first post, so hi to everyone. i wandered over here wondering about something. i located a 96 F3 frame and swingarm for dirt cheap, but it's just that, frame and swingarm. I've worked on cars for years, and am looking for something new to put together, and i'd like to try and take up less space by putting together a bike, i have no previous experience working on bikes, rode small dirtbikes when i was younger, but nothing else. but the question is, is it a rational idea to try and attempt? to start from basically nothing, and try to get a running bike out of it, or is the expense of trying to track down all the parts, and the actual price of all the parts not even worth it? so what do you all think, i know sometimes when building cars it's cheaper to start with a shell and build what you want out of it, but i want to see if it's the same with the 2 wheeled world. so opinions if you have them, and maybe someone to tell me i'm crazy .

Steve

edit: i forgot to mention why i would do this, i really enjoy learning all i can about something, and i've learned that the best way to do that is to go through the entire assembly and learn how everything works/functions before its all assembled. and it wouldn't be something i would look forward to finishing in a few weeks, it would be a much longer endeavour...

 

I don’t know if it would end up saving you money or not, but a couple of good things about it are there are plenty of parts out there for the F3. And you would definitely be a learning experience, you would know your bike inside and out!

 

I dont really think it would be cost-effective, because some of the parts can really add to the tab really fast, like forks, and engine wiring harnesses..

It probably wouldnt be bad, but if you do attack it, I'd recommend spending the $75 or $80 on a factory shop manual. Seems like the clymers's and some of the other manuals are missing parts, and sometimes those parts can be critical. Plus, Honda built the thing, and they wrote the book for it.. haha

 

Find a trashed 900 (older) or so and swap the engine, check ebay for a manual (picked mine up for cheap, bout 10 bux) and go for it man!! HECK there is an add on the for sale section here for complete fairings... actually about 3.