Now I am very much on the home run, the only two jobs left to do are the seat and exhaust. It has so far taken almost exactly 4 months of working on and off to get this far. The two major jobs left are the seat and the exhaust, I am a bit stuck on both – the seat through lack of skill and the exhaust because of parts availability thanks to the second coronavirus lockdown. I have a set of Hayabusa headers I could cut up but they are not quite right and I would need to machine up adapters and I still haven’t got any straight bits of pipe I can use to finish the job.
My next door neighbour is going to do the seat for me, she did the Aprilia RS125 one and that came out brilliantly so I am hoping she can repeat the job with this one. Sometimes you have to admit defeat and get somebody with the right skill set to help out.
I am also still waiting for the clutch cable parts, the ones I ordered on line didn’t arrive so I have had to order again from a different source – Venhill this time, the guys we used on the RD350LC project. Should have gone to them first time round really but the budget got really tight.
Talking of budget the biggest expense was paint, of which I used a lot more than I should have done, partly due to cock ups and partly due to plan changes.
For those of you that want to know the following is the breakdown of all money spent. We tried to do it all with used parts and we probably could if it hadn’t have been for the virus and the fact I can’t have it taking up workspace for ever and a day. The good news is though that I did it for just within the budget, I even have enough left over to buy myself an ice cream.
- Paint (primer, top coat, 2 pack, lacquer, engine enamel) 97.50
- Consumables (flap wheels, cutting discs, wet n dry) £37
- Various fixings – nuts bolts, washers etc £20
- Rear brake cable parts £18
- Metal for brackets, sissy bar, seat pans, brackets etc £30
- Seat material £40
- Fork seals £18
- Headstock bearings £14
- Ammo box £10
- Headlight £15
- Exhaust gaskets £18
- Gasket goo £12
- Battery £32
- Aluminium bar for spacers etc £8
- Electrical fittings (crimp connectors, tape, cable ties etc, heatshrink) £26
- Ball joint connectors for brake and gear shift linkages £8
- Clutch cable parts £16
- Front Brake hose and fittings £9
- Multi function instrument £10
- Air filters £10
- Engine Oil and filter £20
- Exhaust tube and Gun Gum £21
Total £489.50
So the answer to the question could a chopper be built for under £500 is yes, it can if you have a junkyard to trawl through, if you don’t then it becomes a hell of a lot harder. The paint bill should have been less than half what it was, the headstock bearings could possible have been reused and there are a few other areas where money could have been saved – I could have used an old battery for example.
If I had to buy all the parts that were scrounged, found etc. I reckon it would have come out at about £1000-1250 which is still less than you would pay for a decent 125 in today’s market so I think that’s pretty good. In a few cases I spent money in preference to waiting to find stuff – workshop space is really tight due to a lull in sales. As for the resale value of it now I truly have no idea whatsoever. To be honest I don’t really care either. I am now looking to phase two and have a list of things I want to do that I think will make the whole thing even cooler. I’m not going to go mad on the spending front, I don’t like cheque book builds and so its going to be a fair bit more effort but as I have rather enjoyed it I am looking forward to it.
Update on the exhaust – I cut up the old set of Hayabusa headers that gave me the pair of two in to one y pieces that I needed and the rest came from a piece of exhaust tube procured from my local motor factor. I had tried very hard to find something second hand to do the job but with coronavirus still messing everything up and no jumbles being on I justified the £13 plus vat and went for it.
That paint bubbling isn’t – It’s moisture from the exhaust sealant. I couldn’t work out where it had come from at first but it did it on the other side too. Weird. Wiped off ok though.
I also tackled the rear light issue which threw up a last minute problem in that when I opened up the unit to wire it I realised there was no bulb holder in there. I tried fitting a standard one but it was really tight in there so I had to rethink it. A couple of months back Scottie and Ian had cleared out an old Honda dealership and had liberated a very large sign that had been illuminated by hundreds of 12V LED modules. I looked at them and realised I could just about get 5 of them in the back light housing – 2 for the rear light and 3 for the brake light. Back on track with the money saving ethos. Here are some shots of the bike as it stands now. I am in love with this thing, couldn’t be happier but have a big list of things I want to do in phase two.
Article provided by David Powell of Boston Bike Bits.
