Fixer-upper or fixed?

[red675]

a good friend just bought a bike which had suffered light damage and been mostly fixed reasonably well - he got it for 8 when a good one would have cost 10 as a private sale - and he's happy as Larry fixing up the last few bits needing attention

another bought a write-off which had been fixed properly and then surveyed, so guarranteed straight with no issues and completely ready to ride at a cost of not much more that the first friends (God knows how the repairer made anything on the deal)

the third in this parable called me yesterday on the hunt for information they could use to nail a cowboy repairer

so where do you all fall on this - a new bike only, take a punt on an ostensibly undropped used one, or knowingly buy a repair where you can check everything has been done which must be done ????

[bungbung]

It would depend on the price and quality.

If you want a bike to ride, and are happy to pay the money for one previously repaired, then do it. If you want to fix it yourself, then often things cost more and take more time than you think.

You'd want to be knowledgeable yourself to spot whether any repairs have been done to a high enough standard though.

I've bought several fix ups and one bike that had been 99% repaired by someone else.

[CookMySock]

I've done a couple of fix-ups. They are good fun, and so far (lucky!) they all ride perfectly well, and flew straight through a WOF.

Haven't done an insurance-writeoff yet.. not sure if I want to.. what a minefield.

Steve

[vifferman]

I've knowingly bought three bikes that had been dropped/crashed/whatever. The first had been repaired by the shop, to near-new condition and was fine. Up until I t-boned a car with it.
Then it was fucked.
Until the guy that bought it fixed it up, so it looked totally fixed, but alos totally different, because he used parts from another model.

The second bike was reasonably OK, apart from the badly repaired fairing panel.
That was fixed by crashing it a couple of times.
OK - three times.
Then I wrote it off, and another KBer bought it at auction and fixed it up.

The third crashed bike I've owned was in pretty good nick, apart from some cheapskate fitting a non-matching front disk, and some bumhole being lazy with the paint and not doing the proper three-coat finish.
But it doesn't matter, because I dropped it on both sides, and scratched the tank with my tankbag, and cracked the front mudguard by stopping 70mm too late.
So now it's semi-fucked, and just waiting for me to write it off in a semi-spectacular (or is that spackticular?) crash.
Which it probably won't do till I've thrown even more money at it, and finally got it just the way I want it.


<- that means "Oh SHIT!!"
Oh shit!
I just realised that of all the bikes I've owned, the only ones I've EVER crashed have been the pre-crashed ones.



I think this means the bastards should be destroyed when they're crashed, otherwise they just keep doing it!
They're either suicidal (well.... you'd kinda expect that with me riding them, right?), or blardy lazy (they like lying down in the middle of the road for a rest), or jinxed.
Or all the above.
Fuckers.


The answer to your non-poll poll, is don't buy crashed bikes. Find any excuse to set fire to them, run them over with a bulldozer, push them off a cliff, or all of the above.

[red675]

the last of my 3 had a funny/sad ending to its story - having been ripped off by one AKL dealer to the tune of $3k for engine work (where the oil didn't even get changed) and another who couldn't fix a charging issue .. plus a painter who didn't know clearcoat was meant to stick, I sorted most of his woes and then his friend reversed over it in his driveway. Our boy wasn't insured (another thread coming shortly on that one) but the car was, so now it's a fixer rather than a fixed. At least assuming there's anything left of it ...