motorcycle, though. I wish I had more photos handy.



Bought it for $800, put over 10,000 miles on it, put on $200 of tires and sold it for $1000.

Did they detune them from the FJ600? I always thought it was the exact same engine. I can never find published Radian power figures, but I saw 72 horespower for an FJ600 so I figured it was the same. Mine had a slipping clutch the whole time I owned it so I never felt all the horses anyways

A buddy of mine has a Seca II and I know that those engines are also based on the FJ600/Radian engine, but are detuned way low to 61 horespower. all crank figures btw

$1,100, but that was in 1998.

This was in late 2007:



June 2006:




Hell, come to any of the many rallies on http://thegsresources.com and you'll see lots of sub-$1,500 bikes being whipped like rented mules.

2004 Suzuki GS500F, paid $1300

Bought in in Washougal, WA and rode it back to NC with no failures

Bought this 1984 Honda CB700SC for $1500 a few years ago. One of Honda's most reliable. I dreamed about having one for years, then found it.

Beautiful bike. HATED the way it handled. Sold it a few months later...