Are very low mileage grey imports safe?

[SHapeshifter]

First time posting on here

This will be my first road/sport bike and ive been wondering how safe 250 grey imports are?
Ive been looking at an "87 FZR for $3100 but it only has 8000kms on the clock!? how is this possible for a bike of this age?

I found a great website www.carjam.co.nz which has details about anything with a number plate ( just type in plate number ) everything seems legit since its been in NZ about 1 year, but what about over in Japan? could it have been wound back at some point?

[JimO]

have a look at the tyres there should be a date stamp on them, if they are origionals then the mileage should be kosher, if you buy it get rid of the tyres and buy new ones, mind you they may have been replaced in NZ already

[Subike]

hows this for rego check result!!!!
Using http://www.carjam.co.nz

YAMAHA XS1100F 1979 (in Black)
Plate: 25GXB
Vehicle details
Make: YAMAHA
Model: XS1100F
Year: 1979
Main colour: Black
Vehicle type: Motorcycle
Body style: Motorcycle
CC rating: 1,100
Fuel type: Petrol
Vehicle Identification
VIN: N/A
Plate: 25GXB
Plate type: Standard
Engine no: 2H9110428
Chassis: 2H9110428

YAMAHA XS1100F 1979 (in Black)
Plate: 26GXB
Registration cancelled

Vehicle details
Make: YAMAHA
Model: XS1100F
Year: 1979
Main colour: Black
Vehicle type: Motorcycle
Body style: Motorcycle
CC rating: 1,100
Fuel type: Petrol
Vehicle Identification
VIN: N/A
Plate: 26GXB
Plate type: Standard
Engine no: 2H9110424
Chassis: 249-110424

[AllanB]

Hey - on the bright side I am pretty sure that the top 3 gears will be mint - I don't think they were ever used

[Mully]

Get it checked out, it might be fine.

Could have been a race bike though, I guess, at that mileage.

[SHapeshifter]

Thanks for all the quick replies i thought it would take a little while to get some answers hehe.

I think it already has new tires on it, can tires get too old? since it seems kind of odd to replace them at such low kms.

I also figured it would be quite hard just from looking at the bike itself as ive read these bikes could have been sitting in open lots for like 10-15years + over in japan which would explain the low kms.

[JimO]

the tyres are over 20 years old they will be hard and probably split, considering they are whats keeping you on the road i would flick them

[varminter]

My Katana like that. Tires were perrished, cracked up after a few K's. Rest of the bike seems good but watch this space. Alloy wheels are spotty with surface corosion needed a rub down with steel wool. I suspect (hope) it's been sitting in a Japanese garage for a long while. Don't half go nice, woohoo.

[jim.cox]

There are a large number of bike like that imported from Japan.

The mileage may very well be genuine

Mine arrived in the country 10 years old with less than 12000 on the clocks

But with a bike that has sat you need to be aware that there can be any number of problems, from rusty bores to perished rubber.

The tyres will almost certainally need to be replaced, and I would look carefully at the the brakes. Watch also for dried-out seals (counter shaft, forks etc).

Before purchasing give it a VERY thorough check over. Issues may not cost much to sort, but can give much frustration....

[xwhatsit]

I spend a lot of time checking out cool stuff on Yahoo Japan Auctions. You can get the stuff to NZ through Okshon.com . Anyway, there's huge numbers of old CB250RSs with sub-10,000km mileages on them. No reason to suspect it's not genuine either, they look fookin' mint for a 25-year old bike.

I think from observing things a bit and talking to people it seems it's quite common to buy a bike as a toy, much like we get bankers buying Harleys over here. Spend shitloads blinging it out with stickers and fancy shocks and gauges. Ride it maybe once a week -- but instead of riding it for a 200-300km weekend ride, they might do a 5km commute. Which nevertheless takes 30 minutes because there's 1200 stop lights inbetween.

Fellow on here called Ambler, I read his blog for a while, kiwi in Japan. He posted up a Youtube video of his commute. You could probably walk faster if you tried, some serious lanesplitting going on there!

So the mileage is probably genuine but that doesn't necessarily speak for its condition because it might've done a lot of hours idling in traffic.

[tigertim20]

Id take the bike for a ride for a couple hours, go to a bike mechanic, and give him some cash to give it a look over for the potential major issues, only way to have any certainty, its not about whether or not low milage grey imports are safe, there will be exceptions to every rule, get the bike itself checked!

[Bonez]

hows this for rego check result!!!!
Using http://www.carjam.co.nz

YAMAHA XS1100F 1979 (in Black)
Plate: 25GXB
Vehicle details
Make: YAMAHA
Model: XS1100F
Year: 1979
Main colour: Black
Vehicle type: Motorcycle
Body style: Motorcycle
CC rating: 1,100
Fuel type: Petrol
Vehicle Identification
VIN: N/A
Plate: 25GXB
Plate type: Standard
Engine no: 2H9110428
Chassis: 2H9110428

YAMAHA XS1100F 1979 (in Black)
Plate: 26GXB
Registration cancelled

Vehicle details
Make: YAMAHA
Model: XS1100F
Year: 1979
Main colour: Black
Vehicle type: Motorcycle
Body style: Motorcycle
CC rating: 1,100
Fuel type: Petrol
Vehicle Identification
VIN: N/A
Plate: 26GXB
Plate type: Standard
Engine no: 2H9110424
Chassis: 249-110424

Simple typo. Probably at the orignal source carjam plucks its info from. Have you imformed them of the error? Similar error was on the legit rego papers of my spares cb750.

[BMWST?]

ther eis no guarantee that ANY second vehicle is "safe"

[Bonez]

ther eis no guarantee that ANY second vehicle is "safe"

True. There's been dodgy new ones also. Less than a week old Hyabusa cooking it's battery, Buells stopping due to wiring issues. Triumph twins with spoke ends sticking through tubes, sticking triumph triple caliper pistons, Kawasaki pannier issues etc etc