RantMachine

Just goes to show that there are some perfectly decent deals out there!

Niiiiiiice Here are your afternoon selections, peeps: Opening up with a potentially tidy little Jap bike SUZUKI GN125 - £250 https://www.gumtree.com/p/suzuki-motorbikes/suzuki-gn125/1155366125 Looks a bit rusty around the spokes and some other spots, but not bad over all! Garaged for two years but was a runner when it was put away. Could be a steal! Lovely engine, dead simple to work with. Not too shabby. Wait, is that oil on the left casing...? CCM RL125 - £250 https://www.gumtree.com/p/ccm-motorbikes/ccm-125/1155411441 Wants a new front caliper and a new speedo cable (or wing it with a gps speedo), supposedly fine otherwise. But that really does look like oil on the casing... wonder where it came from? Another one for Glorian here... SINNIS STEALTH 125 - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/sinnis-motorbikes/sinnis-stealth-125cc-64-plate/1155766843 The good news? Whacking great fuel tank. And it still runs. Fine, in fact. Okay, so the current owner has misplaced fourth gear. How bad can that be? Just get used to pulling a double shift. Another little Suzuki! Seriously, I love these things... SUZUKI GS125 - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/suzuki-motorbikes/suzuki-gs-125-spares-or-repair-/1155738315 Needs some love, this one. New rear shocks and swingarm bushes, but I reckon you should be able to get some chinese shocks that fit and cost absolute peanuts. MIGHT need forks, but no detail there. If it's just the seals, I reckon this could be a winner. The good bits: all paperwork including an MOT (somehow), and presumably it runs fine. Needs some work to get it road legal, but I think it's kinda cool... SUPERBYKE RMX - £250 https://www.gumtree.com/p/superbyke-motorbikes/125cc-mot-till-march.-needs-some-work-before-it-will-pass-mot.-but-engine-works-fine-and-sounds-good/1151745801 Bike itself is solid, but some parts have been removed for off road use. Needs new indicators, and perhaps more worryingly, a rear brake! Might be a bit too much hassle, but if the engine is sound, who knows. Good for the taller folks, and you'd have the off road challenge in the bag before we even set off. Another Suzuki! It must be my lucky day... SUZUKI GN125 - £250 https://www.gumtree.com/p/suzuki-motorbikes/suzuki-gn-s-the-full-bike-and-parts/1151403845 Some wiring issues courtesy of an attempted theft. Or a successful theft, in which case HELL NO WALK AWAY. If it IS legit, it needs some work but the current owner has already bought most of the parts required and will provide them with the bike. With £150 left from your budget to spend on repairs, this could be a VERY tasty one. Aaaaand I'm spent. All of the Suzuki options look preeeety darn nice, couple of bits I'd want to check on each of them but I reckon all could easily be knocked into shape while staying in budget and having a few quid left to trick them out a bit.

Yeah, nah, no fun in that. We're all big kids who know what we're getting into, jamming the budget up to a serious chunk of money like £1000 is going to stop it being just a bit of silly fun for all but the wealthiest forum members. Nobody is going to be forced to ride beyond what they think their bike is capable of, after all. I would hope that nobody would wilfully ride a bike that is an absolute death trap, but I'm not going to be the one to tell anyone that they can't.

If I can somehow find £300 spare before the buying deadline, I can almost promise you that there will be a Mad Max bike. I have a head full of terrible ideas and this is the perfect opportunity to put them into practise.

It's just a case of finding one that has problems that you are familiar with - in my case, as long as it only has problems with the carb, forks, shock, linkage, chain, sprockets, drums, discs, clutch, water pump, valves, head gasket, aaaaaaand solenoid, I'm golden I saw a great one yesterday (can't find the link now), the description just said "WILL NEED SOME WORK BECAUSE MY SON HAS NO RESPECT FOR ANYTHING" I did a spit-take when I read that...

How about this, then: You can work in pairs if you want to ease the cost, BUT you have go to two-up for the main road trip component as a result Of course one person can get off for the challenges to keep it fair. As long as one or both of you has a policy on your main bike that covers riding other people's bikes, you only need the bike insured in one persons name, so no extra cost there.

Obviously it doesn't have a direct impact on me as I won't be buying one, so I leave it to you guys. As a start point for the discussion, if we're aiming to do this before the end of season run it would probably be best to get the bikes before the summer to allow time for working on them and getting them MOT'ed, and potentially then working on them some more. So maybe something like end of June at the absolute latest? That gives four paycheques in which to save up if necessary. Of course, smart money would be to buy sooner rather than later if possible as the prices invariably go up as the weather improves. Once I have a clearer idea of who is going for it, it'll be easier to ensure that everyone is kept up to date!

I'll be on that as soon as possible, hopefully will start throwing some ideas out there later today! If anyone has a suggestion to throw in, go for it! So far I'm loving the idea of a hill climb challenge like Throttled suggested, 25% or steeper. That tests not just the bike but how well the rider can work it. Also keen to do something similar to the suggestion of seeing just how much crap the bike can carry, Indian biker style. I think a drag race needs to happen, too - got to be somewhere good we can do that The off road test is a must, we just need a decent sandy stretch. Dunes would be a bonus. I'll work on some criteria for how the looks of the bikes will be judged, too - just to give people some ideas.

Anyway, this thing is just a crowfunding scam rather than a legit product.

Oh, and here's one last thought: How about we say that there is a penalty for NOT spending the whole £100 repair and upgrade budget, but no penalty for not spending the whole bike budget? That makes it a more attractive proposition to get a dirt cheap bike and fix it up, rather than get a decent bike than needs little or no work. Or get a £300 bike that works fine then go nuts with the customisation.

Right, so how about this for a rough update to the rule set: Don't care which country the bike is from, but anybody that scores a Jap bike in decent working condition had damn well better customise it a bit! £300 budget for bike, any money left over can be added to repair/upgrade budget £100 base budget for upgrades or repairs - bikes will be scored for their character! We want to see bodges, custom paint jobs, etc Scooters are fair game, but prepare to struggle with the challenges and be mocked in general Same goes for sub-125cc bikes Bike must have an MOT (duh) Remember that you will have to be able to insure it! I don't really care if it's safe or not, I just won't ride too close to you If we try and get crowdfunding, we might all need to record a short video diary about choosing and prepping the bike - at very least, a walk-around talking about the bike and the work done to it. All riders are advised to get a helmet cam! I can potentially use my camera equipment to catch some decent footage, but footage from everyone's POV would be a plus. Can continue to polish this as we go, of course. Could also tweak it to make it more affordable, if necessary. I'll work out challenges ASAP so people can potentially have them in mind while choosing or modding their bike!

I think both are fair game. Let's be honest, there won't be too many Jap bikes that show up in this range. That CG I posted is the old type with front and rear drum brakes, and who knows what else might be wrong with it. And even if the NSR isn't stolen, it still needs some top end work. And god knows how badly they've both been looked after. At the end of the day, anyone who rocks up on a completely unmodified CG125 is going to (A) Have the piss ripped out of them for being lazy (B) Score sod all points for the bike © Have a very fun time trying to stop when we go on a dual carriageway, with those drums I would hope that even people who snap up a fully functional peach of a Jap bike (for the price) will still sink £100 tricking it out and making it fun so that they stand a chance of scoring some points for effort. Hell, if the bike works fine for £300 then that's £100 for airbox and exhaust mods, re-jetting, changing the gearing, and repainting. Teenage-hooligan-tastic!

A quick bit of Google work tells me that the Lifan's model name is Apollo. I think there certainly should be a bonus for anyone who can dig up a bike that nobody has ever heard of before!

SOME MORE GREAT BIKES FOR YOU ALL First up we've got a Jap bike for only £300! Could be one for you here, Chris... HONDA NSR125 - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/honda-motorbikes/honda-nsr-r-125-/1155699952 Bit scrappy, head gasket is apparently not so happy, and it MIGHT be stolen.. but hey, it's an NSR for £300! What could go wrong? Next up, a nice little CBR125 clone: SKYJET SJ125 - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/skyjet-motorbikes/skyjet-sj125-23-/1155678032 It isn't a Honda and it isn't a two stroke, but it might not be stolen! Can't say fairer than that. Condition is supposedly fair and bike is recently serviced, but it needs an MOT. No photos either. Maybe one to give a thorough look over before parting with cash just in case of hidden gremlins, but seems like it could be ok. And if Petrolhead could fix up one of these, ANYONE can. HOGGS! THIS ONE IS GREEN! AND IT SAYS KWIKASFUKI ON THE TANK! LIFAN (MODEL NOT STATED) - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/lifan-motorbikes/lifan-125cc-/1155715084 Apparently the carb needs a clean and it wants a new throttle cable, but is otherwise ok. Not sure how much truth there is in that, but it looks like it could be a barrel of laughs! Another Honda! Tempted, Glorian? We won't see too many Jap bikes pop up, I'll wager. HONDA CG125 - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/honda-motorbikes/honda-cg125-2002/1155189832 Burns a little bit of oil, but as Tiggie can tell you this is easily solved by just carrying a bottle of spare stuff Has a logbook, but wants an MOT. But trust me when I say that these things are EASY to work on - this is my pick of today's crop. So, anyone reckon they can make this road legal and get it registered for £100? AJS URBAN DZ - £300 https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-motorbikes-scooters/urban-dz-125-field-dirt-bike-/1154981340 Owner says they are willing to move on the price, and all it wants is (supposedly) a new chain. And some lights and a numberplate, but how hard can that be? Ok, not the simplest. But my hat goes off to anyone who thinks this is a good idea. Aaaand then I got bored. More some other time, I guess. If nowt else, this proves that £300 will do the job, just about.

Hmm, I dunno... it would open things up a little, but then it could also take away the novelty of having challenges for speed and acceleration, and of course the obligatory hill climb! All depends if their meagre power advantage offsets their higher weight. I'm trying to weigh it up in my head. In a way, being more restrictive forces people to make bigger compromises on their bike, which leads to greater comedy value...

Guess you'll have to try and dig out a real cheap Jap bike, then Or a Taiwanese bike, because that's completely different... It's times like this, it's almost a shame petrolhead isn't here any more

I dunno, divisions would make it a bit less novel I fear. The breakdowns are to be embraced! For £800, someone could buy a pretty decent YBR or CG and just laugh their way through it, no fun in that. For £400 or less, EVERYONE IS RATBIKES. I'm sure that those who want a Jap bike will be able to land one if they try hard enough. You know, something like buying a Cat B and a Cat C of the same bike then combining the best parts And of course, it would be nice to keep it relatively fair and accessible to everyone regardless of their financial situation. AWESOME, I did video production at Uni and therefore know full well how much I hate doing it Can probably do a half way decent job of promoting it should we go down the crowdfunding route, though. I maek prity pikchurs and all that.

Still keeping an eye on second hand prices so that I can work out if £300 is realistic. I'm a bit concerned that budget might be a bit too tight and see everyone end up on scooters, or slapping lights on beaten old MX bikes and trying to get them registered for the road - wouldn't mind if one or two people went that way, but I think that having everyone pushed into that corner could get boring. Maybe £400 is a bit more realistic? Still a bit cheaper than the £500 we were originally discussing, but should keep options a little more open. At that price point you actually get some well and truly thrashed Jap bikes showing up, and people who go for a £250 - £300 Chinese have a bit of budget for repairs to play with. How about this: we STRICTLY say £300 bike budget, £100 maximum repair budget, any money left over from bike budget can be added to repair budget. People who don't want to invest too heavily aren't obliged to spend the full £400, but people who want to get silly and trick the bike out have the option to do so Will look at some potential routes today and pull together some ideas for challenges. I think that staying in the UK is our best option, I don't think that getting blown up Chinese bikes recovered from Germany would be much fun... I wonder if we should pitch the idea on kickstarter or indiegogo as a Youtube series and see if we can raise some money towards it that way... If everyone did a short video diary of tricking their bike out, maybe a video about choosing their bike, we could have a good little series going. I could take cameraman duties, riding ahead every now and then to get some decent panning shots and suchlike... Or am I getting carried away now?

Bugger off Stu, you're not fooling anyone - we all know your bike never sees the rain

I'm still keen on a £300 budget. Should see us end up with some hilarious stuff, no doubt! Do we trust each other, or am I gonna have to check receipts?

Fixed that for you But this raises a good point... we all have full licences. Why limit ourselves to these shores?

£250k plus ground rent and service charges to the tune of £1500 a year, all for a tiny single bed terraced house in an area with occasional rat problems? Nah, I'll pass It was convenient for renting but not really buying material. That would be fun in itself, but doesn't have quite the same charm as going on a road trip with a group of other crappy 125s. Maybe do both? That could be the "one year on" challenge for any that survive

Well I spent my train journey home trying to work out how I might be able to afford to take part and not just supervise in some capacity, and just as I was getting my hopes up I got an email from my landlady saying she's selling my house in three months. Balls. That mucks up my finances for a little while.

End of season run could be awesome Imagine everyone rocking up looking absolutely knackered on the most beaten up rustbuckets ever... love it! Another thing: Will need to look into dirt cheap helmet cams, ideally with microphones. To Aldi!!

Well that fucks me out of the water completely, got a holiday ban all July and August