Sv buying advice?

[Mark_h]

Do people on here really maintain their bike to the peak of perfection at all times? Would you really consider changing all those "consumerables" to get a bike on the road.

To be honest if it starts and sounds OK, wheels run true, bars turn relatively smoothly and suspension does both up AND down then I'd give it a punt with a view to changing other bits as and when needed. I'd certainly not start with a massive shopping list. At the end of the day it will be a fairly old, fairly high mileage cheap first bike. It'd need to be made good enough, not perfect. Maybe put it through an MOT and see if they spot anything other than cosmetic nastyness.

If the frame is straight and the engine runs I'm pretty sure there must be the best part of £500 worth of parts on the bike. If you can get it for any less than that and you're willing to take a bit of a gamble on possibly having to part it out I can't see you could lose money.

Originally Posted by Mark_h

Do people on here really maintain their bike to the peak of perfection at all times? Would you really consider changing all those "consumerables" to get a bike on the road.

To be honest if it starts and sounds OK, wheels run true, bars turn relatively smoothly and suspension does both up AND down then I'd give it a punt with a view to changing other bits as and when needed. I'd certainly not start with a massive shopping list. At the end of the day it will be a fairly old, fairly high mileage cheap first bike. It'd need to be made good enough, not perfect. Maybe put it through an MOT and see if they spot anything other than cosmetic nastyness.

If a bike of mine ever falls below peak maintenance then I am at least aware of exactly what it is I'd slacked on, better the devil you know etc.
Or to put it another way; If I were to sell a bike in to someone I'd be able to say bearings have x miles, valves were done x miles or at the very least I'd be able to say I inspected and lube'd them at x miles they were fine etc.

If however someone shows me a pic of a bike and says its done 70k miles saying they've changed the oil every 4k. I would only buy it having considered the worst case scenario of what would need replacing on it, hence the shopping list.
By all means if I were to take a look at the lower links and see the bearings have been cleaned and lubed and it is in fact in serviceable condition then I can look at that as £30 saved on not buying a new pair.
In my experience though... this never happens, if it can be knackered it probably is... LINK <-- Case & Point

[yorkie_chris]

You can tell a lot of those things from a decent inspection IMO.

In fairness YOU proberbly can, an i recon I'd do reasonably well with a hands on inspection myself (with the bearings and susp at least). However were only looking at pics online so in my mind if the OP felt comfortable forming those conclusions I don't think we'd have seen this thread.

Thanks everyone for your advice, much appreciated.

I'm yet to ride this SV but the current owner has said the bike had a new chain and sprockets at the last service, which was when he installed the Scottoiler (which clearly isn't having the desired effect). The bike has been stored outside and hopefully works out to be just in worse condition visually than it is mechanically.

I've not owned a twin before, having owned only straight fours. I thought I'd be best asking here as I've used various forums in the past and found them the best place for advice on reliability / problems / what to look out for etc. so again thanks for the help.

Will update this post as and when I ride the bike.

Adam