TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS
Top of the bottom-feeders : Readers’ $1000 bikes
We made the call for cheap bikes and, man, did we get an answer-actually, about 400 of them! From roadracers to choppers to Britbikes to standards, from across this great nation the stories of bikes found under stacks of firewood, in sheds, leaning against trees, brought back from salvage yards or perfectly preserved came pouring in. What did we learn? Cheapness for many is a way of life, as a couple of guys said they’d never paid more than $1000 for any bike. Also that the quintessential cheap bike at the moment is the 1980s Japanese custom-we haven’t seen so many Yamaha Virago 700s and Suzuki Maduras 1400s since... well, never! What follows here is the cream of the crap, uh, crop, and for their efforts each reader gets a cool $100. Hey, that’s 10 percent down on their next ride... -Mark Hoyer
Reserwreckted Custom
Jon Kelly didn’t learn to ride until he was 40 years old. Rather than rush out and buy the latest racer-replica, he searched his local savage yard and found a “dirty-but-sound” 1983 Honda CX650C with 11,000 miles showing on the odometer. Price? Just $250. His next purchase was a Clymer repair manual. Over the next five months, Kelly went through the entire bike, fixing this and replacing that, finally putting the middleweight V-Twin on the road for a grand total of $892. “It’s not the flashiest or largest motorcycle on the road,” he says, “but I know it will start every time and get me where I want to go.”
Life After Theft
You could say that reader Paul Meade-Clift “stole” his 1992 Suzuki DR350S—if it hadn’t already been stolen. A theft recovery, the poor DR was in such bad shape when Paul first saw it that he declined to make an offer. But the former owner was so intent on moving it that he gave it away-along with a pair of motocross boots! When the high cost of replacing the damaged ignition switch, etc. proved off-putting, Paul did the “logical” thing and made it into a track bike. Outings at his local go-kart/supermoto track have been “liberating” for the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada resident, and next on his agenda is spooning on a set of knobbies so he can try his hand at motocross. Gotta use those free boots, after all...
He had a Dream...
“I call it a CL305TT,” says Kevin Krieger, the owner of the bob-job Honda seen here, “but everybody else just calls it the ‘Orange Bike.’” Krieger got the idea for his creation from a magazine feature on a CL250-based flat-tracker. The finished product is a hodge-podge of parts: 305 Dream engine, twin-carburetor Scrambler cylinder head, BSA front fender, Yamaha XS650 rear wheel, CB100 gas tank, front end from a Bultaco Pursang. Most of the parts were donated or bought used; Krieger tabbed the hardtail rear end himself. Final outlay was $900, “only a little more than I’d told my wife it would cost," he laughs
Bavarian Mongrel
Editors Edwards and Catterson have nothing on reader Frank who spent just $800 in the creation of his one-off BMW, the “Bavarian Mongrel.” Building over the winter of 2002-03, the 57-year-old Pennsylvania retiree traded work on six bikes for the engine, transmission and rear drive, traded some guns for the miscellaneous cycle parts, and threw the rest together using parts he found in his garage, at salvage yards and in the dumpster behind the local high-school shop class. Originally, Frank built the Beemer for his wife Debbie, but she dubbed it a “farm implement” and claimed his Suzuki SV650 instead! He’s since put 12,000 trouble-free miles on the bike, and claims it will be his last project. Yeah, sure.
An “EOU” not IOU
This 1964 Triumph TR6 epitomizes Pete Ernst’s philosophy of collecting “EOU” bikes, as in Excellent, Original and Unrestored condition. Ernst purchased the bike from a widow whose husband bought the bike new, rode it a few weeks then parked it. Asking price? A full $700. With 750 miles on the clock, the totally original bike cleaned up amazingly well. “I maintain that there’s even some original British air in the tires,” he says of the OE rubber. “I put 150 miles on it and decided if I ever dumped it I would never forgive myself.” He now has it parked in his living room.
A 400 for $500
While looking for space to store his tractor, Dave Voskuil ran across this low-mileage 1976 Honda CB400F. After buying the bike for $500, the retired teacher jettisoned the out-of-character aftermarket fairing, high-rise handlebar and luggage rack, cleaned the carburetors and buffed up the body. “It’s a little rocket,” enthuses Voskuil, who also owns a Kawasaki Vulcan and a Suzuki SV650, “and the 4-into-1 pipe sounds sweet.”
Ninja 750 “Dual-Sport”
“It is a real eye-catcher,” says Joe Blackwell, of his $450, uh, thing. “My wife calls it the ‘Sticky Bike’ because it looks like I threw things at it and where they stuck is where I left them.” What did Joe throw? The previous owner had visions of a grass drag-bike and put the YZ front end on the Kawasaki frame and 750cc four-cylinder engine, while Blackwell had visions of the “ultimate dual-sport” and added lights, a Honda XL seat and a Ninja fuel tank. “The only problems are that it shakes at freeway speeds because of the knobbies, and the front brake is only good as a ‘hill-holder,’” he says. “Now you know what we do on those long winter nights in Minnesota.’
The Cleanest UJM
Of all the entries, this was the quintessential “barn find” as it related to a bigbore Universal Japanese Motorcycle. The UJM in question is a gloriously clean 1983 Yamaha Seca 900 purchased for the princely sum of $350. “I got a great deal on this bike because its previous owner finally bought the Harley he’d always wanted," says owner Hampton Hale. “It looks good, but runs even better.” The bike has only 27,000 miles on it, “so there is plenty of fun ahead,” grins Hale. “Heck, I did 170 miles on it this morning!” Riding all the way to the bank, no doubt...
Eastern Bloc Sale
Phil Stultz picked up his 1975 CZ 250 Enduro at a garage sale in 1985 for $150. “The original owner had lent the bike to his brother, who removed turnsignals and somehow shorted-out the electrical sys tern,” says Stultz. “The bike was then put in the garage and with an old tent.” Modern considerations to the otherwise original machine include a Mikuni carburetor, Progressive Suspension shocks, spark arrestor, and rear rack. “It’s a kick to ride,” says Stultz, “and a real attention-getter.
A 4/6 at 47
Canet’s Suzuki GSXR7/11 wasn’t the only hybrid prowling backroads in the 1980s. Also popular was the Yamaha FZR4/6, consisting of an FZR600 engine in an FZR400’s aluminum frame. (The 600’s frame was steel, which begs the question, wouldn’t an FZR6/4 be even cheaper?) When Oregon roadracer Scott Soper came out of retirement at age 47, he found this FZR4/6, and from 2002-04 won $4125 in contingencies, so the bike more than paid for itself. Now re-retired, Soper created this stunning streetfighter, which he uses for instructing at track days. His claims of 350 pounds dry and 90 horsepower sound dubious, but pale in comparison to his claimed investment: just $850, including his one frivolous purchase, a $500 titanium pipe he found on eBay.
A Honda Rocks On
New Yorker Andy Morris simply typed “CB750 for sale” into an Internet search engine. What he got was this pristine, properly stored, one-owner 1971 CB750K1 with Vetter Vindicator fairing and “extra parts” for $400. “Initial plans were to ditch the fairing and sissybar, but one ride with the CycleSound AM/FM cassette blasting The Who’s Quadrophenia convinced me the bike was set up perfectly.” Those extra parts? Two fenders, a set of gauges, handlebars and an ultra-rare set of original HM300 stock pipes sold for $800 on eBay. “Do the math!” exclaims Morris.
Bent Sprocket Special
A longlegged pony with a big set of jugs for less than $800? we’re talking about the motorf cycle! iatherrBt~ian Browning and Rick Allen acquired this 1977 Yamaha XS650 Special and a slew of parts for $300, and then spent two weeks hiding from their grandkids in the garage to create this, their fifth joint project, dubbed “The Bent Sprocket.” To build it, they cut down the frame, added a swapmeet Sportster gas tank, forward controls and bar risers, and finished it off with liberal applications of bondo and rattlecan paint. One each new battery and rear tire and the XS was on the road for a total cost of $791-or $831 if you include the cost of hiring Becky from the local YMCA to pose for this photo.
Suzuki Café
‘Tm finally about 90 percent happy with my $100 Beater,” says reader David Davis about his 1979 Suzuki GS550 café-racer. A mechanical/ design engineer at Big Dog Motorcycles in Wichita, Kansas, he originally acquired the GS as a parts bike on eBay, but after getting the bike home, charging the battery and prodding the kickstarter, discovered that it ran! He then had a brain far.. .er, storm, and decided to make the backwards gas tank from a Big Dog chopper fit. Many eBay and JC Whitney parts, some Hammertone gray paint and much clever fabrication later, he’s got the jewel shown here. Total investment: $650. He’d replace the tires but doesn’t want to break the $800 mark.
"Jupiter” has a Dog Star
Hey buddy, wanna buy a sidecar?” That was the question posed at a party o Hans Bertelsen, who, liking the idea, handed over $450 and became the jroud owner of a 1975 Jupiter “chair.” A month later, the same wheeler-dealer jffered Bertelsen for the paltry sum of $150 the 1978 Honda CB750A that jriginally went with the sidecar. Seems the son-in-law who had possession of he bike never actually became the son-in-law, and failed to pay or the bike. Further conversation netted the original seat and nade-to-order mounting brackets or the sidecar. “A finished nachine,” crows Bertelsen, “all for far ess than $1000.” (atie the basset hound is happy, too.
