South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

As many of you will probably have noticed at the wekend the fairing on my bike is in quite a state. So yesterday night after the ride I took it up to one of my mates in Honiton who's sorting the front out for me ready to be sprayed.. so now the front's all exposed and has revealed a few things..

When I bought the bike it came with no history apart from the MOT certificate and a couple other things. (showing 18000 miles/ish) Today I was sorting out the insulation around the wires whilst the front was off and I started to notice a few things..

-Around the Speedo clock is filled with polyfiller and painted black.. (The revs and temp clocks have a proper rubber seal round them)

-Their are small nuts and washers missing underneath the speedo which fix it to the bracket.

-Theirs dirt on the inside of the speedo (so it's been opened, or not sealed up properly) and the numbers on the mileometer don't quite line up properly (although it's not really obvious).

-The day I got the bike, the speedo cable un-screwed from the back off the speedo whilst out riding home with it. Which gives me the impression it was probably only done up by hand?.. So probably left disconnected by the previouse owner whilst he was using it?..

So, from this I think it's pretty obvious that it's been fiddled with.. but what can i do about this? If anything? Obviously there's no telling how far the bike's been now. And.. I thought tampering with mileage was totally illegal! But.. I know people who ride crossers etc who don't have mileometers at all?

I guess I should have checked it out more when I went to look at it. But I aint gonna dwell on that now.. The bike seems to run nice and is def worth what I paid for

One other thing which kinda ties in with this.. how often should timing chains be replaced? Isn't it around 35K? Or does it vary dependant on the bike and how you ride it? Thanks!, Tom.

ah the joys of used bike buying, i doubt theres fook al you can do now apart from fix the problems

sometimes bikes are cheap for a reason

Probably a long shot, but since its a write off, original clocks could of smashed and he changed replacment set to current milage?

yeh thats what I thought when I first saw all the paint around it.

if its been a write off in the past it could be a few things, the original damage dones with a quick fix or a replacement set from ebay/bike breaker to get the bike back on the road. does sound like the chap bodged it back together so he could sell it and make a few quid

do you even need to have a spedo? Or is it only illegal to put the miles down and sell it pretending it's got less?..

Tom1528 wrote:do you even need to have a spedo? Or is it only illegal to put the miles down and sell it pretending it's got less?..

Yes you need a speedo otherwise how would you know how fast your going when you go past a nasty speed camera, no way of telling mileages without a full service history and those can be stamped and fudged quite easily, generally i just go on overall condition of a bike and not just the miles but even then you can still get taken as i have found with my GPZ and a huge great crack in one of the crankcases behind the sprocket cover where its been over at some point but some creative engineering by the lads at the garage has sorted it out and all welded up again and no longer leaking

Johnnyb wrote:

Tom1528 wrote:do you even need to have a spedo? Or is it only illegal to put the miles down and sell it pretending it's got less?..

Yes you need a speedo otherwise how would you know how fast your going when you go past a nasty speed camera, no way of telling mileages without a full service history and those can be stamped and fudged quite easily, generally i just go on overall condition of a bike and not just the miles but even then you can still get taken as i have found with my GPZ and a huge great crack in one of the crankcases behind the sprocket cover where its been over at some point but some creative engineering by the lads at the garage has sorted it out and all welded up again and no longer leaking

soz.. by speedo i meant speedometer. but i get where ya comin from

Tom1528 wrote:

Johnnyb wrote:

Tom1528 wrote:do you even need to have a spedo? Or is it only illegal to put the miles down and sell it pretending it's got less?..

Yes you need a speedo otherwise how would you know how fast your going when you go past a nasty speed camera, no way of telling mileages without a full service history and those can be stamped and fudged quite easily, generally i just go on overall condition of a bike and not just the miles but even then you can still get taken as i have found with my GPZ and a huge great crack in one of the crankcases behind the sprocket cover where its been over at some point but some creative engineering by the lads at the garage has sorted it out and all welded up again and no longer leaking

soz.. by speedo i meant speedometer. but i get where ya comin from

Odometer

Sounds to me like the chap has been clocking up miles on the bike while the cable hasnt been attatched properly to keep the miles down as you said it came straight out when riding like it wasnt fixed in..

tutton wrote:Sounds to me like the chap has been clocking up miles on the bike while the cable hasnt been attatched properly to keep the miles down as you said it came straight out when riding like it wasnt fixed in..

"The day I got the bike, the speedo cable un-screwed from the back off the speedo whilst out riding home with it. Which gives me the impression it was probably only done up by hand?.. So probably left disconnected by the previouse owner whilst he was using it?.."

Could well be, was just confirming that could of been why init.
same was on the rs when i got it

Speedos
under construction and use regs you need a speedometer reading MPH and KPH in this country, if yuo have a mph/kph speedo only some stickers on the glass will do but it does not need to be working for an mot believe it or not the speedo is not checked on an mot , Tom Did ya buy it off a dealer ? doubt it, 2 did the seller specify it was that specific mileage?? trading standards maybe interested in it
Merv

This from the guy who a few months back was telling us he was riding round with his speedo cable disconnected on thhe bike he was just selling.........................
But Any number of things could have happened with the speedo though, the bikes over 15 years old now though so any number of things could have happened to it in that time. These jap 400's still fetch good money and hardly any of them will have any history to prove the milage thats on the clocks. Cam chains shouldn't need replacing till the bikes covered a fair few miles but i know my bandits one got destroyed, but i think that was due to some dodgy maintenance by a previous owner on the tensioner. I wouldn't worry about it too much though as long as you keep eveything well serviced your bike will be ok for as long as you keep it.

Mervin wrote:Speedos
under construction and use regs you need a speedometer reading MPH and KPH in this country, if yuo have a mph/kph speedo only some stickers on the glass will do but it does not need to be working for an mot believe it or not the speedo is not checked on an mot , Tom Did ya buy it off a dealer ? doubt it, 2 did the seller specify it was that specific mileage?? trading standards maybe interested in it
Merv

nope, i bought it privatly and nope he didnt specify the mileage. So I think you've answered my question on 'can anything be done about it?'.. Although I was pretty sure there was f*ck all that could be done bout it Thanks mate