Fixing the VTR250

[fin]

Plan A:
Buy a mint condition VTR250, keep it as close as possible to that for a year, sell it as a mint learner bike to another PSBer when R classed.
FAILED

In case it wasn't public enough, on the LNCR two sundays ago I made a mess of myself and my VTR250. I'm mending but the bike lacks any 'healing' feature =/ I'll list the damage below, but the short of it is 100% straight, no mechanical problems, but cosmetic damage pretty much the length of the bike on the right side.

My thoughts are even if I go through insurance and get her 100% up to original condition, she's tainted as a dropped bike and won't get the same resale. Keeping my no claim clean and absorbing the repair myself leaves me with these options:

Option 1:
Do the barest minimum to get her back on the road, ignore cosmetics.
- Replace instrument cluster
- Replace front brake/mirror/master cylinder assemby and lever
- Replace front right mirror
- Replace rear brake light cover
The advantage is cheap cost, leaves more dollars for other things, and possibly better tyres and roo muffler. If I have another drop I won't have lost out too much on repairs. Disadvantage is the scratched paint, plastic damage, and lack of pride of ownership, she'll be left as a bunky.

Option 2:
Everything but paint
- Option 1 plus following
- Replace/repair front wheel guard
- Replace/repair rear tail plastic
- Replace/repair rear fender
- Replace right side indicators
- Replace headlight
- Replace bar end and throttle hand grip
Costs more, leaves me with paint scuffs on frame and tank, but should be good enough and stock looking.

Option 3:
Go aftermarket where possible
- Options 1 and 2 plus/except for
- Dual headlight conversion
- LED indicators all round
- Depending on cost of new instrument cluster, something like this aftermarket dash
- Bar end mirrors
- Aftermarket grips (not sure of options here?)
- Roo pipe (was on the cards anyway).
- Further down the track get all paint scratches on frame, rearset and tank fixed up.
This will cost, and will be a customised VTR250, similar in many ways to Rudleo's bike sold recently. I'll get a bit more pride in her again, but I'm worried whether it'll be hard to sell at R time.

What are your thoughts and recommendations? I've barely costed things up yet, so open to advice and opinions.

Once decided I'll try to put useful info in this thread for the other PSBers on VTR250's.

[rudleo]

do eeeet =P

edit - option 3 i mean

[kwakas]

aftermarket for sure... check out ^^^ rudleo's^^^ vtr250 that was for sale... SWEEEEET looking bike..

[Weapon_X]

option 4: fire?
/silly

i'd say option 3 have some fun and build a cool little bike.

[Stoneville]

Fin, PM Pono, you'd be suprised how much VTR's actually do cost to get fixed

Are your duck tail and seat unscathed?

If you do the full insurance you might find that you actually get a new bike out of it??

If you do it up, you may or may not get the value back, just because it has had a slide, if you're truthfull about it and it's a good fix up job, it might not make a difference.

I've seen a few bikes advertised es as not dropped etc and I've wondered about the claim cos I remember there was a post or thread about said bike kissing the dirt

[IGS]

Option 3 mate, bling bling!

[fin]

Getting some initial parts quotes, including ONE THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY NINE DOLLARS just for the instrument cluster (?!)... It's looking like insurance will handle it. I'll find out if a few bits of bling can be swapped in, as I'll only be saving them money.

I'm insured for agreed value $7k with Swann, any experience with them as to when they will write-off?

So onto the next question, recommendation for repairers?

[dowen]

Hey fin i been working with your old man the last 5 weeks haha, remember him tellin me bout your bike the other day...sorry to hear. Hope you get it sorted and either up and running again or a new one soon. All the best mate

[fin]

As an update, I decided against involving insurance, I'd rather make a bit of a project out of it and have some fun with it, keeping the insurance clean for bigger and better things later.

I've done very little so far due to the injury, but thats healing quick so this weekend I should get my first bits and start fixing her up ASAP. I've decided most things, except...

I'm chasing opinions on aftermarket dash instruments:

Motogadget's motoscope mini
- speedometer/tachometer/shift light//trip/odo
- matching lights for indicator, neutral, oil warning, neutral
- universal brackets to suit

Thoughts? It's compact and will look very tidy and discrete, but it lacks a water temperature gauge. It looks very legible but I'm wondering if the RPM as a small bar graph is going to be sufficient. The bar can be set to show 0 - 14,000rpm. I would mount this in a similar position to where the stock instruments are. I had pretty much decided on this one but the ze germans are taking a while to get back to me.

vid of one being tested

mirror version, shows it running

Koso's RX-2N
- Speedo/tacho/shift light/trip/odo/clock/temperatures

This won't look as neat without a screen to tuck it behind, but has more features including water temperature and a few more trip extra computer functions (will I use them?). The LED's chase the tacho needle and hold the peak for a few seconds, I'm not sure if this is just a distraction or a benefit, and on one of the vids it doesn't always sync. Also the tacho needle is 0 to 20,000rpm, where as the VTR has a 11,500 redline.

youtube of similar

youtube of similar, not working 100% though

Any advice, or feedback from using either of these?
Any other options I should look at, keeping in mind approx $500 budget?

[rudleo]

loving the motogadget mini dash.. but id probably mount in centred just above the triple tree somehow, off to the side like that may be a bit troublesome to see when riding in my opinion

[BigTim]

Try dropping Davey a PM about the mini dash thingo.
He might still have his old one.

[g0zer]

that looks pretty cool

[fin]

It's been way too long for an update:

I went to Motorcycle Masters and got a whole box of parts, these guys went out of their way to find me the parts, very happy with the service.

From my box of bits I've done the following:
- Replaced rear brake lever
- Replaced front brake lever and master cylinder assembly, front brake line flushed and bled.
- Replaced mirrors with basic black things from the wreckers, will be on there while I decide on a new handle bar and bar end mirrors.
- Replaced rear undertail fender and it's associated indicators, brake light.
- Sourced tail and front guard from wreckers, these two and the tank are off getting reborne in matte black...

Also the postie has delivered me:
- Dual 4" headlights, chrome finish
- Motoscope mini (silver anodised), motosign mini (black anodised), with associated speed sensor, brackets, wiring etc.

Hopefully I'll have the headlights and dash wired up this weekend, I'll try to take photo's and document as much of the wiring as possible.

[polonyman]

im just putting it out there... if u need the bike to disappear so u can claim market value on the bike, you dont lose your ncd if its stolen caus ur not at fault, im sure a few psb members could make it happen

EDIT: i should really read the bottom posts before i reply to things...

[theblackman]

i was thinking about getting a tacho for my 02 vtr and stumbled over these
Ecliptech - Shift I™
looks like something you might be interested in

YouTube - Shift-I Test on VTR250 (S2)

[The Saint]

PSB: publicly conspiring to commit insurance fraud since 2003

[fin]

I like those shift-i lights, there's a youtube vid of one installed on a pre-tacho VTR, perfect solution to install alongside the speedometer. I made a mess of my whole cluster tho so I needed a full replacement (speedo, tacho, odo and the lights).

The motoscope mini dash has RPM as the bar graph along the top edge, which you configure to a preset RPM range to suit the engine. The manual has discrepancies, but it looks like I can set it to either a 0-14k rpm or 0-12k rpm range, which will suit the 11.5k rpm redline of the VTR250. It also has a programmable shift point, turning the whole display face into a shift light that flashes at 5Hz. I suppose I'll set that at around 11,000 or 11,250 rpm.

[incon]

I hate the oem mirrors on my vtr250 what aftermarket options did you find before you got the ones from the wreckers? Come across and non bar end mounted mirrors that you liked?

[fin]

Agreed incon. I've barely looked, so if you or anyone else finds something decent for a reasonable price, start posting. I'm not entirely sold on bar end mirrors yet.

The Rizoma brand mirrors have a few options... but looks expensive and hard to source.

[fin]

I've wired up the motogadget digital dash and indicator lights so that they plug into the two stock dash plugs, they all work perfectly as planned. I'm very happy with the result, the dash looks like a quality unit.

Tonight I'll mount the dash bracket onto the steel bracket that held the stock dash cluster, and start planning how to mount the speedometer sensor near the front disc brake. The kit comes with two tiny magnets to epoxy onto the wheel or brake disc, but I'm looking into a few magnetic bolts that replace the brake disc bolts for a very clean install.