My Step son is looking at getting rid of his Gsxr750 k5 Anniversary model, thing is its been stood in his garage uncovered and with petrol in the tank since its last MOT ran out in oct 2020, he has asked me what i think its worth - he is in desperate need of funds. Bearing in mind last time i saw it it was covered in a 1/4 inch layer of dust (god only knows why he didn't cover it!) and the battery is totally dead ,the chain is badly rusted and brakes are probably seized on ,what sort of horrors do you think i should expect to find in the tank and fuel/cooling system? and how would you go about addressing worst case scenarios?...not really familiar with the liquid cooled motors in these bikes, i have had the old oil cooled Slabby's and Slingy's in the past, they are a hoot to ride. If it just needed a new battery and a good spruce up i would possibly be interested in buying it off him.
Worst fear would be rodent damage. Assuming none of that:- Drain tank completely. Splash of new fuel. Hook up a doner battery. Check it has oil in it. Fire it up. If it starts good. Don’t run it any length of time. Then Change oil Filter Air filter Plugs Check fuel lines All fluids New chain and sprockets. Ride and enjoy. If it doesn’t start usual checks. Fuel. Spark etc then proceed as above.
It's a GSX-R, not a Ducati. Jump leads and off it'll go. I've just bought a K5 Thou' that had been sitting as described above. It started in under 3 seconds and ran fine, even on 5-year-old petrol. Oil and filter change, new battery and it went straight through its MOT. I then took it on a 350-mile trip and suffered not a single issue. A bit different to my old 900SS that had been stored for a few years. Another issue would materialise every time I rode it!
Including a somewhat alarming fire when sitting at some traffic lights. I could write a book about the various ways in which that bike tried to kill me.
They’re just SO good. I’ve had a K2, K6 and K8 before my recently-acquired K5. The quality of the fixtures and fittings may not be exotic, to say the least, but the engineering is spot-on.
I've got a K5, and had a K9 at the same time, I sold the K9, as I kept comparing it to the K5, and there is no comparison, the K5 is a much better bike
Yes bought it but not yet collected...went to have a better look at it and fitted a full charged spare battery and it did eventually fire up, chain is seriously rusty though and sprocks are quite badly worn, also need to junk the spyball alarm as it kept going off for no apparent reason, and the whole bike has a thick covering of dust...just need to find the time to get it trailered home.
Finally got round to getting a better look at the bike over the weekend, took a donor battery, put half a gallon of unleaded in it and it did indeed start again after we remembered to pull the clutch lever in...Doh...and it sounds visceral thru its Yoshimura exhaust We thought all was well until we spotted a pool of oil underneath the bike, after trying to trace where it was coming from it looks like its weeping past the oil filter seal, its been stood for 5 years and hopefully its just its seal that has perished, fingers crossed. I'm going down again next weekend with some fresh oil/filter and a new battery, i will take some pics and get them posted on here, if all is well i should be able to ride the bike home, after getting it MOT'd, i've already got insurance for it, road tax is to follow.
Don't forget to bag all the dust that is on the bike, you can sell it for a fortune on ebay, people will buy it to sprinkle on any old shitter, and call it "a genuine barn find"
Went to the bike again over the weekend, changed the oil/filter and fitted a new battery, however when checking the oil level in the sight glass before we changed the oil it was just showing on the low mark, looks like he had been running the bike with low levels before leaving it stood, the thing is we started it and let it run for a few minutes before checking the level, and when we changed the oil just under 2 litres came out, capacity is 3 L, the bike sounded ok and the oil pressure light didn't come on so hopefully we haven't done any damage...thoughts anyone?
It will be fine. Fill it correctly this time obviously and if you ever take it on track it is important (on gixers) to run oil on max line.
Thanks for the reassurance Expat, i'm new to Gixxers and if the level had been that low on my 916 i would not have run it.
