Thread: First Restoration Project: What Should I Buy?

The guys are exactly right...decide what kind of restoration you want. If you are looking at an original, like new resto and have to farm all the work out...3k easy. If you can do a lot of the work yourself you can get it done for much less. I also agree that Craigs List is a good place to look. Place an ad there. The other thing is to let everyone you know...family, friends, co-workers,church...anyone, know what you are looking for...You will be surprised what shows up.

There are people who spend 1k on a bike and redo everything....If you want to redo everything then be patient...$200-$400 bikes will come up.

Karen's right,
I found my HKO for 200.00.

Not a lick of bad advice from anyone here. I've done the full resto and it was great. Recomend everyone do it at least once. Just as satisfying is puttering with a nice one and making it better.

A lot of solid, on-target, advice here already. It's a seat-of-the-pants call, usually. If your ultimate goal is a $4K+ restored bike, then either look for one that's already in that condition, or a restorable example (all of the essential, hard-to-replace, parts present, reasonably straight and no deep rust) below $800. A workable rule of thumb is "go high, or go low, or go home". On a resto project, it's usually wise to avoid the midrange bikes; they'll generally end up with the biggest bottom line. It can, and usually will, take the same amount of resources (time & money) to bring a $600 bike back to 100-point condition as a $1600 bike. You might do well to think more in terms of what important parts are present & restorable. In fact, the best bet could easily be a low-end, restorable, example, as just defined, that's missing: tires & tubes, exhaust, seat cover & foam, cables, tail light body (not the bracket) and a few other wear items that are normally discarded. Such a bike probably won't bring more than $200-300 and will be cheaper to ship, if need be. Best of all, it won't take any more resources to restore than another bike selling for 6X that amount. The trick is distinguishing a "diamond-in-the-rough" from a

If you're looking for a nice "10-footer", then it's a judgement call + a bit of luck. I've seen what were very promising bikes, upon cursory examination, that turned out to be big disappointments. On the other hand, I've also run across some that initially appeared to be heartbreakers (nice condition with a few blemishes in what looked like just the wrong spots) that turned into fine "sympathetic restorations" for less than $2K total investment. It's a risky proposition. Even with a good bit of restoration experience, I cannot be always 100% certain how one of these will turn out until well into the specific project. For example, a 3" long scratch won't be noticeable if covered by a new replacement decal, while a .5" scratch will visually stand-out if it's in a conspicuous location. If the damage/wear/rust involves a bolt-on part, you've got a good chance of a reasonably-priced remedy. The frameset (painted parts), hard-to-replace chrome parts or major engine damage (broken case/other major damage, or water in the crankcase), are all potentially mid-to-high 3-figure repairs.

Just do like most of us have...do some research, set a budget and then COMPLETELY ignore it because you're hooked.