Well, can't get a hold of the owner today, but I did get a hold of a new posting for sale, and doing the math, I figured I come to just about the same price with a non-problem bike that's more expensive at first then a problem bike that's cheaper.
Thanks everyone for your input, but I'm gonna go with one that doesn't make a ticking noise
Btw, the ticking one was 1300 Euros (~1100 pounds ?) and the non-ticking one 1700 Euros(~1450 pounds ?)... Plus, the non-ticking has only 27k km (~18k miles) and new tires, fresh service..
So, I'm hoping in about 12 days I'll be the proud new owner of a '99 curvy
I'll let you all know
Cheers everyone!