Hello, I am looking into getting a bike and I have seen some F2s around my area that have peaked my interest. 1 that I have seen has the ad on CL as this

I haven't looked at it personally or talked to the man, as I'm not yet ready with cash, but does anyone have some input or thoughts on this problem?

 

If the cases are cracked, don't even waste your time looking at it... Too much work, unless you can get the bike for under $500

 

Alright, thanks. Sorry for double posting too.

 

First thing I think of when I hear lower case damage or cracking is how the hell is that possible? Then I think, he probably grenaded the bottom end poking a hole in the case etc. Stay very far away. Just buy a running bike, if your especially new to bikes don't invest in a project cause they always turn out to be a pain in the arsehole. Ugly is ok, slow is ok, broken not running sucks and is not worth it when you can probably get a running one for around 1k

 

Paid $1500 for my 92 F2, fwiw.

 

How was the condition of it?

 

Mine was ugly as all hell, runs pretty good $600

 

I take a different approach to buying. When I bought my F2, I was looking for a bike that looked decent but had mechanical problems. The reasoning for that was clear-- I had no experience/desire to do body/paint work, but I can turn a wrench all day long without needing to learn anything new.

That being said, I bought my bike for $450, hanging from a ceiling with the engine on the other side of the room and the head taken off. It was a total crapshoot, and in this case my gamble happened to pay off. Probably the reason I bought it was because the fairings were in good shape and I wouldn't have to have them repaired/repainted, which would definitely mean outsourcing work to shops.

I played with the engine as best I could to determine whether it had any obvious problems. There are always little things you can do to test the various systems on the bike -- you have to bring your thinking cap along and devise ways to test everything that's unknown. Buying my bike, I made a worst-case allowance that if the engine was somehow totally shot, a new one would run me about $500. And I negotiated the price with that figure in mind. These bikes, when perfectly repaired and looking good, still aren't especially valuable which gives us repairers a small window to work in.

This was the first view I had of my bike when I walked in (a bit shocking):


This was taken last weekend. Total bill (as best I can estimate): $905

Also, Situation, I hope you're not limiting yourself to Honda CBR F2's? There may be countless other models of bikes that would fit your situation. I kind of believe that you should just scour CL, and let the right bike pick you. That's what I did, and it happened to be a '92 F2.

-Andrew

 

I'm not particuallry limiting myself to the F2's they just happen to look nice and fit my price range. I could have bought a 2009 Yamaha YZF-6 from the guy I bought my car from but I just couldn't afford it (going away for school next semester).

But looking around, I've heard countless things about Hondas anyway so here I am.

But I'm scouring CL as you said lol, and I find a few nice ones so far. Looking into them a bit deeper as we speak.