Motorbike Bangernomics

ILW

scotsman4th wrote: »

Was it cheap as chips in the spirit of bangernomics? Then yes it does.

Apparently it was £59.00 when brand new.

Rolandtheroadie

ILW wrote: »

Apparently it was £59.00 when brand new.

About £1700 in todays money. What would be comparable to it these days?

skivenov

My knocking about bike is a 2000 Peugoet Scoot'Elec. Paid £400 for it about 10 years ago, and so far it's had a fuse, a transmission oil change, brake cables and a pair of tyres.

£80 a year to insure, tax and test exempt with it, and 50p to £1 to fill it up with electrons

The downside is 30mph flat out, but I only use it for nipping around town and saving money on parking.

Generally speaking though, if it's old and its lived this long, its going to be reliable

andygb

Years ago, when I was rebuilding/converting to a cafe racer my GPz 550, I bought a Honda VT250 for £750. It was in mint condition, a lovely fast bike (for its size), and I sold it on for £1100.

sterlingstash

The best hack has to be an old BMW F650 funduro. Totally bomb proof engine, simple to service yourself and one of those bikes that is just great fun to ride. You can pick them up for under a grand now - same price as a 125 scooter

suffolkb

My bad weather bike is a 1994 MZ301. 69,000km on the clock and trying to go over 100K. Cheap to run and insure and highly unlikely to be stolen.
It stopped today, but it turned out to be a battery connector coming off.

silverwhistle

It's good to hear people actually using motorbikes for transport! Many years ago I didn't drive and had an MZ250 with full fairing. Then in my late 20s I bought a house and needed transport for goods so went out and paid for 6 hours of lessons to pass my car test and spent £100 on a banger, the bike broke down and I've never ridden since! Ever since bikes have always seemed like dry weather boys' toys or a chance for us girls to look good in leather, and I've always had better things to spend my limited money on.

But biker bangernomics appeals.:-)

Richard53

I had a superb Ducati GT1000, and then changed jobs. The new commute involved 200 yards of mud and !!!! at the work end (new site being built) and it broke my heart to get the Duke filthy every day. So I went on eBay and bought a 1993 Yamaha XT600E for around £900 as a daily hack. For various reasons the Duke got sold and from then on I had a string of 'proper' bikes on the driveway, but it was always the XT that did the daily grind, and if I just wanted to hop on for a spin it was always the XT that got the nod. My 'posh' bikes got very little use.

I took it off the road late last year, as it needed chain & sprox and new tyres, and I thought it would be good to do a mild restoration on it, tidy up the wiring, powdercoat the frame and so on. It's probably worth about £100 at the moment, so it's cost me less than £200 a year, and when I have it back in shape it will be ready for another five years of daily use. I'll never sell it, so the cash value is irrelevant, but it has cost me peanuts to run - tyres, chain, pads, a drop of oil every 4000 miles. Oh, and 55-60 mpg.

One thing with bangerbikes - to make economic sense, you have to be able to do servicing and at least the minor repairs yourself. If you have to visit a dealership every time something goes wrong, it'll cost you.

Richard53

ontrack wrote: »

Best one I did was buy an old V50 Guzzi on eBay for £160 rebuilt it took it to mandello(Guzzi factory) sold it when I got back
The whole thing bike rebuild holiday fuel everything cost me £100

I had a V50II back in the mid-80s. It's the bike I regret selling the most. If I found my old one (it's still on the road), I'd buy it back in a heartbeat.

andygb

Richard53 wrote: »

I had a V50II back in the mid-80s. It's the bike I regret selling the most. If I found my old one (it's still on the road), I'd buy it back in a heartbeat.

There is definitely something about Italian bikes, even if they had a bit of a reputation for being unreliable.
I never owned one, but the ones I lusted after were - Ducati 250 Desmo, Ducati 748, Laverda Jota, Moto Guzzi Lemans, Morini 350 V twin, ALL MV Agustas.
I believe that there is an MV racing at the Island this year.:)