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« Last post by Dirk_S on Today at 10:53:22 AM »
I’d say, given a small budget, learn to wrench first, THEN get a vintage carbureted bike that you will most likely need to do at least some work on if you buy it cheap.
My first bike was a ‘78 KZ400, bought in 2011. It needed various work. I was able to fix some things. I’m not a mechanic, but I do like to learn and do things myself. Still, because my knowledge of internal combustion engines was pretty nihl, I was chasing things and getting frustrated because I simply couldn’t fix ‘em with the little amount of resources I had. So it sat while I’d try one thing, take it out on the road, become encouraged that it ran better only to have it fail on me later. Sold the bike after a year.
Second/third bikes were Honda CX500s, bought about the same time, overlapping one another. Same deal—both could ride sporadically, but ultimately I was chasing stuff I wasn’t full aware of. Finally took the one to a mechanic, and the guy just spent forever on it—over 6 months—due to personal issues. Got to a point where I no longer wanted to deal with older bikes.
Bought a cheap Suzuki TU250 on a rebuilt title (famous, too—it was the bike used in the Cyclepedia manual for that model). Smaller engine and performance than I preferred, but so thankful I could actually put miles on a bike. Kept the TU for a little over a year before having the money saved up for my V7 II, which I’ve owned since 2017.
Over the years I’ve dove into reading, watching vids, and bugging folks smarter than me to catch up on knowledge. Then I bombed the engine—spun a big end bearing due to some heavy sidecar usage, and was left with a dilemma: scrap the bike or spit on these smooth artist hands of mine, slap ‘em together and say “well, let’s do some work.” So I rebuilt the engine with the help of the service manual, the Guzzi training videos uploaded to Greg Bender’s site, my dad (rebuilt a few engines himself), and folks on this forum. If I had the money, perhaps I would’ve scrapped the motor and bought another, but low funds can often allow you to be creative—however, if I was as poor and frustrated as I was in 2011-13, I would’ve either thrown in the towel with motorcycling, or the bike would’ve been sitting in the barn for even longer. It’s fixed now (I think…I do have a rattle issue that might be in the rocker assembly), but that’s because I was able to allocate the time and enough funds to completely focus on it.
Over the years, I’ve learned so much—and that engine rebuild really elevated my confidence and comfort level—that I bought a 70s bike again to actually replace the Guzzi. Parking it next to the Guzzi, I immediately felt like I was breaking up with a girlfriend. Decided to keep both, and I’m thankful that I did, because that BMW (bought cheap) has needed quite a bit of work to be road ready, 90% of which I did. I did hand it over to a former BMW tech to figure a couple nagging issues only because it started getting cold out (I don’t have a shed/garage to work in anymore). Thankfully no internal work yet, but I’ll be ready for it. And much more confident.
Some get cheap, old bikes, and they run well almost right out the gate. I consider those folks lucky.
Long story short—If your funds are low, you’ll either need a fair amount of knowledge AND/OR a fair amount of time.
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