FZR with high km?

[Swoopyrick]

Hi there all.
I am looking at buying my 1st bike.
I've found a FZR but it has quite high kms, 62,000.
How many kms before these bikes are worn out and not worth buying?
The last thing I want is to get a bike then have it shit out on me.

Cheers
Ricky

[Ragingrob]

Haven't heard much about FZRs so can't really help lol but the only two FZRs I have heard of have blown up

But really, that does seem quite a few k's, what year is it? Does the price reflect the k's? Main thing to know is if it's been regularly serviced and looked after. Any bike can last the distance if it's been maintained!

[Swoopyrick]

Yeah the bike is about $3000.
How can you be sure that the bike has been well maintained or not?

[Mr. Peanut]

Run away. Get a scorpio, or a CBR125.

*advice falls on deaf ears*

[skidMark]

Don't buy it, if you just keep your eyes peeled (check trademe every day) then you will find somebody who has to rush overseas or somthing and is flicking it cheap as chips.

For the around 3k you are looking at spending you should be able to score An FZR with much lower k's or even a ZXR, CBR, Hornet, Bandit.

Might be cosmetically damaged buts that no biggie, you are bound to drop it anyways, almost all riders drop thier 250.

Try get something with less than 40,000 k's

If a ZXR is nearing or over 40,000k's the cam chain and tensioner will need doing $400 all up from most bike shops.

Honda hornet and CBR both have cam gears so no worrys there.

A good way to tell if it has been well maintained is see what tyres it's got, if they are matching decent dunlops or bridgestones chances are they spend a bit of dosh on her.

If it has a nice front like above, but a cheap nasty rear it usually means they were broke and just bought one tyre (you generally buy as a set) Have a look at the oil filter (if you can see it) if it's reasonably new it will still be pretty clean from the outside rather than caked with road crap.

Any other questions don't be afraid to ask.

SM

[doc]

A good way to tell if it has been well maintained is see what tyres it's got, if they are matching decent dunlops or bridgestones chances are they spend a bit of dosh on her.
Any other questions don't be afraid to ask.

SM

Hey I've edited this a bit but not unreasonably.

Not picking on you cos your SM but your advice makes the quote "Free advice is worth what it costs" mean something.

[Mr. Peanut]

Please read this, and save yourself a lot of money, and grief.

I think the problem that a lot of new bikers have is a misunderstanding of the concept of motorcycle enjoyment. I understand you want to go fast, and a fast motorcycle is a thrill indeed. However, the thrill you get winding that throttle will quickly be replaced with dread, as it keeps popping out of second gear. Or you get the quote to get the discs replaced, or it drops a valve, or breaks its cam chain, or one day you go to start it, and it wont run above 5000rpm. Try ringing a few motorcycle wreckers, and try and get parts for one of these bikes. You might get a nasty shock.

Protest all you like, but most, if not all 250cc race replicas, have been thrashed to within an inch of their life, had their speedos wound back, countless throws down the road et al. This is coming from someone who has a lot of experience with 250cc motorcycles, both my own, and others.


Now, the other route you might like to take, which I wish I had, is to buy one of the wonderful entry bikes that were not on the market when I was a learner.

There's the Yamaha Scorpio, excellently priced, and a ball to ride. It's new, so it's very unlikely to break down on you, and you can concentrate on enjoying yourself. When, not if, you drop it, there'll be no fairings to replace, and you might just get away with a couple of levers. You can pick one of these up for $2000 and you'll still have change left over for all your gear.

When you want to sell it so you can get your 600cc sports bike, it'll be easy to do so for the reasons mentioned above.

There's also the CBR125. An excellent motorcycle, with all the above qualities, but it has fairings, if that's what you're into.

Best of luck,

Chris.

[skidMark]

Good advice chris, i think a FXR150 would see him through to his full also, can do motorway pace, rides like a proper sportsbike, nimble as hell. Indestructable engine. runs on the smell of an oily rag. cheap for tyres etc.

He would have some dosh left over for gear afterwards also.

SM

[ynot slow]

Buy or check out the price of all the gear you need,don't get expensive but get quality,ask the sales guys their opinions on quality.Once done see what you can afford bike wise.That way you won't have a nice bike,but wearing a parka,line7 trou,and jandals waiting for the crash.

The scorpion is a great bike to start,had a mate buy one new,did 3000km and got his full then traded it on a suzuki c50 cruiser,he had thoughts of keeping the bike for his wife to learn,but she doesn't want too.

[Radar]

How can you be sure that the bike has been well maintained or not?

All the above is good advice. I will just add that whatever you get, have a mechanic check it over, including a test ride at 100 kph (or more). If the owner does not wanted it tested (at your expense), walk away.

BE PATIENT. I know the feeling - we want our first bike ASAP, but hold on a week or two or three and keep looking on Trademe and talk to the sales guys in shops and ask about specific bikes here on KB as well as doing a Google for reviews and comments about the bike you are interested in. If you rush into buying, you could be sorry for a long time. Wait and be sure.

You may find a cheap bike, but it may well wind up being expensive to repair and you won't get your money back when you sell the bike after you get your full license. That $3,000 bike may require $500 or more worth of repairs.

[Swoopyrick]

Thanks everyone so far for your comments it's helped me a lot already.
Made me wake up abit about my first bike options, I've deleted pretty much all the bikes from my watchlist on trade-me because of high kms etc.
I've found some bandits on trade-me, they're a bit cheaper and still look pretty hot, plus don't have to worry about scratching the fearings. Any opinions on those??

Cheers again
Ricky

[cowboyz]

i would ignore ks all together. look how old the bike is. if its 20yrs old and done 60000k then that is only 3000k per year isnt it? look at its general condition. buying second hand is a gamble but gamble can be lowered by the gut feeling thing

[Kirill357]

FXR was my first bike, very funny little beast, even did some sort of wheelie on it, from first gear with revs on about 5-6k. But dont buy with high km's, I dont think many newbies take proper care about their first bikes, service etc, I didnt. Bought 12500 kms for $3500, sold 14000km for $3250. So that one 60000 for 3k, nuh

[skidMark]

Thanks everyone so far for your comments it's helped me a lot already.
Made me wake up abit about my first bike options, I've deleted pretty much all the bikes from my watchlist on trade-me because of high kms etc.
I've found some bandits on trade-me, they're a bit cheaper and still look pretty hot, plus don't have to worry about scratching the fearings. Any opinions on those??

Cheers again
Ricky

Morcs had a bandit for quite a while never any problems with it, and yeah a good crashing bike due to no fairings.

The bandits and hornets do seem to be in better nick because the people who really thrash the 250's buy fairinged ones ie ZXR and CBR (people like me who just rape them)

i would say bandit or hornet, the honda hornet has a 180 wide rear tyre, looks cool, handles phenominally, but you have got to remember rear tyres will be about 100-150 dollars more due to the larger size (that run by 1000cc bikes) but you can get a much better selection and get some seriously good rubber on there.

Don't be in too big a rush and do not do what i have a habbit of doing and buying the first bike you see, it will bite you in the arse.

i would ignore ks all together. look how old the bike is. if its 20yrs old and done 60000k then that is only 3000k per year isnt it? look at its general condition. buying second hand is a gamble but gamble can be lowered by the gut feeling thing

Yeah but the 20 year old bikes have had alot of owners, been thrashed and crashed by most of them, yes only 3,000 k's per year, but the wear is still the same.

gut feeling can work, but it's not hard to pretty a bike up

I could get my rough as shit ZXR spend 1k prettying it up like a new bike and flick it for 5k as a spotless like new ZXR.

But i'm not into doing that i dont like ripping people off, others will rip ya off though.


On another note to the thread starter.

If you do find a bike you are seriously into get a mechanic to check it out, buy him some beers or something for his trouble, better safe than sorry, trust me, been there.

[2Slow50]

Hey Swoopy,

I have a FZR 250 1989 which has done 28,000km.. Its in good working order etc. I'm looking to get myself a RVF400 before I step up to a larger 600.

If your interested, send me a pm and I'll send you some pics.