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TMBF 125cc Idiot Challenge


RantMachine
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Right, so as you hopefully know already, we're gonna do a little challenge with some budget 125cc bikes!

The aim of the game is to buy a dirt cheap (Chinese preferably, for the lulz) 125cc bike or scooter, fix it up and customise it on a budget, and then meet up with our bikes and take them for a group run over a few days along a planned route, do a few challenges, and end up at the End of Season meet where we announce a winner! I'm looking at sponsorship options, and will add to this section (including a list of entrants) over time!


Here's what we've got so far in the way of rules:


- £300 bike

- £100 repairs and/or customising

- Any money not spent from the bike budget can be added to the repair budget.

- Money from the repair budget cannot be put towards the bike.

- Bikes to be purchased by 30th June at latest, to make sure we have enough time to get them sorted and allow for any nasty surprises.

- Bike must be road legal by time of challenge, ie. have an MOT and be insured - so don't go so nuts with the mods that we can't insure them! Looking into sponsorship options to help with the insurance aspect.

- If you have a helmet cam, bring it along! The more footage we can stick on Youtube, the better! (And the more beneficial for potential sponsors)

- Looking at starting the ride on Thursday 22nd september and finishing at the end of season meet on Sunday 25th. I figure it's best to have a few days put aside for it, partly so everyone gets to have more of a laugh in the evenings and partly to give us extra time in case one or all of the group breaks down :lol:

- Camping along the way, but we might let people be boring and rent a room somewhere. At least one challenge will be camping related though, so you'll be forfeiting that one :wink:


Challenges so far:

Best looking bike

Best "making of" video (can just be a walk-around the finished bike with some description, or a series of clips throughout the process, however much effort you want to make)

Hill climb (25% or steeper)

Drag race

Camping challenge - who has the cushiest camping setup? Pile those bikes high! I want to see them loaded up like an Indian family holiday :lol:

Off road (no tyre changes!)

And several secret bonus rounds once we're at the end of season meet, for a last minute chance to pick up points...


Oh, and someone let Phil know because I can't see him missing this :lol:


With that lot in mind, who reckons they're in?


Discussion thread is located here http://themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopi ... 11&t=59586


Confirmed Entrants So Far:

Fozzie

Mr Fro

Mr Brightside (provisionally)

Edited by RantMachine
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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Damn my friend Joe is too late to take part, we are trying to get his Zontes on the road for less than £400 all in, £200 on the bike so far!

Ooh well feel free to post in the project section we always like to nose at what people are doing :mrgreen:

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Damn my friend Joe is too late to take part, we are trying to get his Zontes on the road for less than £400 all in, £200 on the bike so far!

Ooh well feel free to post in the project section we always like to nose at what people are doing :mrgreen:

 

I have already reviewed the unfettled ride home! :D

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Damn my friend Joe is too late to take part, we are trying to get his Zontes on the road for less than £400 all in, £200 on the bike so far!

Ooh well feel free to post in the project section we always like to nose at what people are doing :mrgreen:

 

I have already reviewed the unfettled ride home! :D

Yeah sorry I read that after I posted here! Sounds like an.... interesting ride! Although nice catch on the switching to reserve :thumb:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Other half has just bought a bike that qualifies. She now owns a Zontes Monster, 125cc. Purchase price £300.


It is a 15 plate bike, registered in 2015 and has just had it's first service. Got just over 1000 miles on the clock!


No MOT needed for 2 years and it cost £300????

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Yeah I have no idea what is happening with this right now, I need to revise the rule structure so it's a bit more easy going... alter the budgets a little, potentially work out a fair way of changing the rules to allow bikes that people already own (but with a generous handicap), etc etc. Still psyched about it but between working 12 to 14 hour days and wedding planning outside of work, I'm spread a little thin :lol: Hopefully I will kick this into gear just in time for the crap weather later in the year, when people aren't busy riding their proper bikes as much and need something for their spare time... and when second hand prices bomb due to lack of demand :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

BIG UPDATE TIME


Having spent a fair bit of time last weekend discussing the idiot challenge with some other forum members and then bouncing some ideas off Stu, I've come to a revised version of things... Hoping this will make it a little more accessible for all the people who want to take part but have limitations that prevent them from doing it on their own.


Biggest change first...

The teams

Lots of people have said they'd love to take part but time/space/budget/etc are an obstacle. So here's the new spin on things: you can go it alone if you really want, but we're encouraging people to work in pairs to split the workload. All the time in the world by no space to work on the bike? Find a team mate with a garage. Got the money but the mechanical skills are lacking? Find a team mate who knows their way around a spanner and split the cost. Sounds like fun but don't want to ride a 125cc deathtrap? Find a team mate who is happy to do the riding if you do the build. You get the idea.


What I'm hoping is that anyone who doesn't already have an obvious team mate in mind can find someone in the discussion thread, assuming these new rules attract the attention that we didn't get the first time around. Obviously if you're splitting costs it's up to you to work out who keeps the bike - smart money would probably be to sell it an split the profits, I guess.


Final bit, hopefully when we do the actual ride part of the challenge we'll have our riders on our idiot bikes and the team mates following in their cars or on their not-so-idiot bikes with tools and spares :lol:


Before people start spending money, we need to know that people are actually taking part! Be a shame if one person blew half a grand on a bike and nobody else bothered. With that in mind, I reckon we want to know who is in by November 30th at the latest.


The budget & the build

The maximum budget has been upped to £700, and I don't care how you spend it :lol:

In other words, if you really want to you can sink nearly all £700 on a bike that runs pretty sweet... but it will have a big influence on your points from the get go. I'll have a proper scoring structure posted soon, but essentially there will be a sizeable points bonus for every £100 that you manage to stay under-budget. Saving money AND getting a head start? Not a bad deal :thumb: Anyone that hits the £700 mark without successfully making their bike roadworthy can go over-budget and seek help outside of their team, BUT there's a hefty points penalty and you can't go nuts over budget - just the bare minimum to get it through an MOT.


Furthermore, anyone that buys a tidy £600 runner will still have their work cut out for them... we'll be awarding extra points according to the level of work that was put into the bike to make it roadworthy (ie. it needs to pass an MOT to take part in the road bit of the challenge!), so anyone that buys a working bike will have to make up for those lost points by going to town on customising. The crazier the better! We want to see some god awful rattle-can paint jobs and DIY fairings :lol:


Last bit - we're going to allow people to use bikes they already own, so long as they have some kind of proof of how much they spent on it. (No, I'm not planning on using the CG... I need that for my Winter commute :lol: ) But I know a few people asked, so there you go. Obviously a lot of the challenge will be relying on trusting people to be honest about their costs, and this is no different. If you paid £400 for the bike 6 years ago, you've got £300 left. No, the consumable items from the last 6 years don't come out of your budget. But if it's currently knackered and needs some love, THAT comes out of the budget. And if you've replaced any non-consumable items in that time, again, that comes out of the budget. Bought a new engine for £200 on Fleabay for that same bike a few years ago? That's £600 of your budget gone now. Still, hopefully this will open things up to a few more people.


Oh, and no dodgy stuff with selling your 125 to your team mate for 50p and a curly wurly :lol:


So a breakdown of budget & build:

- £700 to spend, but extra points for staying under budget

- Bonus points according to just how much work you do to fix it up

- Bonus points for customisation, the wilder it gets the more points you receive

- Bike needs to pass an MOT, no points will be deducted for advisories. You heard me right, if the indicators don't work properly then you can save money by removing them altogether :lol:

- You can use a bike you already have, so long as you haven't spent more than £700 on the bike (price when you first bought it + cost of any work other than servicing since then)

- And for the love of god, please BUY THE BIKE BEFORE FEBRUARY 1st! For one thing prices start to climb back up around then, but more importantly we don't want people leaving it too late then being caught out by a nasty surprise when fixing it up and missing the ride as a result :thumb:


The ride

The ride section of the challenge will be some time in summer next year. We'll spread it over a long weekend - maybe try and do it on the last weekend of May so that we get the bank holiday, to save anyone burning annual leave days. Simple formula: we all ride to somewhere fairly central for everyone taking part, pitch our tents, then bugger off and do a couple of challenges. In the evening we do any repairs needed, then have a drink :cheers: Next morning, pack up and move to another campsite, repeat. Do that for three days, I'm thinking. Of course we can try to work this around everyone who takes part. Every day will have a big challenge that's more likely to wreck the bikes (eg. green laning or drag race) and a small challenge that's a bit safer (motogymkhana, stuff like that). Open to suggestions for challenges.


Anyone who breaks down along the way can earn some extra points for successful repairs, and of course your team mate (if you have one) can assist. If someone from outside the team has to help, no bonus. And then you've got the whole evening each day to spruce it up and fix any wear and tear from the day while everyone with a working bike relaxes at a pub somewhere :lol: Spares and consumables come out of the budget, mind. The more creative the repairs, the more extra points will be dished out :mrgreen:


THE TL;DR


- You can work in pairs if you want

- Team mate carries tools and spares, the idiot bike carries their own camping gear though!

- Budget is now £700 per team, spend it however you choose

- Bonus points for staying under budget, penalty points for going over

- Go nuts with the fettling, tons of bonus points to be had for creative repairs and crazy customisation

- You can use a bike you already have, so long as it didn't originally cost more than £700

- Ride spread across a few days (three?) with camping in between, two challenges per day

- Decide if you're doing it by 30th November 30th, buy a bike by 1st February, ride will be at the end of May


Discussion thread is here:

http://themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=59586

Let me know what you think! The more interest the better, and if any small tweaks to the setup would make it possible for more people to join in, I can give it a look :thumb:

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