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Want to bike that has been in storage for 2yrs

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:56 am
by pmc1950
Bike has been stored for 2yrs and not been run at all BEFORE I BUY this bike what are some the issues?

Re: Want to bike that has been in storage for 2yrs

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:04 am
by ofblong
pmc1950 wrote:Bike has been stored for 2yrs and not been run at all BEFORE I BUY this bike what are some the issues?
Battery, worn rubber parts, change all fluids, change all filters (oil, gas,air), check all brake lines and cabling, clean carbs. there are a ton of things that could be wrong with it that might need to be replaced/checked.

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:07 am
by mgdavis
It depends on how the bike was stored. If it had the fuel drained and the battery disconnected, it should be in fine shape. Add fuel and a good battery, and change the oil, and go.

If it was just wheeled into the back of a garage and forgotten about, it's going to have some issues. The battery will be dead and the carbs will be lacquered up. There might be rust in the gas tank.

Either way, two years isn't too bad. You should be able to bring it back with minimal effort. I'd start by trying to crank the engine, maybe talk the seller into buying a new battery. If it turns over well and tries to fire you should be ok.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:24 am
by MMO
Yeah, definitely. It's gonna have some issues. Whether its an air-conditioner, water enclosure, cars, or motorcycles, a lot of problems will happen if it's not been used for 2 years.

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:44 am
by kennydude

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:53 am
by flynrider
Don't pay a lot of money for it. In other words, don't pay anywhere near what the value would be for a running motorcycle. I've had lot's of experience with newb buddies that bought garage queens and were disappointed in the long run.

While there may not be any major problems with the bike, there's really no way for you to know that if you can't start it up and check it out. While a lot of bikes get put away in the garage because the owner loses interest, many also get put away because of some major problem that the owner didn't have the time/money to fix.

One of the saddest examples was a guy from another forum that scrimped and saved to buy a garage queen fixer upper. After spending too much to buy the bike (it looked good cosmetically), he then spent hundreds in parts several months of spare time to get it running again. It wasn't until the day he finally got it running that he discovered the crack in the crankcase, which pretty much rendered the bike useless.