How to Choose the Right Motorbike to Restore

There are so many great bikes out there that choosing the right bike to restore can be a real challenge. Here we take a look at five factors that could help you to choose the right motorbike for your restoration project.

Image credits - Steve Glover, Wikimedia

1. Be Certain That You Have The Right Skills To Restore Your Chosen Motorbike

Even if you choose to purchase a CAT N write-off, in order to gauge the bike’s previous life and how it was cared for, you should still be looking for a vehicle data and history report, as well as the usual MOT and mileage checks. 

Often with motorbike restoration, the fewer modifications a bike has had tends to mean it has been messed around with less, making it easier to restore in some ways. Something to look out for is the use of stickers covering damage, or also new levers as they can be a sign of a drop.

When you’re repairing a bike, you must know what you’re doing, so a good level of mechanical knowledge and experience is needed. A can-do attitude is important, but so is knowing your limitations, before you realise you have to spend time and money arranging help from a mechanic.
 

Image credits - Abhijit Thakur, Wikimedia

2. Avoid A Motorbike That Won’t Start

If this is your first bike restoration, why not make your life easier by getting something that doesn’t need an engine rebuild or complete rewire? 

You don’t want to come to realise that the cost of engine work to get the bike running is going to blow the total cost of the project out of proportion. Paying a mechanic to take apart, diagnose, and potentially rebuild a motorcycle engine can be very expensive. 

However, if you can find a bike where the owner has thrown in the towel but you’re confident you have the know-how, space, and capacity to rebuild a motorcycle engine yourself, then you could get a fantastic bargain. 

Ultimately, the choice is yours and should be based on what you can and want to manage. But generally speaking, it’s often better to pay a bit more for a bike that runs than to buy something that you can’t fix. 

Image credits - Craig Howell, Wikimedia

3. Are Parts Readily Available?

Restoring a motorcycle isn’t a weekend project. It’s going to take a lot of time. And the more parts you need, the harder they are to find, and the longer you have to wait to get them, the longer it’s going to take. 

It is so important to be confident that you will be able to get your hands on the parts you will need for your motorbike restoration. A few means of getting them include:

Aftermarket parts - Aftermarket parts are produced by a different parts company and are often designed to be compatible with as many makes and/or models as possible.

OEM parts – “Original Equipment Manufacturer” means the parts are made by the same company that makes the vehicle.

NOS Parts – This is “New Original Stock”, meaning that they are original equipment parts that remained in inventory for a use that never came. 

Copart is also a great place to find your required motorcycle parts through our superb BreakerBid4U service! Alternatively, if you are based near York on Inverkeithing, you could source your parts from U-Pull-It's self-service breaking yards. 

Image credits - Stealth FX, Wikimedia

4. Is It A Japanese Model?

There are two main reasons why you should consider restoring a Japanese motorbike for your first build, as opposed to going for a pre-Hinckley British bike, an American or an old European model. The thing about these motorcycles is that the demand for them is high, and their supply is low, and that makes them expensive. Whereas Japanese motorcycles are:

1. More affordable - as so many were made, there are so many to now choose from.
2. Easier to manage as their parts are more affordable and more readily available - choosing one of the Japanese “Big Four” (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha) will save you a lot of time and money as far as parts are concerned.

Japanese motorcycles of the 1970s and 80s were some of the most popular and widely produced bikes, making them ideal for a beginner or a simpler project for a pro. What’s great is that often, you can just follow a manual with a Japanese bike, and it should generally all work fine as they tend to feature mechanical components that were designed to be tuned and serviced quickly and easily. 

5. Check It Isn’t Stolen

It is best practice to check that the VIN plate (on the headstock) and engine number match the registration document and that they haven’t been tampered with.

It would be awful to spend months restoring your bike, to then realise when you go to tax it that you aren’t the owner.

What Are The Best Motorcycles To Restore?

As aforementioned, some of the best project bike models to restore are:

Honda:

• Honda CTs
• Honda CBs
  • CB350, CB500, CB550, CB750
• Honda Gold Wings
• Honda Super Hawks

Kawasaki:

• Kawasaki KZs
  • KZ400, KZ500, KZ650, KZ750, KZ1000
• Kawasaki Z1100

Yamaha:

• Yamaha SRs
• Yamaha XSs
• Yamaha XVx

Suzuki:

• Suzuki GSs

These are just a handful of suggestions, as there are so many options out there. If you are looking for like-minded individuals with a love for motorbike restoration, some great advice would be to join a forum. These are almost always filled with interesting information from knowledgeable people and can provide you with inspiration as well as answers to all the most common problems with your motorbike.

Are You Looking For Parts?

Search our fantastic selection of CAT B breakers to help you work on your motorbike restoration, all of which can be dismantled for parts using our BreakerBid4U service. 

Alternatively, get started on your motorcycle project by searching our hundreds of motorcycle stock. 

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