Insured, Taxed, MoT'd!

[mjc506]

'ning All,

A few weeks ago, I took delivery of this 2002 ST1300A, that was sold as a 'project'... truth be told, it didn't look too bad from a few paces back, but had been sat for a few years and did need some work.

Still, with the help of the wisdom here, I gave it a full service, with all fluids and filters changed, new fork and brake caliper seals all round, new SMC, new wheel bearings and tyres, rebuilt the clutch primary and secondary cylinders, valve clearances, and of course the all important moly paste on the splines! A few oddities were found, including a rear wheel spacer that wasn't 'deep' enough. No idea what bike that'd come from but it explained the dragging rear brake...

This afternoon, it passed it's first MoT since 2016, with no advisories , although I must admit it didn't even get tested on Wednesday when it was first booked for - turns out the original dealer mis-read the frame number and registered it with a garbled VIN... and no-one had spotted it until my MoT tester (yes, including me...) I've got the MoT certificates all the way back to 2005 and they all list the same (wrong) number. Honda confirmed they didn't recognise the one on the paperwork, and did recognise the one on the bike (it also has both recalls still outstanding...) and VIN checks showed it was clear thankfully. Looks like the dealer saw the 'cross in a box' and read it as 'N', so the frame number started NJH2... which isn't valid. Fun and games... will now need to update the V5 which I'm sure will be straight forward...

On the plus side, nearly 100 miles covered this afternoon (apart from the trips to the MoT centre, the first time it's been ridden for at least 4 years) and it's running beautifully

Next jobs are to touch up some scratches, and put some decent miles on it

 

[Fawlty]

'ning All,

A few weeks ago, I took delivery of this 2002 ST1300A, that was sold as a 'project'... truth be told, it didn't look too bad from a few paces back, but had been sat for a few years and did need some work.

Still, with the help of the wisdom here, I gave it a full service, with all fluids and filters changed, new fork and brake caliper seals all round, new SMC, new wheel bearings and tyres, rebuilt the clutch primary and secondary cylinders, valve clearances, and of course the all important moly paste on the splines! A few oddities were found, including a rear wheel spacer that wasn't 'deep' enough. No idea what bike that'd come from but it explained the dragging rear brake...

This afternoon, it passed it's first MoT since 2016, with no advisories , although I must admit it didn't even get tested on Wednesday when it was first booked for - turns out the original dealer mis-read the frame number and registered it with a garbled VIN... and no-one had spotted it until my MoT tester (yes, including me...) I've got the MoT certificates all the way back to 2005 and they all list the same (wrong) number. Honda confirmed they didn't recognise the one on the paperwork, and did recognise the one on the bike (it also has both recalls still outstanding...) and VIN checks showed it was clear thankfully. Looks like the dealer saw the 'cross in a box' and read it as 'N', so the frame number started NJH2... which isn't valid. Fun and games... will now need to update the V5 which I'm sure will be straight forward...

On the plus side, nearly 100 miles covered this afternoon (apart from the trips to the MoT centre, the first time it's been ridden for at least 4 years) and it's running beautifully

Next jobs are to touch up some scratches, and put some decent miles on it

Well done! All that hard work paid off!

 

[mjc506]

Thanks, but I think I got off lightly really; I expected more issues on a ~20 year old bike that had been sat, so thanks be to Mother Honda's build quality and of course the authors of various articles and posts here

 

[SMSW]

On the plus side, nearly 100 miles covered this afternoon (apart from the trips to the MoT centre, the first time it's been ridden for at least 4 years) and it's running beautifully

Next jobs are to touch up some scratches, and put some decent miles on it

Outstanding! You did a great job bringing her back. I'd add to your comment: "and put some decent miles and lots of smiles on it".

 

[Bikeric]

Good work and welcome to the forum from Cornwall UK! Enjoy your new bike.

 

[Upt' North]

Well done, enjoy your ride.
Upt'North.

 

[mjc506]

Thanks all

 

[5001craig]

Thanks for posting your situation. I'm looking at a similar bike ('06) with ~35K miles on it that hasn't been ridden in four years. Assuming it starts and runs what would you say would be a reasonable price for a bike in this state that needs some (lots of) attention?

Thanks in advance and what a great forum!

 

[mjc506]

I'd say that depends on (local) market conditions, and whether you'd be doing the work yourself (and how much you'd value your time!). I guess one way of working it out could be to find the blue book price, and work backwards depending what you find wrong with it, but that assumes you find everything

For context, I saw a few similar bikes in 'ready to ride' (read, no obvious faults, probably many faults just a few miles away!) for ~£6k (GBP) and I'm in for less than half of that overall. Of course, that ignores whatever 'deal' I'd get on the £6k bike, and includes only parts and not labour.

On the other hand, if you like the bike, feel you can fix any issues, and have the time to work on it, consider the value of a reliable machine - it'll probably be in better condition than you'd find on the dealer floor once you're done