Small inexpensive motorcycles
Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 6:12 pm
Who likes small motorcycles? Or scooters?
I was inspired by a new member to make a thread on small motorcycles. I’ve always had a love for these things since I was a teenager. They’re inexpensive, easy on fuel and easy to park. I learned auto mechanics on them with basic tools…often included in the on board tool kits. I started thinking about it today and realize I owe a big part of my early retirement journey to getting around on these things.
Buying taught me how to find a deal and negotiate aggressively. I bought from newspaper ads, bulletin boards, Usenet, Craigslist or simply by leaving random post it notes with offers on neglected looking machines that had been sitting. I always hunted down great prices. Buy broken then fix. Most repairs were simple - drain old fuel, clean carburetor, patch a tube, add battery acid or grease the cables. Wash.
I rode through college and grad school with fuel economy ranging from 100mpg to 70mpg.
I learned how to read a service manual and follow the step by step instructions. If you want to teach yourself mechanics this is a great place to start.
No insurance back then. Free parking wherever it would fit. Free parts from the local motorcycle shop dumpster.
Lie about the cost at the DMV so I’d only pay minimal transfer fees. Initiation into tax avoidance strategies.
Fun. Freedom. Cheap thrills. Every new place I’d move to I’d immediately start the search for a small motorcycle. When I moved out I’d sell if I couldn’t carry it which was almost always the case. Always Honda singles for me. Slow but reliable. They’re very high quality, easy to fix and difficult to destroy. You often find them forgotten and neglected. Just leave a note with a low offer. Wait for the phone to ring.
I’ve owned about a handful between ages 15 and 52. Here are some of the best. (Same models not my exact bike. I found these images on flikr).
High school 1. 1968 Honda Cub 90. Bought for $85 as a dead motorcycle from my neighbor. Pushed it home and added gas. It started. Fixed! I thought I was a genius. My neighbor was doing me a solid. Nice old guy. 100 mpg. Top speed 35mph with a tailwind. My parents were livid. I called it a moped to slip it into our garage. That was the genius of the cub…it was a motorcycle that didn’t look like a motorcycle. Dad didn’t even realize I was running it on our lawnmower gas. Free fuel!
High school 2. Had to have a “real motorcycle”. Bought a 1972 CL100 out of garden shed. $100. The mom just wanted it gone. It hadn’t run in ten years. Bad cylinder liner. Fixed with a cylinder bought from a junkyard. Rode all over Los Angeles on this as a kid. 90 mpg. Mine wasn’t as pretty as this one but it was cheap wheels.
College. I needed more speed. 1976 Honda XL175S. Bought out of the local newspaper classifieds. I bargained with the owner for a month. He finally let it go for $450. It was all the money I had. I had doubled my money on my prior motorcycles. This one had rust in the tank and an oil leak. The leak turned out to be a piece of string wrapped around the output shaft. I fixed both and commuted to school daily on it till my senior year. It averaged 80mpg. Top speed was a disappointing 45mph.
Grad school. 1982 Honda XL250R. Left note on a dusty bike parked at my apartment complex near my summer job. The owner turned out to work at the same company. He wanted $500 more than he wanted the bike. It needed a tailpipe and he had a replacement in a box that he included. It didn’t fit. That’s when I learned how to weld.
Current. 1997 Honda XR400R. Bought with no compression. New piston, valves, rings and cylinder from EBay and its back on the road.
I was inspired by a new member to make a thread on small motorcycles. I’ve always had a love for these things since I was a teenager. They’re inexpensive, easy on fuel and easy to park. I learned auto mechanics on them with basic tools…often included in the on board tool kits. I started thinking about it today and realize I owe a big part of my early retirement journey to getting around on these things.
Buying taught me how to find a deal and negotiate aggressively. I bought from newspaper ads, bulletin boards, Usenet, Craigslist or simply by leaving random post it notes with offers on neglected looking machines that had been sitting. I always hunted down great prices. Buy broken then fix. Most repairs were simple - drain old fuel, clean carburetor, patch a tube, add battery acid or grease the cables. Wash.
I rode through college and grad school with fuel economy ranging from 100mpg to 70mpg.
I learned how to read a service manual and follow the step by step instructions. If you want to teach yourself mechanics this is a great place to start.
No insurance back then. Free parking wherever it would fit. Free parts from the local motorcycle shop dumpster.
Lie about the cost at the DMV so I’d only pay minimal transfer fees. Initiation into tax avoidance strategies.
Fun. Freedom. Cheap thrills. Every new place I’d move to I’d immediately start the search for a small motorcycle. When I moved out I’d sell if I couldn’t carry it which was almost always the case. Always Honda singles for me. Slow but reliable. They’re very high quality, easy to fix and difficult to destroy. You often find them forgotten and neglected. Just leave a note with a low offer. Wait for the phone to ring.
I’ve owned about a handful between ages 15 and 52. Here are some of the best. (Same models not my exact bike. I found these images on flikr).
High school 1. 1968 Honda Cub 90. Bought for $85 as a dead motorcycle from my neighbor. Pushed it home and added gas. It started. Fixed! I thought I was a genius. My neighbor was doing me a solid. Nice old guy. 100 mpg. Top speed 35mph with a tailwind. My parents were livid. I called it a moped to slip it into our garage. That was the genius of the cub…it was a motorcycle that didn’t look like a motorcycle. Dad didn’t even realize I was running it on our lawnmower gas. Free fuel!
High school 2. Had to have a “real motorcycle”. Bought a 1972 CL100 out of garden shed. $100. The mom just wanted it gone. It hadn’t run in ten years. Bad cylinder liner. Fixed with a cylinder bought from a junkyard. Rode all over Los Angeles on this as a kid. 90 mpg. Mine wasn’t as pretty as this one but it was cheap wheels.
College. I needed more speed. 1976 Honda XL175S. Bought out of the local newspaper classifieds. I bargained with the owner for a month. He finally let it go for $450. It was all the money I had. I had doubled my money on my prior motorcycles. This one had rust in the tank and an oil leak. The leak turned out to be a piece of string wrapped around the output shaft. I fixed both and commuted to school daily on it till my senior year. It averaged 80mpg. Top speed was a disappointing 45mph.
Grad school. 1982 Honda XL250R. Left note on a dusty bike parked at my apartment complex near my summer job. The owner turned out to work at the same company. He wanted $500 more than he wanted the bike. It needed a tailpipe and he had a replacement in a box that he included. It didn’t fit. That’s when I learned how to weld.
Current. 1997 Honda XR400R. Bought with no compression. New piston, valves, rings and cylinder from EBay and its back on the road.