Beautiful crisp morning today so went out on the KTM for a loop of the fens, ended up at a certain large bike dealership in Peterborough, and whilst there i had a gander at their very cheap 749R, TBF it looks pretty good, i asked one of the guys why it was so cheap and he muttered something like 'it is what it is' or words similar, i could tell he wasn't really interested so i moved on, i seem to recall a previous forum posting possibly on this bike but i'm damned if i can find it, i think the bikes been there for quite a while...can anyone point me in the right direction?
I believe they had two in there for a while, one sold ,the other is still on Ebay...if i knew how to post a link i would ...doh. yep just checked, still there - plaque number 175.
Hmmm. I’ve been looking at that for several months now. Bottom line is it’s a very recent Japanese import with zero/no/nil service history and a healthy mileage. Hence the price. I decided not to trouble them further.
That previous post was probably from me, back in October. I bought, and then un-bought one of the pair they had...I went for the less Halfords-spec one, until they changed the deal we shook on, which even if the cost wouldve been neutral with the full service it needed, I didn't want to deal with an outfit that dealt like that, so I got my refund and bought Sev's (very tidy and fully sorted) 999 Bip instead. ETA: The bike I "bought" was about 2k miles over where a full service was due, and taking guidance Andy and (indirectly, Paul) at Moto Rapido, the worst case cost for that service was well north of £2.5k...and again the guidance given was that there's every likelihood that all 8 gaps would need re-shimming, heads-off job on the R (again, no first hand experience on these engines, so dont shoot the messenger). There was no paperwork with the bike pertaining to any service history, and certainly nothing to suggest that it had received that major service. Came with 1x black key, 1x red, nothing else. On the plus side, it did look in nice fettle, so if the other shenanigans hadn't of happened, it may have been worth the punt. But, needless to say I won't be darkening their doorstep any time soon.
I can vouch for the cost of a valve service on a 749R - I bought mine in need of a 15K service. I did all the other servicing and took it to MR for the valves - it needed a few shims which required heads off. Cost me around 1500 quid for that alone. Still, bike’s a good un now so was worth it as far as I am concerned.
If you want a 749R just go all in with this puppy https://www.handh.co.uk/auction/lot...0&au=524&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=96&pn=1&g=1
