Whats-wrong-with-the-bike-you-bought championship

[reneefe]

We've all been there; you're ready to buy your next bike, either for parts, project or just to have as a runner (while you work away on another project offcourse) The bikes we run on OSS are 90% more than 20 yrs old now and most have been worked on by at least one person that really shouldn't have been allowed, more often a few. I've had close to 20-odd bikes come through my workshop in the few years that I've been active with bikes; not a single one was actually good as-is. All needed work, be it work that the former owner pointed out, didn't say anything about or just didn't know. Few former owners claimed "professional built, dealer maintenance" and so on. You can only make out so many faults while you're stood there to buy it; had a short run, it has brakes and gears. All should be well, shouldn't it?

The latest addition to my collection and the reason for me posting this, is this bike:



GSXR11M, 30k miles. No real damage and BONE-stock. The guy had dropped it in his shed, hence why the screen is broken, but apart from that, it looked brilliant. I bought it for parts to us in my current project, but there were a few moment where I thought about just running it as is; It looked fine, so it should be allright...?

I did a run on the street with it to see if all worked and yes, it was fine. Exhaust blew a bit and the carbs needed cleaning up, but it would've been quite easy to turn it around. However, since I bought it for the bits and didn't need another project, I got the spanners out and set to work.

I'm glad that I did....

First thing I found when taking the fairing off;



Exhaustflanges just hanging there, 3 of them. No wonder the exhaust blows a bit. Turned out 6 out of 8 threads in the head were overbored to 10mm and then they screwed up ther thread that was in the already bigger hole.

Taking the calipers of, I found ALL brakepads loose in the calipers. No springs, no safetypin, they were just put into place to make it look right, not be right.

Working my way around the loom that was on it, bear in mind, this is (was) a stock bike, this was a fire waiting to happen; grounded out everywhere, home-made connections and bypasses of plugs that were there to do the same thing which someone made, just better. Strange... Plenty more that will pop in my head, but tonight was the latest and hopefully last instalment of wrong-doings with this thing, and this is AFTER I got rid of the actual bike!





Found this while taking of 20 years of chaingrease and random crap. How stupid do you have to be to get the fitting of a rear wheel wrong? It's possibly the most straightforward thing in any bike.

Do you have these things happen to you as well, or is it just me and should I look better when I'm buying a bike? Please share your horrorstories, preferably with pics, so I can feel better about myself 




PS; Keep it OSS related

[busaash]

I feel your pain

I have had many bikes in the last ten years 98% Suzuki , most old skool its hard to see how some even ran .

have bought bikes and lucky for me put them in my van and not had to ride them home. its a lottery buying second hand

 (or even 16 former keeper bikes)when you think of how many spanner monkeys and bad bike shop staff abuse bikes,

 late seventies early eighties bikes still rule

 renefe you are not on your own mate

[jaydee]

Last bike I worked on was a mates gsxr 11L. Loads of bodges from previous owners, old coins drilled with holes instead of washers, panels that had broken tabs with holes drilled and held with cable ties. Wrong bottom yoke (lockstops grinded off frame). The worst and most frightening thing was it had the wrong front axle which was too short and wasn't even screwed in to the left fork! smileywtf

[kokolis]

smileywtfIs not funny.
Years ago I bought a boldor 900 for spares (was a working bike).
Because was nearby I went to pik her up and drive her home.
Was the scariest ride of my life, as I reached 80 km/h I thought that she would dicigrate under mee.
Every single bolt was lose
 

[mar71n]

Finding the the previous owner had used a split link on the drive chain, not a riveted link. So when it snaked out down the road I was about 120 miles from home. That turned into a very long day getting home.

[quazi]

I'd like to say I'm suprised but I'm not. I haven't been as unlucky as that but then I have tended to buy bikes from people I knew, so I sort of knew how it had been treated throughout its life whilst in the hands of a known person.

What bikes I had purchased "unknowingly" had been given a throrough going over, even to the point of removing fairings for the reason you found out, many things are hidden behind panels.

Wiring is always a bit of a gamble, but I'm ok with that so it doesn't bother me to sort it all out, even creating a new loom if necessary.

I think if you have the intehtion of buying a bike for parts, then you are going with that mindset and should make the purchase based upon that mindset and not expect a miht-ish bike. I suspect if you went to buy a "meant to be ridden" bike you may have given it more of a look over for that very reason.

I could of course be talking utter shite.

Probably the worst one for me was a welded front sprocket onto an output shaft on an old xs250, but as the life of the sprocket would likely out last the life of the bike it didn't matter that much.

[Deleted]

ha bought a h*nda vtr ?? rode it. down the road braked heard a knocking sound and wobble through my hand,s ha ha need.s headstock bearing,s bought it with reduced price ? stripped it found two different types of bearing in it better than a welded headstock on a gsxr 600 k1 that sumbody tryed too sell me once . yes i did walk away from it ? as you say buyer beware ??  smiley-sick030

[Ash]

One of the Kats in my garage had been sat at a 'Dealers's for a good while, but I had been assured it had been checked over before it was shipped up to Liverpool for me to take it onto the ferry back to the Isle of Man. I put it straight into the Manx Test when I got home. This is a bit like an MOT that all imported vehicles over three years old have to be put through before the can get a Manx Plate.

The bike flew through the test, which was a surprise in itself, as they usually find something wrong. On the way home one of the front brake calipers came off, as both bolts had been only finger tight and had worked themselves loose.

Other bodges found later, included four exhaust washers in each exhaust port, fitted as the exhaust wasn't the right one for the bike, some steel collars sorted that out. Another was a hole in the alternator cover, filled with plastic padding and an aluminium plate riveted over, it leaked a bit.

[gixergeek]

Ha, like my gs1000 i bought with a 'meet you halfway ' nice guy as a 'needs a tyre, fork seals and an mot'
He started it up and rode it around the motorway services, all looked ok in the rain so i loaded it in the van.
i got it home, almost no oil in it so i topped it up to see huge clouds of smoke and oil droplets out of pipes. Scored bores, leaking petrol tank, brake pistons had been 'cleaned ' with sandpaper ffs
Meanwhile under the tank the leaking tap was fitted so well it had to be drilled off, loom was a fire waiting to happen as most of it was just twisted together and covered in masking tape. Oh and the sprocket cover was held on with two bolts and the rest were just the heads glued into the cover . Tacho cable araldited in....I could go on ;-)

[slim]

Ive bought a few cheap hacks over the years knowing there was work to be done & expecting the usual siezed bolts & bodged wiring but the daftest thing was a mate who bought a bog stock gsxr11 from a dealer who had "given the bike a full check" as well as a "test run & MOT" it came to me a few days later as "it just wouldnt run right off tickover" (owners words not mine)

So i whipped the carbs off & theres no main jets  not wrong jets or ones fell out & sitting in the bowls just simply not there at all !

ive found gearlevers welded on, tinfoil fuses, siezed swingarm bolts. collapsed bearings & all the usual crap associated with poor maintainance & lack of mechanical skill but you sort of expect that on cheap as chips ratters

On supposedly good well built stuff ive found a butt welded steering stem, two halves from different bikes welded to fit a usd front end, cracked frame at swingarm pivot (zzr) a shock res clouting the battery with even with my 10st on it, offset wheels cos the spacers have been put in wrong, no centre spacer in rear wheel & numerous siezed calipers


I reckon you should only be able to buy tools if you have proved you know how to use them under the supervision of an adult   

[grebo]

Here is one I found when I stripped my Harris.  GS1000 rear calliper .
Firstly 2 different bolts.
One stainless cap head and a  hex head that was not all the way thru because it fouled the disc

So removed them and calliper to find this


two lovingly crafted D shaped spacers when removed gave this

[katanamangler]

Comes with the territory Rene. At 20 plus years at least, these bikes have usually slid down the slippery slope of ownership from the careful first and second owners to the 3rd 4th and 5th owners all of whom bought the bike on a budget and ran it on a budget.

Fact of the matter is until they are owned by an enthusiast with mechanical abilities and sympathy they have nearly all been subject to infrequent maintenance and kerb side repairs carried out with tool kits that will fit into a shoe box.

I should have shares in A2 stainless steel fasteners by now and I have lost count of the number of rusty seized fasteners I have cut off drilled out heated up re-tapped or replaced.

It's  a satisfying feeling when you sort each shitty botch at a time. They should stop making TV programmes about vets and A&E and replace it with a programme about sick neglected bikes that get sorted out by the likes of us. Come to think of it the Government should be giving us vans to go round rescuing these poor neglected beasts

[busaash]

Feb 2, 2014 15:40:24 GMT katanamangler said:

Comes with the territory Rene. At 20 plus years at least, these bikes have usually slid down the slippery slope of ownership from the careful first and second owners to the 3rd 4th and 5th owners all of whom bought the bike on a budget and ran it on a budget.

Fact of the matter is until they are owned by an enthusiast with mechanical abilities and sympathy they have nearly all been subject to infrequent maintenance and kerb side repairs carried out with tool kits that will fit into a shoe box.

I should have shares in A2 stainless steel fasteners by now and I have lost count of the number of rusty seized fasteners I have cut off drilled out heated up re-tapped or replaced.

It's  a satisfying feeling when you sort each shitty botch at a time. They should stop making TV programmes about vets and A&E and replace it with a programme about sick neglected bikes that get sorted out by the likes of us. Come to think of it the Government should be giving us vans to go round rescuing these poor neglected beasts

very well put katanamangler ,

 I remembered a story from when I bought bandit 1200 engine , from a nice genuine bloke from a big house in a well off part of Cheshire , really helpful  who forgot to mention there was no clutch , at all no basket or anything . buying is a lottery on anything these days .

[Bloodrunner]

Just did a service on a bike. Rear wheel bearing had collapsed and needle bearings in suspension had play. The bloke was riding this unaware at speed. How do you not feel these faults?. He was surprised when I showed him.

[bluedog59]

I have lost count of the number of times I've rplaced wheel bearings only to find the centre, spacer tube missing. The one in the cush drive is also a common one to be "absent". How do people put things back together and not notice they have a part left at the end ?