Hi,
not been on here for a while but for various reasons my time with the 3TJ will probably be coming to an end.

My 3TJ has not been on the road for some time now, due to engine, spare time, workshop and most recently health problems preventing me from working on it anymore, so the time has come to sell up as I will never ride it again as spinal problems are probably going to force to have a more upright riding position if I want to carry on riding bikes.

The question I have is although I don't want to break the bike up, I know it will fetch more money in parts, as due to my location (Shetland) it will cost a lot to ship the bike complete and distance will be a problem for people viewing the bike.

How much of it am I likely to sell and what am I going to get stuck with, and how much money will I roughly get for breaking/selling complete.

The bike is an abandoned 600cc project, with 2 sickly 400cc engines. Most parts are in reasonable condition, as I powder coated most of the bike when I first restored it way back in 2007, but light corrosion is starting on some bits due to my shed roof springing a leak. I don't want to list too much stuff as I don't want this post being removed for being a for sale advert, but just about everything needed to finish the bike off is present.

I have had the bike for sale locally, but no one seems interested in it as it is not finished and can't run yet, so the most I was offered was £100, which is bordering in the black eye territory.

I know the sensible thing to do is finish it off and sell it locally as a runner, but in a catch 22 situation where I need to raise money to build a new garage before I have the room to work on it again, and the motivation to finish off a bike I will never ride has long gone.

Hi there :)
Like you say it's been a while .... I'm still here but I think forums are on a decline. Sorry to hear about your back and motivation to finish this .... it was a blue TJ wasn't it ? You were the first to do the R6 shock conversion, that's one of the standard mods now

Anyway ... how much did you do, and therefore how much still needs doing ???
I think 3TJs are just getting to the point where they're becoming a bit "old tech" and I'm not to sure where the prices are for parts. A long time ago there was a bike broken on ebay, the prices were highish but bits sold. Trouble is there's still stuff there and I think that was about 2 years ago.

You could try offering it to Kayla she might have an interest in finishing and selling it on, but she'll need to make some money on it so the laws of business will mean she'll need to buy lower.

Yeah, a 1989 blue 3TJ1. Still sitting on the R6 shock.



I have the 600cc engine sitting in place in the frame, but that is as far as I got. Never got around to altering the wiring loom before I had to move it out of my main shed into my storage shed, which is too small to work in.

The problem I will have is it will cost about £200 to get the bike delivered to Aberdeen docks, so anyone buying the whole bike will have to pay that and then forward travel from Aberdeen to where they live, which will mean they won't want to pay much for the bike when these shipping costs are taken into consideration.

Perhaps I should just hold onto it for another 10 years in the hope that the value goes up enough to make it worth something, or perhaps give me more time to get a workshop built and get some motivation to finish it off.

If you use a foxeye loom and cdi you could have it running quite quickly. As it stands it's not worth much at all. I'd say get one of those big plastic bags and put it in https://www.vac-bag.co.uk/motorcycle-vac-bags.html
sort out the workshop, then sort the bike

Looks like I will be keeping the TJ for the meantime, I have just provisionally sold my Suzuki RF900 tonight and the money will be getting spent on a foundation for my workshop.

I have only done 170 miles on it since May 2014 so thought it was pointless keeping it anymore, didn't even bother putting it through an MOT in 2015/16. Will probably be replaced by a cruiser when the workshop is finished and the wallet has recovered.

Now my next dilemma is do I put it back together standard or go down the track bike route!
I think it would be easier to sell it as a track bike as I have a lot of friends who would like to do a few track days, but are scared of binning their more expensive bikes. I have a cut down Foxeye wiring loom so I could just use that if I don't need to worry about lights.
The fairings all need repainting and I need a new headlight unit as it fell off the bench and cracked the glass. Selling the standard fairings and road stuff would probably pay for most of a new race fairing and take away that expense of painting the old stuff.

Any idea what money a track bike will go for compared to a road bike?

I also have 2 400cc engines to break up and sell which will help finance the build.

I doubt a track bike will fetch any more money than a road bike. I'd just fit a UK Yamaha lamp with a H4 bulb and not worry about the paint, knock off 200 and walk away.

What you need to do is record all the Formula 1 practice sessions one weekend.

Start playing them about 9pm one night and tell your wife there is about 6 hours of it to watch.

When she gets bored and decides to go to bed early, (usually takes about seven and a half minutes or less), sneak the bike into the kitchen and get the wiring sorted.

Ha ha, that's one way of doing it I suppose.

I own my own house and I am currently single, so no need for elaborate plans like that, unfortunately the layout of my house would make it impossible to get a bike inside in one piece.

I do plan on putting my SS50 in the living room when I have finished restoring it though, on a shelf above the fire :)

I have hired a builder to lay my workshop foundation, so hopefully I will have somewhere to work on stuff very shortly.

Hi Oollit!
Hope the back is OK this might make you laugh when I type in you name auto spell changed it to pollution.

Good luck wth the workshop ,I reckon if you can store it keep it, it won't go down in value!

you could always put renthals on your 3tj.........? An fzr1000 (89-90) top yoke is flat and fits straight on (although it lowers the front a bit it doesn't seem detrimental to the handling), and is easy to fit risers to.