Hello from rainy London

hi all,

My name is Ollie, Im 22 and i was fortunate enough to stumble across what seems like a fantastic forum here

I have been into bikes since i was 16 when i bought my first bike which was only a 50cc scooter.

A few years later and lots of tuning parts too i had made the bike into a nippy little machine but more importantly learnt alot about bike engines and mechanics and really fell in love with bikes.

Last year i than went to south east asia and bought an old 125cc 2 stroke minsk which served me brilliantly for nearly 5000 kilometers through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. If some of you are interested I will gladly post some pics up if you like.

Anyway back to the present, I passed my DAS license last tuesday and am now looking for a 600. I have toyed with the idea of a bandit, fazer or cbr until i came across the Thundercat. And I am sure you will all be pleased to know that I am developing a preference for a Cat.

Any advice on potential decent Cats on the market would be great, I have around 1000-1500 to spend at most.

Look forward to meeting you all

Ollie

Hi Ollie

Welcome on board.
There are lots of nice people on here and it is a friendly site when they are not taking the p1s5. Actually we are still quite friendly when doing that too.

There is a for sale section and a wanted section too.
No harm in checking out completed listings on eBay to see what they are going for on there too.

Good luck in the hunt.

Cheers
Rosco

Welcome aboard, I would love to see your pics!



Congrats on passing your DAS

Hello & Welcome to the forum

Hi Ollie,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on finding us. I hope you find us helpful and friendly. Good luck with finding a 'cat. Ebay, MCN, Gumtree etc are all worth checking. If you have any concerns about a bike you've seen, just post up and I'm sure we can help out.

Yes, do post up a few pics of your SE Asia trip. Would be great to see them. So why were you there?

Congratulations on passing the DAS. Keep up posted with progress on the bike hunt.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi & welcome. You will not be disappointed with the thundercat.

Paul.

Just finished a long post with pics from my asia trip and then it somehow dissapeared

So here goes again!

First of all thanks for the warm welcome from you all.

@ greentcat I went to asia during me gapyear before i went to university. I ended up being in asia for 3 months before moving to OZ, New Zealand, Fiji and America for the remainder of the 6 month trip. Not to rub it in but it was phenomenal

Here the bike are in Laos, mine is the orange one and before you mock me about the colour, i picked it over the other as it was in better condition especially on the mechanical side.


Making our way to the vietnamese border


Eventually there were four of us (me on the right)


Celebrations after a local mechanic and I repaired a problem with one of the bikes alternator



Anyway back to the Cat search, i spotted the following bike:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201135412360208/sort/priceasc/usedbikes/cc-from/600cc/maximum-mileage/up_to_20000_miles/cc-to/600cc/make/yamaha/radius/200/page/2/postcode/tw110lg?logcode=p

Rang up yesterday and the guy said the bike was running on 3 cylinders. So i rang back today and he said bike was now running fine, oil and petrol had been drained (bikes been sitting for a while), blew through carbs and filter and replaced all sparks. Decent Mot history but no service history (apparently misplaced by an owner). What is worrying is that the bike has had 6 owners (only 10k on clocks) and there is a loud sound when the started is engaged (according to mechanic). He said if they couldnt sort it out they would knock the price down and give a 6 month warranty. What you lot think?

Ollie

PS: I have spotted other cats on some other websites and one or two in the classified section here so it is by no means my only option

Welcome , congratulations on passing your DAS . I went to Vietnam -(aswell as other places in that region) many many years ago - it was fantastic , but I'm sure it's changed a lot now .
As for the Thundercat - it's an excellent bike , and I hope you find a good one.

Hi Ollie, welcome

kenndo1 wrote: He said if they couldnt sort it out they would knock the price down and give a 6 month warranty. What you lot think?

Bike looks clean enough. I'm not so sure about those problems they are having and how it is getting sorted. The 6 owners and low mileage don't quite sound right - did they all ride for a bit then park the bike in the garage
For that kind of money I'd expect it all to be working 100%. There are a lot of bikes for sale and they are not fetching what they ought to be worth.

Bikes stood for a long time can be more problematic than one that has regular use (higher mileage) but been maintained properly. There was a 'Cat owner here who did over 200 k miles before a valve gave up, I've done over 90k on my first one and that still goes like the what-its off a shovel - so I wouldn't worry about mileage.

Look out for rust, the suspension is working properly, brakes are not sticking, the gear box is OK - have a search here for the second gear problem, not common but does happen esp. if the bike has been wheelied.

You have gained mechanical experience, but might still be worth asking a friend to take a look with you.

Good luck

Cheers for the informative response steve

SteveCat wrote:
The 6 owners and low mileage don't quite sound right - did they all ride for a bit then park the bike in the garage

Thats exactly what i thought too, it seems a bit fishy to me. :rite:

Mileage was something I was concerned about and I am hoping to pick something up with no more thank 35k on the clocks as I will be using the bike regularly as a commuter and also to get from uni back to london which is a 300mile round trip. So I do want to have some mileage left for my money on the other hand its good to hear that the engines are capable of such distances.

I heard about the 2nd gear problem, the following link i came across is quite informative on problem areas etc:

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Yamaha-Thundercat-YZF600R-Guide-to-buying-Servicing_W0QQugidZ10000000002245488

Im off to view this bike tomorrow as it is very local & its about time i see a Cat in the flesh:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201135412587138/sort/priceasc/usedbikes/cc-from/600cc/cc-to/600cc/price-to/2000/model/yzf/make/yamaha/postcode/tw110lg/page/2/radius/1500?logcode=p

Had a chat with the guy, lots of work been done to the bike in recent year with service history up to 20k and MOTs throughout the mileage. Looks ok to me, he will get back to me tonight with ownership history.

Cheers

Hi Ollie and welcome!

That bike has excellent mileage for the price, but like the others have said it could be to good to be true! but then you never know, a lot of people buy bikes as toys and hardly use them... only one way to find out really, good luck with the find

P.s. Silver and yellow are fastest colours :pirat:

Hi Ollie - hope you find a good cat soon.

Hi Ollie,

Sounds like you're doing your homework on the 'cat and are aware of the pit falls of buying a bike. TBH, the 'cat is pretty bomb-proof, as many can atest to here, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg (like some other bikes! ) to put most things right. At least you've found the place for advice. Enjoy inspecting the 'cat, take plenty of photos and don't buy it on the first visit. That'll give you time to think of any questions and ask them here or elsewhere.

Hope it all goes well for you. Keep us up with developments.

Chris

PS Great pics. I bet you had a fantastic time. Well done for going out there.

yeah it was an inredible trip chris, would recommend it a thousand times over!!

I spotted this cat which is also very local to where i am and it actually seems like a decent bike.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-Thundercat-YZF-600-R-not-R6-GSXF-CBF-CBR-/190573970437?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item2c5f180405#ht_1512wt_1139

35k miles, 5 owners, full service and mot history, tyres are pretty fresh, chain and sprockets fine, stainless steel downpipes, brakes and pads in good nick, dattatagged, crash bungs, no cracks in fairing.

The only thing im am a tiny bit concerned with is the mileage and number of owners. Or is that not really an issue?

Any thoughts on bike and price would be really appreciated, but full service history etc sounds very promising to me.

Cheers guys

I may not be correct but I dont think the colour is original as I dont think they did that colour in 1999? Not that it matters and I think 5 owners for a 12 yr old bike is OK, people do seem to change their bikes more frequently than their cars.

That's the first thing that struck me Ellie. My head's been in a spin the last few days tracking down a VRC7 (the paint colour) mudguard or paint.
I think it first appeared in the UK (via Yamaha UK) in either 2000 or 2001, however it was on sale in the US in 1999.
The original decals are all in place, either a very good respray - I think it's original.

This red is not photogenic at all, most pics I have seen the paintwork looks washed out/dull or faded - get up close to one and it can look stunning. That's from someone who don't really like red.

I'd keep an eye that one but see what else there is.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-Yamaha-Thundercat-YZF600R-Low-Mileage-No-Reseve-/170690040108?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item27bdeb512c

Maybe? Might even be able to work his price down a little? Was just looking on ebay and thought it might be worth posting here....

I know its a little way to go if you were interested but if he was willing to accept a cash offer that you were comfortable with maybe you might be able to come to a gentlemens agreement on where to pick it up from / transportation....

Price isn't too bad on that one but would have thought you could get it slightly cheaper for the mileage but then again with a full service history its obviously been very well looked after!

As the others have said before you should get many more miles out of it so you should get your monies worth

So I went to view a bike this evening that i spotted on biketrader.

It was nice and local and it was a great opportunity to see a Cat in the flesh for the first time and first impressions are that i they look awesome. Real meaty bikes for a 600

The bike wasn't bad, fairing were in pretty good nick and engine etc looked ok too: recent new steel downpipes, pads, tyres both ok.

Few off putting elements were mileage at 32k when considering the asking price of 1550£ and also in the mot records the bike was previously registered as silver and yellow and now is blue. So perhaps it had a crash at some stage OR a previous owner may have opted for a colour change. Also it looks as though there may be the beginnings of some rust on the rear suspension and what do you guys make of the chain? I dont really know what makes a bad or good chain, i suppose the obvious would be that it is free of any thick grime and is rust free....

Here some pics:















Im off to Tenerife this friday so definitly wont be buying a bike before than. Was good to see a cat for the first time now, gives something i can compare further bikes to. And I'd rather take my time and find the right bike, Im sure its out there just a bit of time and patience and hopefully ill find one. Definitly worthwhile seeing the bike today and wasnt even half bad.

cheers

Guess the trick is to weigh up how much getting to the condition you are happy with + the sale price.

Mine only had 6,500 on it so I don't know if the wear and tear on this one is in keeping with the mileage. There will be plenty of others that will answer that.

In my opinion thou I think you can find a better example for your money if you have a little time.

Looks a bit rough to me to be honest & i would think you can find a better one.

Paul.

Personally, looking at the photos, I'd want a new shock, braided brake lines and to re-paint the swing arm if I took that example on. You might want to factor that into the price. But I do like my bikes to be very tidy and it is ages since I looked at a Thundercat.

What do other peeps think?

Im definitly not going to buy this particular bike, I made my mind up as soon as I had seen it tbh.

Like yourself greencat I want to find a very tidy cat and am willing to take that extra bit of time to find it.

The bike was ok, but it wasnt immaculate by any means: small crack in the front mudguard, chain and shock have seen better days and also no braided lines (which i didnt actually spot, cheer greencat )

The search continues, although it will be on hold for a week whilst im abroad.

cheers

For that money you can certainly get a better one! Wise decision to keep hunting... Unlike myself who is impulsive, I bought my cat as soon as I saw her, haven't had any real issues yet

Hi guys, back from my week away in Tenerife, was nice to finally see some sunshine! Hope your all well

Anyway back to finding myself a cat now and i have come across a couple i am interested in and was hoping to see what you guys think.

Number 1)

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3233224.htm

Spoke to the owner, who is in his fifties and has ridden bike for a fair few years now. He is the 4th owner and has owned the bike for 6 years. 1998 model with 16k miles. According to him the bike is in really good condition, rear shock is rust free, no problems with second gear, chain and sprocket have plenty left, tyres are also decent. Comes with paddock stand and other bit and bobs. Aftermarket exhaust. Hasnt used the bike much in the last few year but regularly started up and ran through gears on paddock stand and up and down street. Dattatagged and alarmed. Upgraded headlight bulb. Never had advisories on mots, besided need for new front tyre which he replaced. Always reliable and no problems during his ownership.

Bad points: No stainless steel downpipes, but apparently the orginial are in very good nick. Limited service history (apparently previous owner was moving house and promised to send service history but never did)

Overall the seller seemed quite an honest guy, he happily spoke about the bike for a lenghty period and didnt seem like he was tyring to hide anything. Answered all my questions.

Number 2)

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3232684.htm

1998 cat with 16.5k miles. 3 owners. Some service history and recently serviced for 140 quid, come with givi rack and top box. No problems with gears or suspension. Rides fine.

The owner didnt really engage very much and just said the bike was in good nick for its age and rides well and never had any problems with it. Was used as a commuter in london for some time during his ownership.

Both bikes are based close to another in essex, so i could go and see both in one day.

Number 3)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-Yamaha-Thundercat-YZF600R-Low-Mileage-No-Reseve-/170698977262?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item27be73afee#ht_500wt_1156

2002 Cat, 10k miles. 2 owners. Braided Brake Hoses, Double Bubble Screen, LeoVince Exhaust,Part Service History, Michelin Macadam tyres with plenty of tread left.

Havent managed to get hold of seller yet hence the limited info, but still would appreciate your thoughts.

Number 4)

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3214961.htm

1998 cat with 30k miles. Stainless steel downpipes, rear end swingarm powdercoated, new rear shock off a 2005 US cat, new swingarm bearing replaced 2 weeks ago, chain and sprocket in good condition, tyres half way through life. Datatagged, tons of receipts and full service history, aftermarket exhaust and filter, new battery.

Bad point: Far away as its based in devon, also the mileage is substantially more than the other bikes, 7 previous owners.



Cheers guys, look forward to hearing your thoughts and sorry for the long post!