Bana-Na-RMa 80. 1997 Suzuki RM80.
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A little while ago now I said fuck it.
Coronavirus hit hard, I’d been sent home from and uni and the university had just refunded me part of my fee’s due to said COVID-19. Lovely stuff. Now I’m bored, stuck at home for unknown amount of time with a sum of cash I otherwise wouldn’t or shouldn’t have had now burning a hole in my pocket.I started looking at bikes, Mx bikes.
I think the whole ‘Mx bike’/‘dirt bike’ thing is an inch I’ve always been trying to scratch properly from the moment I’d learned to ride and I think it’s because of that the Ole DT came to be.
Now I’ve come to learn, live with and love the limitations of the ole DT and the fact they can’t quite ever be the same thing.
However it taught me what can be improved, but that’s a different topic.A couple weeks gone by and I’d made the dumb decision of starting to tell myself “Oh yeah it’ll be a good investment and you’ll be on to an earner”. But I’m gonna stop there because we know how that story goes...
The issue is that whilst it’s a good bit of fun buying old Mx bikes, buying a second hand Mx bike with no previous experience or little knowledge is a little bit of a minefield.
You could say there’s a lot to go wrong..But oh well who gives a f**k haha, nobody ever learned by not trying and no good story ever came from worrying about what could go wrong.
And so with that being said, here’s how I ended up with a blown up, rusted out RM80 that has no front break at all. Ladies & Gentleman, I give to you Bana-Na-RMa 80
image won’t upload _ to be finished
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Fun fact 1977-81 engines fit straight on suzuki pv. Its just insane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAvzbxHJtGI
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@Stevie-Wonder props to you for the choice great bike
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Let’s have a game of real life Vs reality
Image 1 from Facebook listing.
Image 2
Now for the reality....
Now the guy I bought from, I’m pretty sure was handicapped. I mean that in no harshness, I’m being serious. I asked him all type of questions and it seemed like if it was anymore then “where do you put the petrol?”, “how do you start it” or “what makes it go pew pew” the guy genuinely seemed lost. Like the equivalent of catching an in game NPC off guard. It actually kinda throws you off a little bit. But in my defence I already had my guard up and was treating buying this bike like a drug deal considering the amount that get stolen
We got chatting and the story goes
he swapped a quad for it, he’s not usually a bike person and he knows nothing really about bikes. They where always followed by a couple mumbles and grumbles about how never again as “it just had a rebuild, I only had it out on the field round the corner a couple hours and then it just locked up”
There was also a fragrant smell of giggle coming from this chap in his late 20’s. I let him think we didn’t know that though.At the time whilst I knew what to look for etc and was confident I already knew I was taking a huge fucking gamble.
My primary concern is decoding if Mr.Gigglebush was telling me porky pies about that top end only being 2 hours old.
Oh and when I mean that’s my primary concern, everything that should look nice and not rusted. Has rusted. It’s top end died from a seize but the crank still moves freely (bonus). It’s missing a front brake. The wheel bearings need doing.
To say there was a bit of false advertisement going on could be pushing it a bit...
It also didn’t help that when I got there the bike looked rough man. It just looked like someone left it out in the rain for the rust to get at every little place.
There was mud layered and caked in every nook and cranny from the last time was rode, the tyres where flat, seat ripped and the rear fender was split in two and being held together by cable ties because he inevitably looped it
Unfortunately these are the only two photos I got of it looking a state.Next part of the journey get it in the van!
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That's a shame. They don't clean it up to try and hide the roughness.
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How much was this heap of shit?
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It’s really not that bad most of the roughness can be buffed out
