I have been watching internet sales across the various channels for the last six months or so and see that a VGC 1/2 owner low (sub 20k miles) 900 seems to be anything from £3,300 to £4,950 at a dealer, with private sales being £2,500 to £3,500.
What would a dealer offer a private seller currently - less than £2,000 I'd guess? Does the pandemic put a damper on both dealer and private pricing?
Is there any value in holding out for a later plate model? There doesn't seem to be much difference after 8 years + that I can see.
While mileage is often a good guide, it isn't so important with such a reliable bike.
Looking at age, what benefits are there to a younger bike ? The frame doesn't corrode at all so that's not really important. The rubbing off of the frame coating down near the footpegs is probably mostly a result of mileage rather than just age.
All the usual running components, such as bearings and consumables can be replaced countless times on either an old or a new bike.
I've noticed the wheels can start to corrode, but again I think that's mileage related as much as age.
Maintenance is important in both situations, and rinsing down the bike after use will help to prevent dirt buildup and fastener corrosion.
Mechanically I haven't heard of any age related problems. Perhaps someone else has more experience that they can share.
Newer machines give more of a range of colour options I suppose, but the bike remained virtually unchanged for a long time.
Perhaps another mistake bike by Yamaha ? I once read about the FJ1100/FJ1200, in an interview with Yamaha's head of marketing where he stated that the problem with making very reliable bikes is that it affects your future sales because people hold onto reliable bikes much longer than is the average case, which means they don't consider another purchase for a much longer period of time than usual !
I just replaced every bearing on my 900 for this year's mot, it's got 1060000 miles on the clock and it's from 2002, and I know from experience with other bikes there will definitely be much younger bikes than mine which aren't as mechanically cared for. When you get down to it, things like the rear wheel axle can seize on a relatively young bike with low miles, just as easily as on an older bike, that's when maintenance and cleaning matters
Electrically, I'm in the habit of opening and closing all electrical connectors once per year, and spraying the metal contacts and pins with something like Servisol Super 10, or another contact cleaner and lubricator, or I've used Caig Deoxit which is also good, but expensive. Once I started doing this I've never had an electrical fault of any kind
In terms of the engine, lots of fresh oil frequently, and it doesn't need to be a premium brand of oil, just clean and up to the JASO standard. I've used off brand for years , 20L costing £50-£60 , so changing the oil, for example, to diagnose a clutch problem, needn't be wallet busting.
One problem on mine was removing the cylinder head coolant pipe which protrudes vertically next to the right hand spark plug was a got to remove, rather the allen bolt screwed down into the head itself, so perhaps the corrossion in that area is age related ? It's always worth cleaning out nooks and crannies like that annually too.
Brake caliper seals are probably more age susceptible than are affected by mileage. Not so much the seals themselves, but the corossion which builds up in the grooves where the seals sit which push the seals hard against the piston which in turn starts to cause brake drag, because the tight piston doesn't let the pads draw back from the disc when you release the brake lever. Seal kits are cheap and it's only a couple of hours to rebuild the front calipers (plus a bit of faffing to get the system bled again)
There doesn't seem to be much steel to rot, and the original fasteners are mostly good quality, but will need replacing eventually. It's good practice to undo fasteners periodically too, even just loosening them and tightening them straight away can prevent a future seizing up of the threads. (removing them, cleaning and applying anti-seize compounds would be better, but remember to re-torque them properly.
Recently I found the threaded ferrule which closes up to the swingarm bearing had tightened right up on mine (steel in an alloy frame), which needed a bit of special attention to remove, so perhaps that's age related ? But nobody else seems to have had a similar problem, so it's perhaps just a one-off
Obviously I look at things from an owner servicing perspective, having been in machine servicing for 30 years it's just what I normally do, so I might be catching things and mending myself stuff which a dealer might not spend much time on and just charge for a replacement, but generally I don't see much on the bike which will age badly, if maintained properly.
Edited by fixitsan, 09 January 2021 - 11:03 am.
You're welcome
