hi folks, i have been looking at some posts on line and i thought i would get on board, i am a 30 something year old beer guzzling curry munching hairy arsed builder with a passion for the two wheeled wonders and of course women, i bought an xvs 125 about a month ago, i was on the guiness on a Sunday afternoon looking at ebay, any hows to cut a long story short i won the bike bidding by accident, the bike was advertised as sales or repair ,a runner but a bad runner , never the less i thought i would bid up to £600 the bidding got to £590 so i thought i would place a final bid of £602 having had one too many of the black velvet i typed in £60,020 and to the missus' never ending despair i won, in the last second some one using that bidding sniper thingy whacked in a bid for £900, i called the guy who was selling it and i had to explain that i was in error and i was only good for 602 quid, to my surprise the seller said ok the 600 quid will do just come and get it and so i did a 2 hour drive and 600 quid later hey presto i got my chopper, i fell in love with this bike for what it is, going by what people say its underpowered bla bla bla doesnt phase me at all, its not power or speed its just theres something about the xvs 125 that i really like, any hows i gets the bike home admittedly i got the feller to start the bike before i paid for it (bumpstart) and it ran with a knocking noise from the rear cylinder area, so it sat in the garage for sometime , having a limited budget i was thinking that i would have a go at fixing it up , i have a good mechanical understanding , any way i got talking to some bike enthusiast he said he would have a look at it and give me a diagnosis, i just have to fix his ridge tiles in exchange, i thought half way to solving a problem is finding it so back in the van it went round to this fellas garage, a week later he said to me" F that , get rid its goosed, i stopped taking it apart because there was bolts missing, some effer has been f'ing with this its not worth fixing it needs a new rear cylinder and possibly more," oh bollox i thought looking at the price of engines£300-400 i am going to have to get saving,unable to decide what to do i thought i would put it on ebay again i advertised it with a reserve of £600 as tatty and needs loads of work and surprise surprise it never sold. well thats my decision made for me. i dont do things by halves tho, i am going to strip it down , get it shot blast and powder coated, and rebuild it ,as a result of this i am hoping that i can link up with people in the same boat as me for knowledge and parts of all types, and i am on the hunt for an exhaust too ,