5KE TZ250 track day bike?

Bike is in GA. Likely to be around $12k. It is an ex AMA bike that is well sorted but needs to be refreshed.

 

Wow, yeah you scored 50% off!

 

Well done Beer Hunter! I'm trying to work a deal on an '09 right now but the seller is... difficult to deal with, even though we've agreed on a price ($13k). I'm expecting it to fall through but still trying.

 

I don't mean to doubt you, but an '09 should be going for around 30K.

 

I know the exact ad he is looking at. It's a scam. Albeit a good one.

 

Yeah so here's the ads (all the same bike):
https://racing-for-sale.com/ad/2009-Yamaha-TZ250-5KE
https://racingcarnetwork.com/race-car/2009-yamaha-tz250-5ke/
https://www.smartcycleguide.com/2009-yamaha-tz250-5ke-a2247

The 'seller' has responded to a few emails/texts and I spoke with him on the phone (very broken Engrish so it was a difficult conversation). Says he lives in Kirkland WA and the bike is there. Sent pics of pretty much the full unused spares kit that came with the bike - cylinders, crank, pistons gearing blah blah. 2 sets of nice bodywork, spare wheels... On the phone we agreed to $13k - I told him I'll take it but I want someone to go check it out first and pay in cash when the bike is picked up. He wants a $3000 deposit to "deal with a third party". I told him my 'friend' (who is actually a friend of Mike's on this forum who lives in Seattle - thanks Mike!) will bring cash so no need for a deposit. He's gone dark since then, oh well, it was a decent scam with the email responses and legit-looking pics he sent.

 

He's had that scam up for awhile. These guys know people will send money to hold these rare bikes without checking them out. A few will even pay good money to post the ads on the more upscale sites.

 

Yeah it was fairly convincing for a scam. I asked for pics of the bike with the Air Tech bodywork on it and he sent them. He had answers to my questions on the phone but again he was very difficult to understand so we didn't get into many details. I googled his name (Tim Williams supposedly) and AHRMA/USGPRU for race results and zero hits so that concerned me. The insistence on a $3k deposit was when I called him out and he went dark.

I was hoping he's just some rich guy who doesn't know how to sell a bike but oh well.

 

Wow that's a story for the times! There's probably a lot more of that going on than we'll ever hear about.

 

Those pics came out of an Australian shop about 5 years ago as I was looking at the same bike.

On to the 5KE, don't be worried about the cases. I have 3 and none have had the case issue. Do your maintenance at the intervals Yamaha suggests and don't look for the last jet size, spin it 14k, etc. If your within 2 main jets I guarantee you won't feel the difference.

Also, said this before on here for a racing 2-stroke, once you have jetting for conditions figured out it's easy and no more track day maintenance than a 4S.

I showed up at NJMP this weekend with 350 mains in my 5KE and never touched jetting. Only touched sprockets, tires and fuel. Ran close to the winner of Open 2-stroke with that amount of work and may have done better with a less crappy start when it counted (our race was red-flagged a couple times and then shortened).

Do your maintenance at home, at the intervals Yamaha wants and enjoy stress-free track time so you can concentrate on riding and having fun.

 

Sorry, and BTW, you can expect to pay more in the 25k+ range for the 2003-2009 5KEs.
Definitely with he amount of spares in those pics.

 

Thanks for the great feedback TZ! This is what I'd hoped to hear, stay within service limits, don't try for last ounce HP jetting and just ride the bike. Perfect. For now my search continues, thanks again.