www.zxrworld.co.uk

However i know absolutely naff all about bikes.

Whats the best way to go about learning?

Ive got an old triumph bonneville and honda CB400Four sat in the garage in bits and i wud really love to build em up again.

Any advise would be much appreciated

saka_ZXR wrote:However i know absolutely naff all about bikes.

Whats the best way to go about learning?

Ive got an old triumph bonneville and honda CB400Four sat in the garage in bits and i wud really love to build em up again.

Any advise would be much appreciated

come and work for me !

the hours are long, the pays toad, and im normally stoned, absent, or stroppy

give me the bonny and you do the cb

Aha i know exactly how much a restored bonny would be worth mate

And i actually would love to do a mechanics apprenticeship or summat but im half way through the school year and wud have to wait till september.

well you could start a build thread here and we'll help as much as we can.

Well once ive got rid of the eliminator from the garage i'll have some room to start he build.

I'll post it up if anyone wants to buy it later on in the week, its only a 125 so i doubt it but u lot may know sumone who needs a 125.

Gonna start with the CB400 i think as i did start it a while back but never had the time to carry on with it, i bought it off a mate as a full non running bike and stripped it all down now, not gonna bother getting it powdercoated etc, might just hammerite the frame as they dont sell for much over a couple of hundred so its not worth the cost, when i get onto the bonny though im gonna get her back to mint if i can.

what year is the 400/4? got any pics?

'79 i think.

Not got any pics of it when i first got it, i dont think so anyway might have some but it was a good year or so ago so id have to root through all the computers.

is it the supersport? get some clip ons on it mate they look mint,

I dont have a clue mate wud have to have a look.

Rebuilding bikes is a labour of love if you want to do it properly. I started stripping and rebuilding 30 years ago and if I am absolutley honest I have always spent more money on a full strip and rebuild than I have ever made when the bike was sold on. If I factor in my own time then the economics are just stupid. I did it because I wanted to - it was a hobby and a means of maintaining my own bike etc etc

Fully rebuilt Bonnies are worth a bob or two BUT - the cost of getting the bike to this stage shouldnt be underestimated.

So - rebuilding is fine so long as at the end of ot you want a rebuilt bike of that kind. If you dont then the best thing to do is to break the bikes that you have got selling the parts for cash (almost always more that you paid for the whole bke) - take the money generated and buy a decent condition running bike which needs a bit of work to get it mint and then learn by riding and maintaining that bike. In your case you could sell the Bonnie for a decent amount of cash as is to give you a bit of a head start in buying the workbench, tools, manuals etc that you will need. I had my tools knicked last year and had completely underestminated the amount of time that had gone into building up the tool kit and the cost of replacing which was pretty scary

I hpe this doenst sound too negative but the reason that lots of rebuilds get started but not finished is that

1) Bikes are not meccano kits and are generally more complicated than people thought
2) The rebuild costs start to get too scary and it becomes obvious that the money is never coming back
3) The motivation for the rebuild wasnt clear in the first place
4) The commitment of time becomes a problem (girlfriend, wife, kids etc)

On a positive note - if you really want to go for it then the assistance on this site is second to none and I'm sure there will be loads of help.

One final thought - none of the garage work actually beats riding!!!

i would take daves word of advice mate and sell what you have either as a whole or as spares, generally spares prices will get you double what you paid if there is a requirement for it.i would do the bonny up and sell the cb.

i wouldnt start with an old bike like that, something like a CB500 with GOOD parts back up is what you want.

Theres nothing more hartbraking that having to sit around for months at a time waiting for parts..

Well ive got everything in the garage id need to rebuild a bike tools wise, nice workbench, most tools u'd ever need, full size bike lift, engine cradle etc.

I do have the drive to complete a full rebuild aslong as i have the resources to know what i have to do, and once ive sold the 125 the money part wont bother me too much as i just want to be able to sit there at the end look at a running bike and think wow i did that

As for selling the CB yeah it would be worth more in parts as it only cost me £40 about a year back and tbh not much needs replacing it just needs rebuilding and touching up but yeah i probably will sell the parts and get started on the bonny.

Go for it mate - one final bit of advcie (based on my own paifunl experience). When I started out on rebuilds I was always driven on by the idea of making it perfect. There are two (at least) major problems with this

1) The bike wasnt perfect when it left the manufactureres in the first place (particularly something old like the Bonnie)

2) The tendency to strip apart perfectly working pieces believing that taking them apart is all part of the rebuild results in a much longer rebuild and makes little difference to the end product

If any part of the Bonnie is known to be OK then leave it - for example if the engine was a runner then dont strip it looking for problems - get it started sooner and see if any problems are obvious (smoke, rattles etc etc) - then fix them if necessary

I wish someone had explained that to me when I started. Havng said that it seems a bit obvious now but I was probably blinded by the idea of wanting the perfectly restored/ rebuilt bike at the end of the whole process when actually I would have been better prioritising what needed to be done. My all time record (not particularly proud of this) was 8 years to restore and rebuild an A10 by which time I had almost forgotten why I started it in the first place

Good luck