I’ve got the chance to buy one of my brother’s motorcycles. It’s a 1974 Honda CD 125. It looks exactly like this one, except it’s blue:
http://www.rdx-uk.com/Honda%20125%203.jpg
It has 12,000 miles on the odometer. It runs fairly well, but it needs some work to make it road-worthy. The front brake cable is missing the spacers/connectors so it doesn’t have a front brake. The rear turn signals and I think brake light don’t work. Aside from that it has some cosmetic and other problems. The clutch might need some work, though it shifts and drives OK. It’s missing the side covers, which I would want to replace just because I think they look so cool. The seat is covered in a rather well done black duct tape wrap.
This would be my first motorcyle. I am handy, but don’t know anything about motorcycles so I would want the work done by professionals, especially the brake and electrical work. This bike appeals to me because it’s small and light – I’m not a big guy and don’t want some chopper or road bike. I would use this strictly for an urban runner. My brother only wants $500 US for it, so it’s not expensive, and I’d expect to put more than that into just fixing it up to make it safe, reliable, and good-looking.
My questions for those of you who know bikes are: 1) How difficult will it be to find parts for this vintage? 2) How difficult will it be to find mechanics who know how to work on it? 3) What am I overlooking? 4) Is it likely to be a money sink? In other words, is it a good purchase? I’ve been looking at small urban bikes, but the urban market seems to have gone mostly to scooters these day, and I’m not nuts about them. This is a nice looking small bike – it was made the year I graduated from high school.
Thanks for your opinions and advice.
Arrendajo
Arrendajo, there are Honda forums also where people will be glad to help you with parts availability and prices.
Maintenance is not my strong point but I think it’s an excellent idea to start with a lightweight used bike. Better to hone your skills before you move to something larger.
And if you want something quick for getting around town the lighter the better.
I’d not be paying that much for it, far too much.
It sounds more like a $100 machine to me. 12k is quite a lot on a little machine like that, it could also be higher mileage than that, cables are often disconnected for various reasons.
I would be expecting to change the oil on that at 2000 miles to keep the engine longevity, bet it hasn’t been done at anything like that frequency.The fact that the front brake has parts missing speaks oodles about the standard of maintenance.
Bet the front forks are pitted or seized, and the hub bearings and headset bearings are very likely to be shot - you just can’t leave bikes standing unused unless inside in a heated garage.
Would not touch it with a barge pole, I doubt I would even accept it as a gift, it would be taking up good space I could put a decent condition machine into.
Honda parts are readily available, but very expensive, the cost of labour will actually be quite high as it will be seized all over the place and plenty of risk of stripping threads.Only worth taking on if you can do it yourself, and you are not actually relying on it as a form of transport, this is what is known in the used bike world as ‘a project’.
As for the issues with transmission, you have absolutely no idea what you could be getting into, could be a clutch, which is a pain to deal with, but it could also be selectors, and little bikes like this tend to be ridden by folk without much mechanical sympathy.
I think that given the price your brother is asking and the poor condition, I would not bother buying anything from him.
You can do much better for the same money and the same bike, plenty of semi-classic bikes for sale around.
You will get a very nasty shock on the price of the side covers, trust me on this. Come back and report in this thread when you have enquired at your Honda dealer!
Thanks for the feedback, casdave – you answered some of my biggest questions about the deal. The 12k mileage doesn’t sound like much to a car owner, but I had a hunch that was a lot of miles on a dinky engine, assuming the odometer hasn’t been unhooked half the time.
And the age in general worries me. All the rubber/plastic parts must be at the end of their lives.
My brother said the side panels were expensive. I’ll check the price of those and adjust my offer and see if he’s still interested in selling it.
Thanks again.