Stuck on what to do with it!

hi ppl

On a sunny day last september, some lady decided the back of my bike was in need of adjustment and sent it flying into a lampost and me down the tarmac :cry: :cry: !! Now I have a problem in deciding in what to do with the bike as the insurance was kind enough to give it back

what the issue is, I have never even changed the oil on a bike so my knowledge is very limited in repairs and building bikes!!

My choices are so far :-

1. rebuild the bike and sell it - (learning as i go along)
2. break the bike and sell whats good
3. get the engine out and whack it in a go cart frame and get my mate to piss about with the engine and make an off road cart (but this dont make me any money)
4. just sell it as seen to some breaker or scrap yard


any other options you can think of please add them or advice/help with the current ones would be welcomed




the bike is a cbr 125r 07 model and the damage is in pics - how can i make the pics fit on site as to big? can mail them someone to reduce there size an upload them for me or if it is simple just tell me how as can find my round a comp quite well!

thanks for reading and any help in advance

 

if the damage is just the back i reckon you can do it up....buy the bits from breakers....if you're not sure how to do certain things ask on here...there are always people who will help.

to resize your pics there is a program called visualizer photo resize...its easy and free......google it cause i dont have the link but it might be in a sticky on the photos forum.

give that a try

 

cool got the resized pics (thx andy) - and no its not just the back unfortunally - think its a mighty job but might take it on - just dont want to spend loads of money and not get it back

 

You probably wont get the money back for what you spend on it unless you are careful what you replace.
Especially if plastics need replacing. Bikes can be written off on plastic cost alone.

Price it up Is a good site for parts

See what the cost is


Remember that the exhaust if it isnt dented too badly will be able to be pulled back into shape by a body shop and polished to a mirror shine again. Elbow grease and maybe a drill with polishing attachment needed.
Same goes for all metal parts that are scratched

Insurance companies swop like for like on ANYTHING damaged. Your grab rail can either be touched up, or stripped and totally resprayed as long as it isnt bent. Insurance valuer would get a new one.



As a general idea, my hornet to fix up after i ran out of talent at Donnington 9pics in link)
Which was worse than yours, but the damage was:
Levers
Indicators
Rear light
Clocks
Mudguard
Seat Cowl
Undertray
Frame being re-aligned (only slightly out on the subframe)
Radiator Hose


That came to £1200 and he only charged £300 ish labour (inc pulling frame back in line). The rest was parts. And apart from undertray and seat cowl the parts werent new or from Honda. He took ages to fix it cos i wanted it doing cheap as possible

It soon adds up, before you start price it up, and check everything, small things tend to be stupidly expensive. Radiator for a Hornet is £340. Clocks new are over £700!!!!! Rear light was 80 odd quid.




Working on a bike is easy, I have very little experience. But I managed an oil and filter change, fitting a new radiator + hose, removing and refitting the tank, installing a charger cable for my sat nav

Get a haynes book or similar and take your time.

 

Fix it yourself, take your time and buy the parts as cheap as possible of breakers/ Ebay etc. It will give you the satisfaction of doing the job, and get you used to bike maintenance. That alone will save you a fortune as you move up to bigger bikes and can do a lot of the jobs yourself. I had never touched a bike until I had a big off on me Blade, didnt bankrupt me fixing it and it was far worse than yours, complete front end, plastics, wheels and parts of loom.

Really is a good feeling to see it live again.

failing that, strip and sell the bits

 

tbh if it was me. i wouldnt repalce the plastuics or exhaust if they do the job.. as long as the bike is safe and runs well.. you should be ok doing minimum work..

its sods law that youll do everything to it and either
a) it will get nicked
b) someone will do the same
c) sh1t happens and youll hit the deck..

a lovely nice looking bike is great but while your learning i woudlnt worry about spending a small fortune on it

 

I think the most important thing to check out is the frame. Going off your description of the crash, chances are it's bent, in which case, you need to know how badly and then you can decide what to do. It may even be cracked.

 

Firstly a thank you for your time

When i spoke with the insurance they said that the frame did need replacing but also said this could be down to a scratch - have spent loads of time on the phone trying to get them to send me the eng report (in the post they keep saying - gunna get my PI person to get it now i think, hope that kicks them in to touch)!!

the question i now have is how do check if it is bent? (strip it or get some guy with good knowledge to have a look - as dont want to fix it then mot it and it come back its bent)

the reason that i ask this, before i sent off the bike to them to sort - i loosened a few screws around the fairings and the same screws came back loose and the tight ones where still tight - so as far as i can tell they looked, thought, made a bru, flipped a coin - it landed on heads so they said written off (due to this i now have a sv650s happy days)

 

lus:

Yeah get the PI on it - if they are as good as my brother's, they will have fuck all effect :lol:

As 270* says, the frame is the most important thing, so make sure thats right before any decisions - id get a specialist on it to make sure

 

personally , there's so many of em about that they're cheap, so you'll struggle to fix it and make any money, especially as you'll have to tell anyone looking at it that it's been a write off.
best thing i reckon is to strip it and sell the parts on ebay , because it's a learner bike there'll be loads of kids who've dropped theirs that are looking for parts.

 

Seems my hand has been forced into the stripping of the bike to raise some cash gunna start this in april now the engine is only 7500 miles young so anyone want to get an offer in on any parts be my guest an pm me

(will post this in for sale too once start the stripping)

Again thank you all for the advice on this and am a little gutted that its getting broken as had some fun times on my little lady :cry: :cry: :cry:

got some things would like to upgrade on my bike so prob gunna be busy on here picking at brains once the money starts too reach my pocket