Thread: Buying a Motorcycle...

A year or so ago I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about buying a motorcycle. She said something along the lines of 'you can have me or a motorcyle!' and so I put my plans for a bike on the back burner.

Well, the honeymoon is over, the bloom is off the rose, etc etc... and this weekend I told my wife that I had chosen the mocy after all and would she like me to help her pack.

So, I'm now shopping around for cheap used bike. I've done a bit of research and have decided that I want one of the 150cc, water cooled, two stroke sport bikes that seem to be pretty common around here. I want a Thai made bike so that parts will be cheap and easy to find and local mechanics will know how to work on it. My budget is about 8K to 10K (I don't want to use any of my overseas money), so I will be buying used.


The choices seem to be:
Honda NSR 150
Yamaha TZM/VR 150
Kawasaki KRR/Victor/Serpico 150
Suzuki RG Gamma 150.

I already looked at a Suzuki RGV 150 and have pretty much crossed it off my list!

Does anyone here have experience with any of the bikes above?

NSR 150 is a good bike.

A pro-arm race -rep though sells for 20k so be careful with the one there.

The TZM is good as well.

Problem is that they are smokers so they will need work.

Have a look at #MOCYC.COM# ÈÙ¹ÂìÃÇÁ»ÃСÒÈ«×éÍ¢ÒÂÁÍàµÍÃì䫤ìàÁ×ͧä·Â ÍѾഷ·Ø¡ÅÁËÒÂ㨠to get an idea of price.

I have my mates R1-Z 250 2 stroke just now. It's a bit mental but good fun to ride.

#MOCYC.COM# ¢Ò Î͹´éÒ NSR 150 ss ÊÀÒ¾ÊÇÂÁÒ¡

#MOCYC.COM# ¤¹à´ÔÁ ÍÂÒ¡¢ÒÂ

#MOCYC.COM# Honda NSR 150 SP Proarm à¤Ã×èͧá¹è¹ ÍÒ¡ÒÈàÂç¹á¤èä˹¡çµÔ´

#MOCYC.COM# ¢ÒÂTZM 150 à´ÔÁæ ¤Ãº æ

#MOCYC.COM# ¢Ò Yamaha TZM 150cc. ÃÒ¤Ò 12,500 ºÒ· öÊÀÒ¾´Õ ÍØ»¡Ã³ì¤Ãº à¤Ã×èͧ´ÕäÁèÁÕ»Ñ[at]ËÒ äÁè¤èÍÂä´éãªé ʹã¨â·ÃÁ

think you'll be struggling to find one for less than 10,000 but my mate sold a decent NSR 150cc for 13,000 a few weeks ago.

What about a LS 125 they have a bit of go last one I rode had no problem pulling my fat ass up the road on the back wheel second gear came striaght up and went like a bullet

What about a LS 125 they have a bit of go last one I rode had no problem pulling my fat ass up the road on the back wheel second gear came striaght up and went like a bullet

Mate were you hanging right off the back of the bike?

Originally Posted by mrsquirrel

Mate were you hanging right off the back of the bike?

No sitting normaly on the bike mind you it was brand new and I used a bit of clutch

Was there any clutch left?

Motorbikes, motorbikes!

Not motorcycles. The term motorcycle reminds me of Terminator:

"I want your clothes, boots and your motorcycle"

I drove a few of those on your list, qw. 2 strokes do smoke a lot even banned in more civilized countries. I say the Kawa is the fastest, cheapest and poorliest made of all. The Honda is the slowest and most durable and the most expensive. Don't pay a lot for it nomatter how new or how beautiful it is. Nobody Thai wants these 2 strokes any more, they go cheap. The 125 2Ts are good too. I wouldn't over-look them.

I think it was a year or two before the ending of 2 strokes made in Thailand when Honda , in a rush to offer a cleaner 2 stroke, had a NSR 150 (something). It was billed as EnviroFriendly. That would be a good one.

The 4-strokers are ok. CBR150 is a nice toy

Thanks for the tips! My first bike (almost 30 years ago!) was a two stroke 200cc Yamaha, so I know all about the smoke and the noise. I'm going two stroke for the simple maintenance and repairs and the extra power.

I've been looking at Mocy.com (thanks for the link MrsQ!) and also Pantip and Thaisecondhand. I notice that the prices seem to be a bit lower on the Thai language sites!

Come on Qwerty, if you can afford 4 lasses and a hot tub you can spring more than 10K for a motorci surely?

Qwerty

Is your budget set?

If you can give me a max figure I will call up some friends and see what they can find upto that amount.

From checking the ads, I should be able to get what I'm looking for for about 8k. I've got 3 or 4 bikes lined up to look at this weekend and if the 8k-9K bikes are too clapped out, I'll have to go up some.

Thanks for the offer MrsQ... If the bikes I'm already looking at don't pan out I'll take you up on that!

I used to have the use of my GF's Brothers NSR150RR when in Pattaya until he sold it for 18'000, and yes he was her Brother and not her Thai BF , it was a great little bike, amazingly fast for its size, had about 180kph/110mph out of it along the Sukhumvit, it would do 160kph/100mph 2 up. It was a real screaming little devil and I'd recommend them to anyone interested in a small 2 stroke race replica.

The problem I had with it was that I would end up racing everybody around town, riding it was like being injected with a huge dose of adrenaline and it was more than capable of seeing off far bigger bikes on anything other than the Sukhumvit. So when I buy a bike I want something a bit more laid back, that way I'll probably live longer.

Well, it looks like I'm buying a Kawasaki KRR 150 SSR. I looked at several bikes over the weekend and it was the only one that would start with one kick, idle without dying and had a functional headlight. It's also a nice looking bike IMHO!

7500 for the bike
2000 for a new clutch cable, new turn signels, new rear break shoes, etc...
I'll post a picture when I pick it up next week.

Those little 150's do get up and go!

The thing that has always put me off buying cheap used kawasaki 2 strokes is that they often use plated cylinder bores which last longer than conventional bores but when eventually the bore is worn out you need to buy a new cylinder rather than just have it re-bored.

But if the bike has got decent compression and you cant hear the piston slapping around it should hopefully be ok.

Good deal. Those are nice. Un cap the 2T oil tankette and find the float (like a toilet) push down on it all the way to the bottom - with the ignition on. Check and see if the red warning light comes on.

^ essential advice, good post!