to upgrade, or not to upgrade?

do i sell boris II for boris III?

at the end of the summer my mate is selling a 2004 1000cc fireblade, it will have 10,000 miles on it and is mint, it has loads of extras. he is a bike mechanic and the bike is very well looked after

2004 blade £4500

harris cams (£1000)
full yoshi from japan (£1500)
PCIII (£300)
front and rear carbon huggers
seat cowl
stubby leavers
tail tidy
R&G bungs, fork protecters, cotten reals
will have brand new tyres (of my choice)

full spare race plastics

standad it should be 170bhp at the crank, but this is 175bhp at the rear wheel (50bhp up on boris II)

the only problem is, its red, and ugly it looks good from behind, and the front, but the side veiw just looks wrong, the crap fairing, and the 2 tone paint just look wrong






i have had boris II for nearly 2 years, and love it, im thinking its worth close to £4000 so would only cost £500-£800 to upgrade, then £200 to paint the race plastics (either HM plant colours, or some sort of yellow race rep)

Go for it Hovis - £1k to swap and have the race plastic's sprayed. Or have the bike sprayed and get the race plastic's done later...

How many miles has Boris II now?

26000

i do about 10,000 a year

The colour may not be what you want, but the deal is pretty good. Perhaps look at the cost to re-spray it.

No. Yours is the nicest Blade ive seen. The newer ones are ugly and 10 a penny. Do you really need that extra 50bhp? I doubt it, unless your planning on becoming a track fiend?

Keep what you got

[dyzio]

I take it you've ridden it? How do you find it? If it's that much better, and you have the £, then yes.
Just look at it this way, function over form (or something like that), example: YC's bike

EDIT:

But on second thought, is there anything that you don't love about borisII? And would you really use the extra hp?

[Spiderman]

Its not yellow, so no.

You ain't had Boris II for that long! Boris I maybe.

You already know my thoughts

We've already discussed this.

Keep Boris II

And spend the £1000 on hookers and drugs.

[STRAMASHER]

Its a bit of a fatty, cheap looking unpainted plastic and "weak" in OE nick. Not a truly great version of Blade.

02/03 Blade is a vintage year. And is already a choice version


...but, you know the owner, so its history and its had quality upgrades. Its not the bogging Honda R/W/B one either.

I would go for it. It will be a feckin rocket and sound gnarly with those mods. (Mmmm hot cams)