cost to rebuild?

[Bitten]

I have spent over 10K restoring from the ground up my RM 465Z, including the original bike and all the associated costs of importing it into Oz. This was spent over 12 months and I loved the whole process of researching, finding parts from all over and actually getting my hands dirty.

At the start of the project I thought it would cost all up about 6K but as I went I probably over did the replacing of things a bit but once I got on a roll I couldn't stop!

The biggest costs were rebuilding the shock and forks as they weren't in the best shape and neither am I!! They cost approx $1500 all up to redo all the internals but I figured it was an investment in my own health and enjoyment of the bike

With hind sight I think I should have bought a decent bike already done but I couldn't find an RM465Z in acceptable condition for sale at the time despite looking on and off for 12 months

Good luck with the decision and what ever you decide I am sure you will have a ball and that is the most important thing

[Mike52]

Different people have different ideas of what a good rebuilt bike is.
I spent about $3-4k on a Wr240 husky rebuild.
My mate spent $3k on a "totally as new" rebuilt Wr240.
His bike has many new parts and it is still  a heap of sh*t , he prefers to ride mine.
We spent a heap of time putting parts the right way round on his and it,s still not right.
We will probably end up stripping it and starting again.
The seller was real proud of the job he had done and by his standards it was probably pretty good.

[Marc.com]

Marc just curious , are your ouoted prices in US , AU or NZ $$$$$ and do they include shipping to your scheme has merit for sure , but a lot of blokes have one or two bikes and they want to rebuild /restore and get out and ride the thing within a reasonable time frame.

Most of my stuff comes out of the US of A and Japan so I will have to fess up and say USA prices so add our slow boat to Auckland shipping costs, it still works out OK and for me it is part of the fun finding the bits.

If you are in hurry then of course 100% better to buy a bike already finished, in most cases it will be a lot cheaper but less self fulfilling. I see clean a nice CR500 sitting about for months on Trademe at the moment for $4500, total bargain and I am not for a minute going to even suggest that you could build it for that.

I guess the point I am making is starting with a shagged donor bike and trying to recondition the junk can cost more than spending a little more on clean parts off ebay, forks for example with good chrome ..... I mean i have tried both approaches for sure.

[TM BILL]

For sure Marc  you have an eye for a bargain  and i agree completley with your philophosy

You have picked up some bargains and its a buyers market 

I think a lot comes down to what you want and what you can afford  i honestly could not build a bike to the standard i would like to  its not money (well to a point  ) im reasonably skilled mechanicaly ( Im a mechanic by trade plus can weld and use a lathe etc ) although i really really hate mechanicing these days 

But i dont have the paitentce or the eye for detail to build a bike as i would like 

Ideally i would give the donor bike to somone like Joan or Mike Felton to build and just sign the cheques  but pride and knowing i am probably capable (if focused ) of doing it myself  prevents me from doing that.

Buying a ready to race bike is a mine field  there are a lot of Mudgaurd bikes out there (shiny on top shitty underneath ) and a lot of blokes will sell you them truly believing that they have done a good job 

Everyone has a different opinion of whats restored or race ready as well as values 

Ted got a lot of flack from certain people when he had his KX 500 for sale but in reality it was a bargain 

If your doing it yourself set a budget and expect to spend 2 to 3 times that much 

I recently bought my Metisse in the UK  i was very happy with what i paid for it even though i bought it from photos and my dads inspection over the phone. I have allowed a couple of grand or so to tip into it to personalise it for me and to relpace the cases that have had a welding repair ( witch was mentioned in the ad ) and hopfully i will still have a personalised Metisse for less than i could have built one from a frame kit etc.

[dalesween]

Personally it depends on is it a bike you REALLY want as in pined for as a kid(to me anyway) ,if so it becomes a passion and what i do is completely strip the bike when i buy it,as in not even start it,bottom end/engine is split ,frame and bodywork are stripped and i rebuild it to the "intended use" stage,my bikes dont have to look as if they just came off the showroom floor, i just try to get them as tidy as i can but every bike i do is 100% mechanically strong, there is no stone left unturned,all my bikes are built to be ridden and i want reliability without compromise,so from steering head bearings to main bearings are all new plus every other bush,washer or whatever but i dont replace rims etc because mine are'nt shiny enough, if rims ,spokes etc are still usable i clean them up the best i can, so there ya go ,just my opinion but what i do is spend what i need to and everyone certainly has different views on a finished bike.

cheers Dale

[mainline]

WOW thanks everyone so far for your imput. I can do most thing etc. Its just when you start mentally adding it up you start to wonder if you should buy one already done?? hmmmmmmmmmmm

What Vandy said + one

Do it yourself, then you know it's done. I've had two mates buy either complete bikes or engines that have been rebuilt only to discover they weren't anywhere near as described.

The mid to late 70's Jap two strokes are eay to work on easy to find parts for and if you shop around, cheap to rebuild.

Unless you're buying a rebuilt bike off a mate you know and trust I wouldn't buy a going bike for big dollars in a pink fit.

[YZ250H]

my bikes run in around the $2K~$3K mark ready to race and part time they take me about 18months or so with beer.

Come on Mick.  You gotta remember there are people on here that know you .  The beer bill alone would be $2k~$3k 

I agree with the sentiment on here.  If you buy a good base it can be "relatively" cheap if you do it yourself.  If you try and rebuild a thrashed out old wreck (as I did for my first Resto) it will cost you a mint.  Try to get something complete, low hours.  Do it yourself and it may not cost you the earth.  Or as the boys say, buy off someone you know and trust. 

I'd pay 10K for that CR 

[mainline]

my bikes run in around the $2K~$3K mark ready to race and part time they take me about 18months or so with beer.

Come on Mick.  You gotta remember there are people on here that know you .  The beer bill alone would be $2k~$3k 

I agree with the sentiment on here.  If you buy a good base it can be "relatively" cheap if you do it yourself.  If you try and rebuild a thrashed out old wreck (as I did for my first Resto) it will cost you a mint.  Try to get something complete, low hours.  Do it yourself and it may not cost you the earth.  Or as the boys say, buy off someone you know and trust. 

I'd pay 10K for that CR 

The thing is though, that people pay more for a 'complete' bike than a pile of bits and then half of the 'complete' bike goes in the bin anyway. Unless you're getting a bargain, you're better off assuming the worst even if the thing is on wheels.

[GMC]

Very rarely in this world do you get something for nothing.

If you’re the sort that needs to replace everything to perfection then you’re not going to be happy with the cheap restored bike because it won’t be built to the same perfection.

Rebuilding from a basket case isn’t so bad from the point of view that if your going to keep it and ride it for the next 5 years then you will know exactly what you have got.
Too many times I have heard from guys thinking they have bought good bikes only to discover they need all sorts of thing doing to them because they buyer has different standards to the seller.

As others have stated, there are many different standards out there.
‘Top end freshened up’
To some this would mean a rebore and piston and to others it may mean a new ring, it all depends on what circles you move in.

[mudguard]

Yes how long is a piece of string? I purchased my first vmx bike, YZ250C with what was described as something that only required very little work to become a race bike. As this bike is rarely available and not knowing when another would be for sale, I believed the sellers bullshit, and paid a hefty price.
$6000 dollars later,( not including purchase price ) I have a fairly decent race bike, but am still looking to spend more dollars on it. You might have a budget in mind, but most of us go beyond that amount.
There is some self satisfaction of totally restoring an old bike and it should reward you with many years of enjoyment.
I did the reverse for my second vmx bike. I bought a fully restored YZ125K. Nothing to spend, just get out and race it. This bike cost me $700 more than the purchase price of my YZ250C, and that included import costs from USA.
I have gone with two different methods to get myself 2 vmx bikes, and for one bike that has cost me plenty, I have had a big win with the other.
At the end of the day, it will cost you what you are prepared to spend, plus some. And at the end of the day you will enjoy riding it, as the rest of us do.

[IT490K1983]

I have spent over 10K restoring from the ground up my RM 465Z, including the original bike and all the associated costs of importing it into Oz. This was spent over 12 months and I loved the whole process of researching, finding parts from all over and actually getting my hands dirty.

At the start of the project I thought it would cost all up about 6K but as I went I probably over did the replacing of things a bit but once I got on a roll I couldn't stop!

The biggest costs were rebuilding the shock and forks as they weren't in the best shape and neither am I!! They cost approx $1500 all up to redo all the internals but I figured it was an investment in my own health and enjoyment of the bike

With hind sight I think I should have bought a decent bike already done but I couldn't find an RM465Z in acceptable condition for sale at the time despite looking on and off for 12 months

Good luck with the decision and what ever you decide I am sure you will have a ball and that is the most important thing

I think I fall into this category too. Started off with a good example of a CR 500 that was missing some NOS factory stuff, such as expansion chamber and muffler (came with full FMF system), speedo, indicators, tail light, stickers, chainguard and sidestand. So I chased these up and you can imagine the price. Realising that some of the ADR stuff is no longer in production I thought "I'll buy some extras as well". I somehow ended up with a number of parts that were the last ones on Honda's shelves here in OZ. So after a few extra full sets of plastics and spare everything else NOS I have racked up a bill of $9500 and have not even started the "project" as yet. I won't even mention the purchase price of the bike either. It has become bigger than Ben Hur. It started out as I'll grab that bike as it can be registered and I can ride it without getting hassled by Mr Plod". I know that I will definitely never ever get my money back but strangely that doesn't trouble me. It's definitely an untreatable disease isn't it? 

[Nathan S]

It gets cheaper and easier, the more you do - you learn what works and what doesn't. You learn who the cheap suppliers are. You learn what matters and what doesn't.

[monaro308]

Buy a good base to start with and build it yourself....part of the thrill is chasing parts and seeing the finished product.
Like the others say,the more you do it,the cheaper it gets....(kind of  )
I kept the receipts to my RM125C build but have never bothered adding it all up and dont care as that moneys GONE 
and god knows how many hours labour i should charge myself!
BUT I HAD A BALL DOING IT.
Its sits in my lounge gathering dust as i occasionally sit on it and make bing bing bing noises 

It would be nice to see more bike builds on this site since the $AUD has been in our favour for a while.

[Marc.com]

Ideally i would give the donor bike to somone like Joan or Mike Felton to build and just sign the cheques  but pride and knowing i am probably capable (if focused ) of doing it myself  prevents me from doing that.

There is a bike that I don't talk about Bill, that I signed the cheques  for and it went horror wrong. I was new to the VMX scene and got taken for a ride by a so called VMXer....... or as someone mentioned earlier some guys have a completely different standard, he thought he had done a good job.

Bit like most things you need to build a bike or two to figure what approach works and what doesn't. I think the most expensive part is usually the motor so if you can score low hour one normally the bike is well on the way/

[Kenneth S (222)]

How much time you got and how soon do you want to be riding/racing it?

Have you got young kids or are they grown up? If young, there is always all the time they need to consider, soccer practice, sports days etc. What is your work load like? Can you afford all the time the resto will inevitably take?

I asked myself the same question and decided I wanted to ride more than I wanted to restore so I found the best 'race ready' bike I could find for a reasonable and affordable price. Yes, it came to me with some things that weren't quite right but I've had a great time racing this past season I otherwise would not have had.

If you can afford it, do both. A good resto, giving yourself the right amount of time to get the parts at the right price, in a time frame where you are not putting yourself under more pressure than our lives are already under takes time.

I'd be interested to hear how many guys on here have a bike in bits in the corner of their shed that they started 3, 5, 7, 10 years ago and haven't finished yet because they really didn't have the time they thought they did to do the resto. I know I do, at the same time I bought my race ready bike, we bought a 65 CZ 125 and it is still in bits in the work shop. If that is the case, a finished bike seems a cheaper option to me.