Cheep Bike Challenge <$1500

Awesome!!!

I got the bike free from a friend a couple years ago. Blew a crank seal while tuning it and then found the frame was tweaked. Same friend spotted an F11 hulk at another a local dirt track and I picked it up for $100, good frame, wheels and partial motor.

Before:



After:



It was a lot of time, but the budget was nearly nothing. With the rattle cans, title, plate, tires, piston, bars, grips, battery eliminator, gaskets and seals, etc I'm probably in it for $450 to $500.

Have a set of motard wheels mocked up that I need to finish. It still needs turn signals, a seat cover, air box rubber and a few other odds and ends, but it is running pretty good.

This one will stay under $750 for sure

Great job. Good to see somebody restoring the smaller bikes. Quite a few beautifully done smaller cc bikes at MidOhio Vintage Days.

So:

1976 750 Honda for $1000, back in 1978 :)


1978 750 Honda for $450 5 years ago


1971 Triumph Trophy 650 traded for a stained glass window I fixed for $25


1965 Honda 305 dream for $400 purchased in 1981


1970 Suzuki T250II hustler for $1100


1971 Yamaha RT1 360 for $800. Still needs restoration


1971 CT90, free as a true bike in boxes. was my Grandpas until my cousins inherited and totaly thrashed it. I restored it.


1973 Z50, in a box, for $50 then rebuilt.


1979 XR500. Only bike I still don't have (but sure wish I did) bought in 81 and made into street tracker (a bike ahead of it's time). Paid $500 for it back then, needed some work. Great bike that I surely miss.

Nice collection. It's cool that you still have most of them.

Has some warts, but i thought $1300 was not so bad. 10,000 miles, now has 13,500

Bought my girlfriend the same bike. I got my 2000 DRZ400s for $1500 as part of the sale also.

Barbie colors. Groovy!

I prefer "surf punk" graphics as Cycle World called them back in the day.

That color scheme is why the girlfriend got the KLX and I got the DRZ. I couldn't bring myself to be seen with the Barbie colors.

The guys on Harley won't make eye contact

They will when they see the long pig tails coming outta the back of her helmet.

I got this one for free:

I also got a parts bike for free too. Couldn't salvage much, but I did need the stator to get the other bike's charging system working:


After sticking about $200 in it for tires, brakes, battery, and getting it registered, it's street legal and very fun. Not as off road capable as I would have liked, but hey, it's 40 years old!


I paid $1400 for this one back in '98. Just sold it a couple of years ago. '86 VT700. Fun bike, but a bit too small for me at 6'5"



My most recent purchase - '94 KTM 620 EXC. Runs great, but I'll have to stick some time and money into it to rebuild the shocks. $1200:

got her yesterday: $800. 86 fz600 pure sports, owner did his damn best to keep her in pristine shape. even has the seat cowl!

but not run in several years, rust starting-- a project but a good one. looks better in person, my cell phone washed out the colors- not as faded in person!

It isn't running, and is missing a few minor parts, but has good compression, and is decent condition otherwise. The frame paint is actually still glossy.

















With some of its stablemates.

My son picked up this 2002 Triumph Sprint ST with 22,000 miles on it about a month or so ago for $1400 (after selling off a couple of extras that came with it). He didnt have much money to spend (poor college student status!), so was looking for a project bike that would be a big step up from his 1984 Honda Nighthawk (his first street bike.). The Triumph had been lightly crashed, and various body panels replaced with mis-matched pieces. It needed some fairly minor mechanical attention and some routine maintenance - rear tire, rear brake pads, front rotors (one was warped I assume from when it was dropped, change of fluids etc. It came with a full set of soft luggage - tank bag, saddle bags, and a tail pack, along with 1 extra belly pan panel, OEM hard saddle bag brackets, and a Haynes service manual and a few other goodies. Picked it up for $1500 including the extras. As he already had soft luggage (except for the tailbag), sold off a tank bag and saddle bags for $100 - so net of $1400 initial purchase price. Still plan to sell the hard bag brackets for a few bucks.

After some careful ebay shopping for some good used rotors, tracking down a good deal on the rear tire and brakes, and finding a low cost paint job - it looks much better now! The color is Hemi Orange from a 2008 Dodge Challenger. (the pics tend to make it look alot more red than it really is). Total into it AFTER all the the work is $2,000. We had not set out to buy a Triumph - but I had bought my first Triumph the past winter (2001 Trophy 1200) - it's great getting out for a ride with both of us on Brit bikes

Here is a before shot - of the relatively "pretty side": I do like that BRG (British Racing Green though.



not as nice from this side:



kind of a split personality sort of look going on here:



even the replacement stuff that had been put on before we got it was not all that nice:



BUT...MUCH Better looking now! Not to shabby for as little as we have into it.





And here it is just before heading out to do a ride around Lake Superior:

Nice! Get some stockish decals on that thing, and I think it would look much better.

Lucky you! I think you got one of the last ones that are still in one piece.

yeah I've had my eye out for one for a while- took a long time to find one that still had its plastics intact. Guy apologized because he lost the little plastic ring behind one of the headlights and one screw that holds the chain guard on.

second owner -bought in 1990. I want to ride this thing so I really need to be careful not to scratch it!

GI - Thanks. that's exactly our plan - he ran out of $ before we got there - so looks like that may be a Christmas present. I Found some that look nearly OEM online - plan to do them in black, but where the "ST" is below the Sprint, to have the ST in a dark blue. Should look great!