The only way I could afford a moped when I was 16 was by buying a mangled FS1E from a breaker for £50. This was so old that it still had the once mandatory pedal mechanism (and wasn't limited to 30mph). A used YB100 front end was acquired for £25, that just left some dents in the petrol tank and a few bent bits that responded well to being hammered straight. For a bit under £100 I had a nice little runner with a new MOT certificate on which to terrorize the district. When, after six months, I was able to sell the FS1E for £250 it was pretty obvious how my future was going to work out. I became a regular sight, hanging out in London breakers.
A month before I was seventeen I had acquired a RXS100 which had skidded along on its side, ruined its cosmetics but was basically straight and could still be heard running. It looked such a mess that the breaker let me have it for £75. By the time I was 17 I had fitted a new tank, repaired the clock and filled various dents. A new exhaust proved the most difficult, but a rusty wreck for a fiver solved that one. It wasn’t a trendy bike but the whole point of the scam was to keep it just long enough to pass the tests and then move on to something bigger. Thus 3 months later, after a very quick respray (with Halfords cans), the RXS went to an equally spotty youth for £395. Not as much as I'd hoped but acceptable as the silencer was about to fall off and I'd thrashed the engine relentlessly. Well, I had to show 125 owners what was what.
The next bike I considered to be my first serious motorcycle. I had about £500 to play with. The breakers were shifting bikes a lot faster than regular dealers, demand causing their prices to go up. In the end, after much mutual abuse, I ended up handing over £400 for a 3000 mile GS450E with the front mudguard moulded into the engine sump. This would turn out to be a bargain if the frame was still straight or a rip-off if it was bent.
The forks were so far gone that no-one was willing to straighten them for me and the wheel was only fit for being bashed into bits to sell as paperweights. Taking off the dented tank I was relieved to find the frame tubes straight. Finding bits was hard work, it took over three months to sort out the front end. I was only able to pay silly money, which didn’t help but at that time GS450Es were new to the UK. I soon learnt a valuable lesson from this - to phone around breakers for suitable used parts before buying a crashed machine.
Once on the road, the GS proved very disappointing. A bit of a slouch with the blandest of motors, it also weaved and wobbled come 80mph... maybe the frame wasn’t as straight as I hoped. I started looking around I for my next victim, coming up with an early GSXR1100 with wrecked plastic, 37000 miles and £700. The GS sold quickly for £750 and the GSXR was in my garage the same day.
I don't like clip-ons and racer plastic, so the easiest solution to the GSXR’s wrecked appearance was to pull off the fairing and fill the sidepanels. A complete CD handlebar, switch and clamp assembly was fitted to the Suzuki's yokes after drilling a couple of holes. The bars had the right angle and the whole assembly cost a mere four quid, their mundane nature disguised by cunning application of matt black paint. The wiring proved difficult as I'd also fitted some Superdream indicators and a headlamp, together with clamps, off a Harley (well, it looked jolly pretty). Another couple of black paint cans finished off the renovation.
As might be imagined, this was a fearsomely fast device that didn't react too well to the sudden lack of mass over the front wheel. The wobbles only became really preposterous above 110mph so were quite easily avoided. To stop the demented engine power from sending the bike to wheelie heaven, and myself to an early grave, required massive restraint on the throttle during take-offs. I kept telling myself that this was a fun machine.
The worst thing that can happen to someone who has next to no money and wants to buy and sell motorcycles at a profit to subsidize their lifestyle is that they become so enamoured with a bike that they hang on to it for so long that the motor has a chance of going expensively wrong. Thus it was with the GSXR: at 46000 miles the engine started clattering, which turned out to be shot small-ends, wrecked pistons and bores plus a camchain that was due for replacement. It didn't cost that much to put to rights with a pile of used bits; I even knew which breakers to visit for the parts. After that little episode with the motor, thinking that the assembly of already worn parts would neither work very well together nor last very long, it was goodbye GSXR1100 for £1400.
I was a bit disenchanted with Suzukis so when an FZR1000 came up, with a totalled front end, I was happy enough to hand over 1000 notes. The speedo read only 19000 miles which in EXUP language is just run in for these well built fours. At least that was what FZR owning mates kept telling me. Total cost of sorting out the Yamaha came to just under £400, which again included dumping the plastic and fitting flat bars. The bare bike doesn’t look as neatly brutal as the GSXR but handling’s a lot more stable, the engines are about equally matched.
The bike didn’t stay long in my hands, when some friend offered £2000 it was too good a deal to miss. I was still unemployed and only by continuously buying and selling could I stay in with the serious motorcycle crowd. In this vein I put half the money aside to cover the next year's running costs.
Then the worst possible thing happened. For £850 I'd bought and renovated a FZ600, doing the whole deal in just a week as I knew where there was a breaker selling off FZ bits cheap. It wasn’t a very impressive four but I thought I'd keep it for a month when some jerk in a car decided to amuse himself by playing chicken with me. I ended up riding the FZ into a brick wall, being thrown over the wall, embedded head first in the middle of someone's prime rose bed. I ended up having my neck encased in plaster for a couple of months. The car driver had fled the scene and my insurance was minimal. I actually ended up paying to have the wall repaired. The FZ had been picked clean by thieves who left me with the bent frame and an engine full of water. I couldn't even get anyone to removed the wreck free of charge!
I had about £750 left to start all over again. What should turn up but another bloody GS450E! I almost gave up in disgust but it was only £300 because the frame was as bent as the forks. Both could be straightened so that only left a new front wheel and a few cosmetics. About £150 sorted it out, so a three year old bike with only 9000 miles on the clock for £450 was a pretty good bargain. The chances are, though, if you haven't got to know the breaker he’d charge £400 to £500 for a similarly afflicted Suzuki and there’s a fifty-fifty chance that either the frame or forks will be so far gone that they can’t be resurrected. I've seen people buy from breakers at silly prices, ending up paying more in total than a similar mileage bike in good condition can be bought privately. A bit of street sense, native cunning and experience are necessary to find the best bargains.
| couldn't live with the GS for long, so it went for £995. The latest project is a big Moto Guzzi V-twin that looks like it's been rolled down the road a couple of times. The engine and frame are OK, so I'll hunt around for some cheap chassis parts and modify them to fit the big Wop (crashed Guzzis being rare). I bought it because I felt like a change and it was 25% of the cost of a straight one.
A.K.L.