Beren

So I set out this morning with a small lump of cash and a desire to come home with a bike. I already knew that I wanted a naked bike and had a list of 6 potential bikes and an experienced biker whose opinion I trust.

My list contained 3 Hornets and 3 Bandits - 5 private sales and 1 trade sale. All my target bikes were 1994 or newer and apart from one all had less then 40,000kms on the clock. Shouldn't be too hard to find a decent bike from 6 candidates or so I thought...

Bike 1 - At first looked pretty straight, had obviously been dropped on both sides but nothing that would have been the end of the world... but it had been sat for 2 years not doing a lot. The engine just didn't sound great... it wasn't revving at all happilly perhaps it would have come right with some use but it just felt wrong. So bike one was scratched.

Bike 2 - Nice looking bike, a bit rough on the paintwork but hey I wasn't sure on the colour anyways. But on test it wasn't happy revving past about 5,000rpm and when it came to braking it umm didn't.

Bike 3 - Off to the dealership... bike just looked plain nasty unfortunately. However nevt door talked me into taking a Hyosung out for a test drive... actually really not a bad bike - plenty of pull from the V twin but it was over the budget. Still was leaving the riding of other bikes to my mate and got off with a huge grin on my face and the knowledge that whatever I get is going to be awesome!

Bike 4 - Sooo sooo sad. Bike looked awesome, rode brilliantly looked spotless. But then found a big chunk had broken off the crank case and had been stuck back on with araldite!

Bike 5 - Bent.

Bike 6 - Prayers were whispered to unknown gods on route to bike 6. Having been shopping for ohhh 5 hours at this point with an increasingly grumpy 8 year old and my will to live slowly sinking we pulled up at the final house. Walked down the drive to see an absolutely immaculate bandit sitting under a carport. The only modifications to the bike were braided brake lines and a new seat that really suited the bike. The clutch is a bit thin and seems like perhaps the carbs are a tiny bit out of balance... but overall we finally found ourselves my first bike.

The brother in law then rode it home for me and I now have an awesome new bike to start properly learning on tomorrow.

I guess I just wanted to pass on my days experience as a tale of buyer beware and if you look hard enough the right bike is out there waiting for you!