Hi everybody !
I have been thinking about buying a 94-97 900 CBR for years , so i think i will buy one very soon !
I actualy ride a 2005 ZRX1200R ( i have 2 , one with Dynojet stage 3) Eddy Lawson Replica that i really love but i also look for an Hypersport motocycle !
apart from that , i love and make music and sound engineering !

I read i had to present myself first but i don't know if i did it in the right forum !

Also i would like to start a topic ( unless i can do it in this one ) to ask about some buying tips , to buy a 94-97 900 CBR Fireblade , knowing the model i have thought about buying for'years is the Urban Tiger 1994-95 cause i like the look and colors but the 1997 ones have the same look on the front that i like and some are nice as well ( and i read they are more comfortable to ride due to a different tank shape ) although i dig the Urban Tiger model colors the most i think .

I am in France and there are not some for sell very often like this Urban Tiger model , especaly with not too many Km ( less than 45 000 if possible ! !
i saw one for sell in a shop , several hundreds km from where i live , that seems to be in good shape ( at least on the pictures ) but what annoys me is that the seller in the shop i spoke with on the phone, told me the motorcycle already had 8 owners !
it seems much and obviously there is not much informations about what's been serviced on it for years ( like most 900 cbr i see for sale who have had several owners , especialy when they say they've been doing everything themselves !)

it doesn't seem to have had any crash but i only saw it on pictures for the moment and asked a few questions to a seller of the shop on the phone.

would you buy a motorcycle from that era , like a 900 CBR , that had so many owners ?

what should i ask and check particularly on a 94-97 900 CBR , knowing i don't know much about mechanic and i don't have a friend who knows to ask to come with me ?

 

8 owners isn’t a ton but it does open up the bike to be cares for in that many ways.
If it were me as long as the bike seems to be in sound shape and you are reasonably mechanically inclined I would pursue it. You can always have a bike mechanic look at it prior to buying it. If the seller is against that, run away.

 

thanks for your answer !
It is a motorbike shop who is selling it for someone as a deposit sale , so i am not sure they would agree someone open up the engine in the shop ( anyway , it is far from where i live and I have nobody who knows mechanic enough to ask to unfortunately ) but i sent them an email this morning asking if there is a warranty ( sometimes shops selling second hand motorcycles propose 3 to 6 months wanrranty ) and also as they say it has been serviced in the classified ad for sale where i saw it , i asked what's been done exactly .
i phoned to the shop saturday and spoke to a seller but as he asked me to send an email to express my interest in the motorcycle and ask questions if i had some more , i asked several important questions of that type to have track of what they answer me .
Cause on the phone they can say whatever they want , unless it is recorded , there is no evidence of what they say and even recorded , sometimes it is not valid in a court , before the law if ever there is a need to solve a dispute .
I can still have it inspected after I buy it , if i buy it and if there is a important problem , cancel the sale if it is not in the shape they told me I suppose.
Anyway , thanks for your advices , i will see how to manage all that the best .

 

One of the best things to do while onsite is to see how well the bike starts from cold. When you arrive before the bike is started feel the exhaust. If it's warm that is an indicator that they've started the bike to let it warm up. Bikes usually start better with a warm engine rather than cold.

 

Welcome and thanks for the nice introduction!

As for your purchase, I'd read and watch as much as possible about the model you are interested in. Ask a lot of questions of the previous owner! And if something just doesn't seem right, don't hesitate to NOT buy it. Something else will eventually come along!

 

It's been a few years i read all i can about 94-95 CBR900 and then 96-97 when i saw they had the same front fairing but even more comfortable riding position .

Last saturday , i asked several questions to the seller in the shop which was selling the 94 urban tiger and he told me to send an email if i wanted to make a deposit to reserve the motorbike and told me o send him an email to know how to do it and if i had more questions .
so in the night between sunday and monday i sent the mail , phoned môdzy again but they were closed and on wednesday , i still had no answer ro my email but he asked me in an email to give hil my phone number what i did in the next two hours .
knowing the motorbike was in the far East of France and i am near Paris , sevetal hundreds km from that shop !
the next day , thursday , as i still had no answer ro my email, i phoned him and he told me he would answer very soon , knowing i had asked a few more questions i did not think about the past saturday shile speaking with hil on the phone and as there had been 8 owners , i ask him ( as he told me he could have access to it ) if he could tell me the date when all these owners bought the bike , to have an idea if some of them had kept it several years .
94 motorbike , 8 owners in 27 years , it was an average of 3,3 years for each owner , although i know it did not happen like that as some must have kept it longer than others but i wanted to know if the last owners had kept it for a while or sold it quickly maybe because something was not right with it !
i received his answer ro my email ( without an answer to that particular question except he told me the actual owner seller had kept it 5 years and only rode for 300km/ 186 miles , which is not the best sign for a motorbike kept 5 years ) yesterday before noon and in the afternoon while i was waiting in a doctor's waiting room , he sent a mail saying his colleague had sold the motorcycle in between !
so i am quite disapointed as i love this urban tiger model more than most other color scheme , as an iconic one for this motorbike.

i saw another one for sale but the guy wants a huge amount of money for it , saying it is an exceptional shape and has less than 25000km ( 15534 miles ) with no break or'scratches to the fairing nor bulp on the tank !
unfortunately he doesn't have the stock exhaust but a full exhaust system with small carbon muffler with dual output (no brand Logo on the muffler ) , the wheels were painted in orange , motorcylcle frame was polished so it is very shiny and not matt ( brushed ?) anymore , and as the last owner before him was the chief of a Jaguar cars workshop , he had had the bike applied a " better " varnished on the fairing , by his colleague at the Jaguar's workshop !
I don't really know if it is a good thing or not , although one could suppose it is a good thing if it protects better the fairing colors and doesn't not change its appearance, what is difficult to know without seing the bike side by side with another original one in good shape as well !
i can tru to ask him to lower the price because of that ´ knowing only a collector would buy a motorbike several thousands more expansive than the average price for one in very good shape , although this one has (only ) less than 25000 km / 15334 miles ( i think he said about 22500km ) whereas most others i saw have at least about 33000-35000 km (about 20500-21700 miles) to 40000-50000km ( about 25000- 31000 miles ) , when it is not up to 70000km ( 43500 miles ) or even over sometimes !

 

Sorry that first deal didn't work out but it sounds like that may be for the best. The more owners, the less chance of having complete info on the condition of the bike and any work/mods that have been done to it. Also increases the the likelihood that one or more of them messed something up!

Yes! You can always make an offer that you think is reasonable. I've done that both selling and buying and the end result is that I never feel "buyer's (or seller's) remorse" when the dealing is done!

As for mileage, I've learned that, except for extreme cases on either end, i.e. really high or really low, it is almost irrelevant. I'm much more concerned with service records or notes on what has been done and when. Of course, I also try to use any angle I can to bring the price down! Lol!

Good luck with the ongoing search and thanks for the update!

 

The thing is that i also look for a 900 CBR to go riding on circuit and maybe amateur races at some stage ( not for pro racing ) and i wonder up to what km / mileage it would be ok to buy a 900 CBR for that ?

i know it is better to buy a bike with much km but well and regularly serviced and which rode regularly than one with few km but which did not rode for a long time and which maintenance was not done regularly !
But i suppose the best is to buy one with few km and well maintained and regularly , which rode regularly .

If i look for a clean one, it is because most of the time they have been treated well by their owners compared to some which don't look in good shape ( although an accident or just dropping the bike and breaking some fairing can happen to everybody but i prefer it clean !) .
I would hesitate to go riding on a circuit with a nice 94-95 urban tiger one , with its original fairing to avoid damaging them and i know most people going riding on circuit replace the fairing with poly ones ( cheaper aftermarket third parties replacement ones ,some of them made specifically for riding on circuit , like the ones which front fairing doesn't have an area for the front lights, to avoid breaking them when crashing and risking that it becomes dangerous for riders / pilots if some parts are left on the circuit ).

That said, i thought i could find one 900 CBR of that era ( not a urban tiger then but still a nice one ) for cheaper and use it only on circuit and if i can afford it for a while , buy an urban tiger one in very good shape and only use it on the road, so i would get used to it ( inam only used riding roadsters at the moment ) much faster than if i was only riding it from time to time on a circuit, a few times a year ( from ten time a year to 2 or 3 dozens time a year at best , which is already much I suppose for a non professional ).

do you think 63000 km / 39150 miles is much for an hypersport motorbike bought to be used ro to rinding on circuit

 

There are a few guys here who have high mileage bikes and take them to the track. I just ticked over 32K miles and track mine with no issues. As I get faster, I'm looking into buying a set of cheap fairings because I've realized that some of my hesitancy to going faster is not wanting to chance messing up the OE ones...

No, I honestly don't think there is a mileage number that would put me off taking a bike to the track. If it has been cared for and is running well, there shouldn't be an issue.

I think we get too focused on how little other people ride their bikes and forget that these engines aren't fragile or made to fail after a certain distance. If I had a car with that low mileage, I'd consider close to brand new!

 

With high mileage / km , i see several problems.
1/ There are some equipments/ accessories that inevitably wear out and get " tired" after a while, like rear shock absorber(s) for example , especialy if the rider is heavy i suppose and the road not that good like in many places in Europe i would say , like :
The old uneven pavements in Paris for example, the potholes on the roads, those which are badly filled, the bumps, the bad junctions between different parts of bitumen or on some uneven junctions on some bridges ... etc
Obviously , the consumables of a motorcycle like tires, brake pads, chain kit , although it's normal to replace them when they are worn out ,can cost more or less money depending on how many have to be replaced ! and also later in the km/ mileage the timing/ cam chain and the brake discs as well for example and possibly other things i do not think about ...etc

Also , The clutch can wear out more or less quickly depending on the way of driving, the cylinders (and pistons too maybe, I'm not sure) can wear out very differently depending on the type of driving of the driver and if he respects the time of heating of the engine before making it roar and going up high in the turns in engine speed / RPM, the wear of the parts depending on the oxidation if the motorcycle slept outside with some owners especially during the winter, see often under the rain (and not always ridden regularly) . ..etc
Even if the camshafts are reputed to be solid according to some, I have seen several times motorcyclists on the forums, talking about problems with their camshafts too for example, on used bikes with a certain number of km.
I was reading that again recently about Kawasaki ZRX1200 Roadsters, which are however very well designed and reputed to be solid and given as being able to exceed 120 000 km without any problem when they are well maintained ...etc

2/ obviously ,a big part of what's written above, depends on how the motorcycle was used , maintained , serviced or repaired for years with the different owners !
And what i see when searchig for a second hand motorcycle through classified adds , phoning to the owners of the ones i am interested in , is that most of the time, especialy for a bike over 10 years old ( not even speakig about the ones 15 to 25 years old or more ) , they don't know how many owners there have been before them , they have no track of whats been done with previous owners on the motorcycle ,about servicing / maintenance through all the years , They don't have an up to date maintenance booklet ( and / or service / maintenance invoices from motorcycle workshops ) for the motorcycle, when they have a maintenance booklet from the previous owners, which is particularly rare apparently !
Many often say they have been doing all the maintenance themselves but rare are the ones who are real skilled mechanic and you can already be happy when the minimal annual maintenance has been done , like changing motor oil and cooling fluid every year,, brakes fluid every two years , air filter replaced or cleaned depeding on what type they are , on the environment where the motorcycle is used and how old it is / how many km / miles were done with it ...etc
I noticed most of the times, they have no idea if and when were done the valve clearancee, when was repkaced the timing/,cam chain , often (except for some of the owners) they don't know if there ever was a cleaning of the carburetors rail and when it was done, same for the carburettor synchronization ...etc

So the more the km / mileage , the more questions you have to wonder about except when there has been very few owners and that they know exactly what's been done and when , for some truly skilled mechanic for example , although there is no evidence of what they say they have done for years !
, Unless , at least partly for some people who are skilled enough in mechanic and can really check the condition of the motorbike , if the seller let you verify the parts inside (what is not always the case , far from that !) , that you can't only verify by hear and/ or when riding the motorcycle but not all buyers are skilled enoughed for that nor are allowed by the seller to verify everything they want by starting to unmount parts to verify their condition !
and / or except as well when all the previous owners did not know anything or much about mechanics but they have the invoices of all the maintenance done regularly or when necessary ( which is quite rare as a matter of fact !) in the workshop of a motorcycle dealer or any serious motorcycle workshop ( knowing they are far from being all that serious ; at least , that's a matter of fact in France and some are even thieves and swindlers or are simply incompetent ( or all at once ! Lol ) !