OldestMagician
New Member
Hi guys, first post and all that,
I've been lurking this forum for a little while, getting some inspiration and looking at people's restorations and rebuilds to give me an idea of how to fix certain things and what type of modifications I like. I'm hoping to use this thread as a way of getting some pointers from people who are a lot more experienced than myself who might be able to warn me about newbie mistakes I might make.
I recently bought a 1991 Suzuki VX800 off of eBay for what I think is a steal when it comes to buying bikes in Australia. I've already been riding a '92 Honda CB250 for the past 2 years, which has been great as I have learned a lot from riding it (especially about braking when taking a tight corner at speed):
I knew there was some problems with it when I bought it, but was pleasantly surprised when I picked it up to find it actually belonged to a motorcycle mechanic with his own business. He'd already replaced all the oil and filters and done some other small bits and bobs.
Mechanically it's great, better than my daily ride even. I hooked up the battery from my 250 and it fired up first go and sounds good. No knocking or rubbing noises. Tonight I took it for a quick ride around the block and it seems good.
The bad points I've found so far:
A couple of small holes in the fuel tank (knew about these when I bought it)
No battery (again, knew about this and I've got a new one in the post)
Speedo and tacho do not work
Headlight bulb is shot
A few of the left hand controls are a bit suspect
Gear shift lever is loose
All in all not too much to worry about. My plan is to tackle each thing one at a time, starting with the things I can do easily and find the parts I need at shops. Tomorrow I'll buy a new bulb for the headlight and find out if it's just that or if there is a problem with the wiring somewhere. Tonight I took apart the instrument cluster to try and diagnose the problems there, but can't work out how to seperate the fronts of the tacho and speedo without damaging them, so that's something I'm going to have to research.
So far I've stripped the tank back to bare metal and patched the holes, so plenty left to do.
Here are pictures from when I got it home:
The CB250 is my ride to work, it's been nicknamed by people at work (maybe sarcastically) as the Beast, which I think is a pretty good name for a 250cc that does 400km a week with a 6'4", 120kg man on it. It's been a WIP since I got it, as I chop and change things to suit me better, or replace things as they break.
Anyway, thanks for looking
I've been lurking this forum for a little while, getting some inspiration and looking at people's restorations and rebuilds to give me an idea of how to fix certain things and what type of modifications I like. I'm hoping to use this thread as a way of getting some pointers from people who are a lot more experienced than myself who might be able to warn me about newbie mistakes I might make.
I recently bought a 1991 Suzuki VX800 off of eBay for what I think is a steal when it comes to buying bikes in Australia. I've already been riding a '92 Honda CB250 for the past 2 years, which has been great as I have learned a lot from riding it (especially about braking when taking a tight corner at speed):
I knew there was some problems with it when I bought it, but was pleasantly surprised when I picked it up to find it actually belonged to a motorcycle mechanic with his own business. He'd already replaced all the oil and filters and done some other small bits and bobs.
Mechanically it's great, better than my daily ride even. I hooked up the battery from my 250 and it fired up first go and sounds good. No knocking or rubbing noises. Tonight I took it for a quick ride around the block and it seems good.
The bad points I've found so far:
A couple of small holes in the fuel tank (knew about these when I bought it)
No battery (again, knew about this and I've got a new one in the post)
Speedo and tacho do not work
Headlight bulb is shot
A few of the left hand controls are a bit suspect
Gear shift lever is loose
All in all not too much to worry about. My plan is to tackle each thing one at a time, starting with the things I can do easily and find the parts I need at shops. Tomorrow I'll buy a new bulb for the headlight and find out if it's just that or if there is a problem with the wiring somewhere. Tonight I took apart the instrument cluster to try and diagnose the problems there, but can't work out how to seperate the fronts of the tacho and speedo without damaging them, so that's something I'm going to have to research.
So far I've stripped the tank back to bare metal and patched the holes, so plenty left to do.
Here are pictures from when I got it home:
The CB250 is my ride to work, it's been nicknamed by people at work (maybe sarcastically) as the Beast, which I think is a pretty good name for a 250cc that does 400km a week with a 6'4", 120kg man on it. It's been a WIP since I got it, as I chop and change things to suit me better, or replace things as they break.
Anyway, thanks for looking