Trade Up Challenge: £5 to a motorcycle Parts 3 & 4

If you’ve been following our mission to trade our way from £5 to a motorcycle, then you’ll be pleased to know things have been progressing.

Another piece of the parts bought for £1 from a mate has gone to add to the kitty. And we’ve had another result with part of a job lot I bought from ResCogs resident stunt rider Jamie.

Part 3: Tyred…

You’ll be surprised to see we managed to grab a brand new Pirelli Scorpion, but interestingly it was a 21 incher that had never been used except for a home for mulch and various creepy crawlies. It was bought by Jamie for his Yamaha DT175 short tracker – a bike which he’d bought from me after I’d picked it up from fellow Rescogs contributor Tall Tom. Sometimes featuring Rescogs bikes is more like constructing a family tree!

So the tyre ended up on Gumtree for £30 collection only. And not expecting a response I buried it at the back of the lockup during a Saturday afternoon clear-up. And yes, within minutes I was contacted by a chap who offered £25 and was round within 20 minutes to pick it up for his Yamaha XTZ600 Tenere so he could head off to spectate at the North West 200.

 

Part 4: Shifting it.

Having started this challenge with a £5 purchase at Kempton autojumble, it was obvious I’d head back with our new £50 investment fund. I was hoping to step up a gear rather than eke out the lowest of low outlay options – we need to go for broke if we’re going to get to some conclusion before motorcycles are replaced by hoverboards. And like gambling, this trading up can become rather addictive.

Unfortunately the conditions dissuaded some fair weather traders, but there was still plenty of previously-loved motorcycling parts to rummage through. Yet the harder I looked, the less I could find. Rather than splash the cash for the sake of it, I took a break until the end of the day to have another try, and eventually found these bits.

First up is an Aprilia RSV1000 Mille master cylinder which was hidden in a £5 parts crate, and on the same stall I also found an un-priced and ancient MRE airshifter kit. And it’s incomplete, perfect! After a few questions, the initial price of £30 went down to £20 including the master cylinder. So hopefully with a bit of WD40 we can get the fund up to proper investment levels!