Need advice on purchase!!!

[ppride14]

Hey everyone. I am new to the board, and am looking to get a gz250 as my first motorcycle. I have looked around and feel that the bike would suit my needs well for what I want. I found this ad on CL (listed below) and was wondering of y'all could help me understand what the damage may be to the bike? Thanks!

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/mcy/3753890184.html

[Rookie Rider]

Welcome to the forum. If you are handy and know how to work on this bike (which is pretty easy) and want to spend the money doing it then id say go for it. But keep in mind you can get an already running gz for about the same amount of money.

[jonathan180iq]

...IF this guy is being honest, that's a good deal. It won't cost anywhere $900 to have the head planed at a local machinist. That's insanity.
The big IF is that you don't know if the internals of the bottom end are good too. See if you can communicate with him and see if he will give a real world description of what happened. We have members on here who have rebuilt these things and others who are doing it right now, like Ovcil88.

A running bike can be had for $1000 or so. Just decide what you want to do and we can help you out as much as we can along the way.

[ppride14]

Thanks guys! I communicated with him, and he said that the valves were shot...that one was warped and both were rusted shut. What kinda damage does that sound like?

[jonathan180iq]

For one of the vales to have warped means it tried to separate from the guide and was hit by the piston and the motor was quickly shut down before any further damage could occur... or the bike ridiculously overheated and it warped from half melting or something...

I don't really know. The one valve being rusted closed means the bike wasn't driven for a looong time... I would keep searching. If this is your first bike, it's not something you can throw together in an afternoon and know that you have a reliable vehicle. Since it's your first, I would say get something reliable. It's safer for your life when the bike is mechanically sound.

This is something you could pick up as a project later on or something. But not something I would bank on for right now.

EDIT: If you're out in Cali, you'll have access to plenty of gray market bikes and lots of different options on bikes from China. The newer Chinese bikes are good vehicles for the price. Don't be scared away from looking at them.

[Water Warrior 2]

Look for a bike that is presently being ridden and is functional in all areas. Mechanical, electrical and with decent rubber. A running bike will be your best bet. Be prepared to spend some cash up front on a bike and save yourself a pile of cash and headaches on a basket case that will likely be a money pit and still never run for you.

[ppride14]

Originally Posted by jonathan180iq

For one of the vales to have warped means it tried to separate from the guide and was hit by the piston and the motor was quickly shut down before any further damage could occur... or the bike ridiculously overheated and it warped from half melting or something...

I don't really know. The one valve being rusted closed means the bike wasn't driven for a looong time... I would keep searching. If this is your first bike, it's not something you can throw together in an afternoon and know that you have a reliable vehicle. Since it's your first, I would say get something reliable. It's safer for your life when the bike is mechanically sound.

This is something you could pick up as a project later on or something. But not something I would bank on for right now.

EDIT: If you're out in Cali, you'll have access to plenty of gray market bikes and lots of different options on bikes from China. The newer Chinese bikes are good vehicles for the price. Don't be scared away from looking at them.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm out in norcal...care to elaborate on the gray market bikes and Chinese bikes?

[5th_bike]

Chinese bikes are still of dismal quality. Just now a new member joined (Harald) and he had a chinese bike, it was a piece of crap.

PS meanwhile the craigslist post is gone.

[alantf]

I totally agree. In 2007 I bought a Lanvertti. The Chinese bought in the motors. This one had a Honda engine, and that was the only good thing about it. It had so many faults that, after a couple of months, the bike shop was so disgusted with it that he returned it to the importers, and got me my money back.

[ppride14]

Okay I will probably stay away from the Chinese bikes then and keep scouring CL. Speaking of which, I found a really nice '09 Suk S40 With 6k miles for $2200...I offered the guy $1700 and he said no less than $1950 at first, but just got back to me and said he would rather give it to me for $200 less and would do $1700 since I'm on a student budget lol. The bike looks MINT. is this worth jumping on?