My first motorbike - "project" Kawasaki ER-5
Discussion
Afternoon all,
Had an interesting conversation over the bank holiday. A fried of mine is moving onto a boat and clearing out his shed, which entails disposing of a motorbike that's been in there for the last 5 years.
He said "I was commuting on it but it stopped charging, so I tried to take it apart and replace the regulator..... but snapped the bolts off so got fed up and just carried on riding my other bike instead. It's not worth scrapping and I can't be arsed dealing with selling a non runner so do you want it for free?"
Well, I'm never one to pass up a freebie, even if I have absolutely no current use for a motorbike and indeed have never ridden one! After all, I deduced, even if it's beyond economic repair I can always break it for parts.
Hence, after £10 in real ale as thanks and £40 to hire a sensibly small trailer (my 20-footer being slightly awkward to navigate a housing estate with
), I found myself the legal owner of a slightly tired looking bike that's clearly had a long, all-weather life!
With seized/sticking brakes and flat tyres it was fun to get it loaded and unloaded, but it's currently now stashed in a corner of my workshop to await it's turn in the project queue.
My initial list of things it needs is a new battery, new regulator, and fresh brake fluid and some fettling to calipers. Carbs will, I guess, at best want inspecting for dried ethanol gunk in the jets? Is it worth buying some new ethanol-tolerant fuel line whilst I'm at it so the bike is compatible for modern use?
Obviously I want to keep things as cheap as possible but I'm already wondering if a full DIY strip, clean and frame repaint would be better than tarting up as-is to tackle the areas where the powdercoat has crumbled away.
It is currently missing some bodywork but the guy says he has the missing panels, some spare sundries, and most importantly the ignition keys(!) in a box somewhere that he has yet to find....
He always was a little bit Brexit-y... whilst I was at his house, he also proudly showed me his UKIP tea-towel
Had an interesting conversation over the bank holiday. A fried of mine is moving onto a boat and clearing out his shed, which entails disposing of a motorbike that's been in there for the last 5 years.
He said "I was commuting on it but it stopped charging, so I tried to take it apart and replace the regulator..... but snapped the bolts off so got fed up and just carried on riding my other bike instead. It's not worth scrapping and I can't be arsed dealing with selling a non runner so do you want it for free?"
Well, I'm never one to pass up a freebie, even if I have absolutely no current use for a motorbike and indeed have never ridden one! After all, I deduced, even if it's beyond economic repair I can always break it for parts.
Hence, after £10 in real ale as thanks and £40 to hire a sensibly small trailer (my 20-footer being slightly awkward to navigate a housing estate with
), I found myself the legal owner of a slightly tired looking bike that's clearly had a long, all-weather life! With seized/sticking brakes and flat tyres it was fun to get it loaded and unloaded, but it's currently now stashed in a corner of my workshop to await it's turn in the project queue.
My initial list of things it needs is a new battery, new regulator, and fresh brake fluid and some fettling to calipers. Carbs will, I guess, at best want inspecting for dried ethanol gunk in the jets? Is it worth buying some new ethanol-tolerant fuel line whilst I'm at it so the bike is compatible for modern use?
Obviously I want to keep things as cheap as possible but I'm already wondering if a full DIY strip, clean and frame repaint would be better than tarting up as-is to tackle the areas where the powdercoat has crumbled away.
It is currently missing some bodywork but the guy says he has the missing panels, some spare sundries, and most importantly the ignition keys(!) in a box somewhere that he has yet to find....
He always was a little bit Brexit-y... whilst I was at his house, he also proudly showed me his UKIP tea-towel
My first bike was an ER-5, after I learned to ride on one. Good memories, it's not an exciting bike but it is good at what it does. Having run it for a few months myself I sold it to a friend when I bought an SV-650S, he then ran it for a while as he learned to ride. Then when I changed up to a new R6, he bought the SV off me, and I part-ex'd the ER-5 in against the R6. Dealership had a riding school attached and they needed another bike for it, so gave me a decent price - everyone was a winner in that deal.
That one looks in a bit of a tired state, but hopefully be reasonably easy to get back on the road. The engine is basically the same as the GPZ500 which was a bigger seller, so parts should be easy to come by.
Are you going to treat this as a project thread? Don't get many of those in BB.
That one looks in a bit of a tired state, but hopefully be reasonably easy to get back on the road. The engine is basically the same as the GPZ500 which was a bigger seller, so parts should be easy to come by.
Are you going to treat this as a project thread? Don't get many of those in BB.
ChemicalChaos said:
With seized/sticking brakes and flat tyres it was fun to get it loaded and unloaded, but it's currently now stashed in a corner of my workshop to await it's turn in the project queue.
My initial list of things it needs is a new battery, new regulator, and fresh brake fluid and some fettling to calipers. Carbs will, I guess, at best want inspecting for dried ethanol gunk in the jets? Is it worth buying some new ethanol-tolerant fuel line whilst I'm at it so the bike is compatible for modern use?
Obviously I want to keep things as cheap as possible but I'm already wondering if a full DIY strip, clean and frame repaint would be better than tarting up as-is to tackle the areas where the powdercoat has crumbled away.
If that was mine the first thing I'd do is see if it runs at all. There won't be any financial payback on restoring it so it'll be for fun, but you don't want it to be an absolute money pit. It won't do well with carbs with old fuel etc. but if it starts and doesn't put out loads of oil smoke you have chance of being able to make it useful. No point buying tyres and rebuilding brakes to then find the engine is ruined. Also once it's started you can test the charging system to determine why it stopped charging and whether it does need a reg/rec, or whether it's the battery, stator or wiring (quite possibly corroded terminals looking at the rest of the bike). Also once you've had it running and the oil has got a little warmer that's the time to change it. There will be some that say to delve into the engine first as it's sat so long but many engines have been started quite easily in the past, and in my opinion it's a case of making sure it's worth effort before you get too far in.My initial list of things it needs is a new battery, new regulator, and fresh brake fluid and some fettling to calipers. Carbs will, I guess, at best want inspecting for dried ethanol gunk in the jets? Is it worth buying some new ethanol-tolerant fuel line whilst I'm at it so the bike is compatible for modern use?
Obviously I want to keep things as cheap as possible but I'm already wondering if a full DIY strip, clean and frame repaint would be better than tarting up as-is to tackle the areas where the powdercoat has crumbled away.
Do put a build thread on though as you'll get loads of tips. Good luck.
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