Pipe dream or possibility?

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Sep 17th, '07, 21:47

i have decided to sell my bike for the winter, as i dont get much opportunity to use it at uni, and cant really afford the insurance either.

i have always loved streetfighters, and so ive hatched this plan. I was just hoping to see if anyone thinks its possible. I want to buy a low cat write off or salvaged sports 600, preferably 01 - 03, not really too fussed about which jap manufacture it comes from (keep my options open) basically a bike which is aesthetically ruined but mechanically and structurally sound. Then spend the winter at uni working on it, getting it ready for summer. I'd strip all the fairings and body work, fibre glass filler and respray the tank and seat unit (matt black), bin the rest. replace the clip-ons with a set of renthals and some bug eyes. a few other performance mods (handling not engine) basically a tasteful looking streetfighter, not some horror which looks like a star-trek prop. I was hoping to spend £1500 on the bike, and maybe another £500 getting looking how i want. It would essentially be my dream bike, the question is, is it doable? man hours aren’t a problem as i do feck all at uni anyways

Funky · Post by **Funky** » Sep 17th, '07, 21:52

I'd say it's doable mate, you're only really limited by your imagination. For a cheap bike, like a cat c write off i'd look on ebay or bike trader or mcn, i'd also speak to speedy. I would think you might want more than 500 pounds to do it up but it depends what you want to do.

What is your bike and how much you selling it for? i need a winter hack.

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Sep 17th, '07, 22:21

depends what you want from a winter hack? its 1999 cb750, i bought it this summer to drive to andorra and back because i didnt fancy doing it on a sports bike, plan was to give it a good clean and stick in the garage while im at uni and wait for a good sale and a bike to come up that i want to buy to streetfighter. Probably looking around the £1300 mark, still got 10 months mot, serviced just before i left, new battery, recent front and rear tyre, datatagged, scottoiler and some other stuff i forget (this i just off the top of my head

)

my only concern is if i buy a damaged bike, i might miss something and end up having to pour money into it. Ideally would like a damaged 03 r6 but doubt i could pick up even a crashed one for £1500

tony · Post by **tony** » Sep 17th, '07, 22:47

easily dooable, BUT are YOU capable of it!!

not being funny but I can build magazine feature custom bikes for £2k, but others cant, its all about knowing your abilities and working to them

finding out what bits fit what to make life easier and cheaper

example, my RD350ypvs has RGV front and rear end, the older RWU forks etc, so I decide I want to streetfighter it, have to really as my back wont let me ride with clipons, so the easy route is either buy/have made a billet top yoke with bar mounts £120, or... get hold of a set of 600 bandit yokes, sime dia fork legs, exactly the same centres between fork legs, slightly different offset from headstock to forks hence the need for the pair, they also use the same bore size bearings 30mm id as the YPVS headstock spindle

so after swapping the headstock spindles from the RGV lower yoke into the bandit lower yoke you just got a nice set of yokes that require no new wheel or caliper spacers to be made, and now you can mount handlebars properly

total cost £30

just 1 example of many but its all about what your prepared to play about with and mix and match

ypvs frame with RGV headstock spindle, bandit yokes, RGV forks and wheels with GSXR brakes

all nice and easy

for what its worth my favourite bikes for fightering just because I have found the parts swappability

so good is kwak and suzuki

just have a good look at the bike with no plastics, many of the water cooled motors with all the pipework etc look nasty without the fairings etc, why not look for something thats already in the right sort of styling, bandit, or the new shape Zed they are very nice

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Sep 17th, '07, 22:57

i know i'll certainly have alot of learning to do, orginally i planned to use a hornet. But once i looked at my list of mods i wanted to get my desired performance i realised it'd be cheaper to start with a sports 600. I know what you mean about alot of the bikes looking ugly without that fairing, though the r6's dont seem so bad, in a dream world this is the sort of bike i'd like to end up with (except black and with bug eyes

)

http://www.x3m-bikeshowteam.com/images/ ... av_JPG.htm

tony · Post by **tony** » Sep 17th, '07, 23:08

should be well within your budget if you stiock to good engineered parts, spend time in the breakers getting bits that either fit or can be made to fit with minimum fuss and problems

with regards to the state of the initial purchase bike I would rather err on the side of caution, buy as good a bike as possible, certainly not a write off, in view of any future insurance complications etc, but you can always remove and sell the unwanted parts on evilbay and recoup cash that way

or a stolen recovered with plasitcs and things like exhaust missing, that would lower the value to joe bloggs in the street but for your purpose its ideal, you dont want the plastics, and exhausts are a piece of piss to make. especially on a fighter or custom etc, you can route it where you like, build an underseat system or high level system etc,

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Sep 17th, '07, 23:21

thanks for the adivce tony, great stuff

could you recommend any good salvage yards that might be worth a look? ebay seems to have very few damaged bikes on at the moment.

CvPiper · Post by **CvPiper** » Sep 18th, '07, 06:07

Have a quick look here mate
http://www.dhales.co.uk/

They have a YZF600 and an older GSXR750, would make a perfect street fighter.

tony · Post by **tony** » Sep 18th, '07, 06:13

for bits that you might need theres the one and only ................................ slowly LOL oh sorry mean speedy

off the top of my head cant think of anything up there that would be what your after but worth giving him a ring, think hes mainly breaking them up

other than that theres the bike hut in bristol, they do some cracking deals on lightly damaged or stolen recovered
http://www.bikehutbristol.co.uk/motorcy ... eblade.htm

or I dealt with SDMS some while back, south devon motorcycle services?? think they plymouth way

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Sep 18th, '07, 17:51

tony you're my offical guru

its great that place is in bristol as thats where im at uni so it'll be easy to swing by and take a look. At first at thought i'd avoid the 750s/700 just because i think the tail piece is a bit too chunky for a streetfighter. but then i figured, hey if im doing this i should do i properly and theres no reason why i cant put on any seat unit i like or even cut the subframe down and go single seat (perhaps too adventureous)

Mike Daytona600 · Post by **Mike Daytona600** » Sep 18th, '07, 18:29

What you're planning on doing sounds like good fun Tom. If you do go ahead make sure you post up pics and reports on your progress cos I recon would make good reading.

With regards to parts you could also try CMS in Exeter or partfinder and partsearch... After speedy of course.

Mike Daytona600 · Post by **Mike Daytona600** » Sep 18th, '07, 18:31

Oh and I valet bikes for work (which is more than cleaning and polishing) so if you want any tips on making stuff look as good as new give me a shout

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Sep 18th, '07, 19:15

yeah will do mike, want to make a good project of it. At the moment i should have about £1400 for the bike, £500 to invest buying the parts i need to get going. Ive done my student loan/rent/direct debits and i've worked out i can spare £50 a week, every week to buy things i need. Which should roughly keep up with the pace i'll be working at.

Thanks for all the advice everyone you have no idea how much its appreciated, already feels so much more achievable

Tom L · Post by **Tom L** » Oct 19th, '07, 00:22

found this on ebay, think i might have found what ive been looking for, any suggestions. Too much missing maybe? i like the fact its been stripped down, so i can get looking exactly how i want. any comments welcome

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1998-KAWASAKI-ZX- ... dZViewItem

DynaMight · Post by **DynaMight** » Oct 19th, '07, 07:08

That bike is a write off, swingarm is dented so most likely bent. Has a crack in the frame! no way this had a little slide down the road. You can buy perfectly working 'slightly tatty' ZX6R's of this age for around £1000-1200.