So my CBR125 was nicked back in September and the police called me this evening to tell me they’ve found it. It was either go and get it or pay extortionate impound fees. I went to get it and am currently having a rest in Earlsfield while wheeling it the two miles back to my house.
Other than the obvious ignition damage it doesn’t seem in too bad shape. However I didn’t claim on insurance and am still paying the 0% finance for another 2 years. I’ve got nowhere to store this thing and can’t be bothered with the expense of repairing, but equally can’t sell it like this with the finance still live.
By the time I factored in an excess of 1600 quid and my premium doubling for the next 3 years if I made a claim, it wasn’t worth it. Especially considering I’m only paying 100 quid a month for the finance. I actually ended up transferring the insurance to my fazer with no increase.
It’s seriously tempting but I’d still have to clear the finance which is about £2700. The bike is only 9 months old, so I’m a bit torn. If I had a garage or driveway it wouldn’t be such an issue, but it’s a terraced house with a postage stamp front yard.
Presumably parking it on the street’s a non-starter.
I don’t know what those go for, but the obvious solution seems to me to be to borrow £2700 to pay off the rest of the finance, then sell the bike to pay off that debt.
No insurance so street isn’t an option unfortunately. I’m unlikely to get a 2700 loan with 0% interest I reckon. It’s also highly unlikely I’ll get enough to cover it. I’m thinking sell it to a breakers for a few hundred quid and just go back to the way life was yesterday before this pain in the arse
What is it worth fixed? Is it Honda Finance? If it’s from a dealer they may buy it back and offset the finance as they can get Honda Parts at cost and labour isn’t an issue for them. Might be worth a call to find out.
New petrol tank - get one from a breakers yard or ebay, you might need a splooge of rubber gasket for the gubbins underneath but you could swap it over in an hour. what’s wrong with it? is it holed or just a lot of road rash?
New ignition barrel - this is likely to be the expensive one and may need legit parts from Honda. Do you still have your keys and does the bike have HISS? Ring Honda for a quote, won’t cost you anything to find out.
New steering lock - ignore this for the short term, go buy a decent chain to lock your bike up to something or at least lock the wheel to the frame.
Rear brake is seized - likely used by the scrotes to do skids and they’ve fucked the piston seals in the caliper, this is tricky to do yourself but you can get a new set for under £20 new from Honda. Initially I’d take the caliper off the bike and force the pads apart with a couple of big spanners to free it up.
New petrol tank - get one from a breakers yard or ebay, you might need a splooge of rubber gasket for the gubbins underneath but you could swap it over in an hour. what's wrong with it? is it holed or just a lot of road rash? New ignition barrel - this is likely to be the expensive one and may need legit parts from Honda. Do you still have your keys and does the bike have HISS? Ring Honda for a quote, won't cost you anything to find out. New steering lock - ignore this for the short term, go buy a decent chain to lock your bike up to something or at least lock the wheel to the frame. Rear brake is seized - likely used by the scrotes to do skids and they've fucked the piston seals in the caliper, this is tricky to do yourself but you can get a new set for under £20 new from Honda. Initially I'd take the caliper off the bike and force the pads apart with a couple of big spanners to free it up.
me_groovy
Tank- They've popped the petrol cap off and dented around the edges pretty heavily in the process, which have rusted over the past 4 months.
Ignition- No HISS (they don’t think 125s are worth it). Got the keys, but I can’t get it in the ignition. They’ve hotwired it so I would also need to look at the wiring loom situation.
Steering lock- one of the guys in work used to nick bikes when he was a kid on estates in North West London. He said the danger when you’ve kicked the steering lock off is that it can re-engage when you’re riding and send you flying. Not an experience I’d like to repeat, but I’m not exactly knowledgeable on the actual mechanics of how the steering lock does it’s job. However, it’ll make insurance more expensive for whoever buys it from me and thus devalues it.
Rear Brake- No real issue for me I suppose as long as no specialist tools are needed. I have a Haynes manual for the bike and they’ve always served me well in the past with my cars.
In theory the repairs aren’t the issue for me to take care of, it’s the storage while I do them. I can only really keep the bike where it is for a week or two before I need to shift it. I was thinking about OMC, but I could end up storing it there for months while I mess around.
I assume you can't do that if there's finance outstanding?
Abzero
Actually I assume that's the only thing I can do with the finance outstanding. The bike itself would cease to exist so nobody can be chased to pay back my debt if I don't pay it back.
“when you’ve kicked the steering lock off is that it can re-engage when you’re riding” That really depends on the specific bike model. I know from my Tuono when the steering lock was broken (in a crash not a theft) the lug snapped off the yoke and was in the road. it’d need a miracle to re-engage. lol
Tank: OK you need a replacement tank. ring DR bikes and see if he has any first.
Ignition: ring Honda and ask how much for a new lock set. you’ll need a new tank lock to match the ignition one anyways.
The OMC are excellent guys and well suited to this sort of stuff, it’d be worth getting all the spare bits you need delivered there and you could probably sort it all out in a day. half a day if you’re good.
