Where can i get legit grey market bikes?

Forum Sponsor
We're getting the thailand version which is garbage, comparatively anyway (Theyre nice, but not 5000 dollars OTD kind of nice). A 250cc single isnt my idea of a fun time. Singles are fun from 50-125ccs, and stop being fun until you hit around 500cc :P The only midsize singles i can think of that are kind of fun are some of the old nortons and triumphs.
 
Crap!! Spent 15 mins typing a post and it's all gone! I've logged in but the site somehow treating me as not! Well, anyhow, long story short,

-totally agree with MXS, there's gonna be risk associated with used bike no matter what
-I've dealt with Nuak once, bought a 92 TZR from him,
-so far no major problems except normal maintenance
-glad to see there are others here that share similar interests
-hopefully can meet up with some of other fellow grey bikers perhaps for a ride someday!
-any questions feel free to ask!
lol

Thanks.


mxs said:
By the time you are here in TO, it will be 5700 CAD ..... the shipping, handling etc. will kill any deal. It's terribly ineffective to ship one bike from overseas. It starts making sense from 3 up, container obviously being the bang for the buck.

Anyways, in GTA Nuak is your only choice really. He was in Japan weeks before the disaster hit. A person I know finally reached him as he was looking for a bike himself. Whether his spring container will arrive or not in time is hard to tell as many things have been effected by the disaster as you can imagine.

I personally have bought two bikes from him in the last 3 years, both time in fall and both time the price was right. Everytime I buy a bike from him (or any other importer for that matter) I assume it can be a lemon. I carefully go over it and base my negotiations on what I see. One unknown is always the internals of the engine, but that is part of "rolling the dice". It's given that you will have to take carbs apart, replace chain, sprockets, tires, rebuild brakes and replace fork seals. In most cases, the tank will have to be coated with a liner due to years of rusting. Both bikes I have bought from him were in very good condition, except for wear/tear parts I have listed.

I cannot speak for the others who have had a bad experience with him and posted here. But by reading, everytime it sounds to me that their expectations were not realistic. Secondly, most of the people were really not into wrenching or they bought the bikes as their first bike .... not good on both counts, you don't buy 250cc or 400cc I-4 20 year old bike if you fall into one of the two categories.

Don't bother with his website, he doesn't keep it updated at all. Head over to his kijiji "store". Once he gets new bikes for sale, you can check it here
http://toronto.kijiji.ca/f-nuak-Classifieds-W0QQKeywordZnuakQQisSearchFormZtrue


Good luck.
Click to expand...
 
Funny, I know a guy who has TZR as well. Maybe one day a ride meet for grey market bikes would be a fun thing to do.
 
I kept trying for a grey-bike ride! :P Not enough interest a few years ago.

MC22's are fantastic bikes. Upul's bikes aren't great and you need to know how to and want to wrench on em. I've replaced every single thing that MXS has mentioned. Rotors & pads, bearings (all of them on the chassis and wheels), chain, sprockets, petcock, fuel filter.. first I replaced the carbs, then I cleaned the carbs out several times, fork seals, cleaned & lined the gas tank, spark plugs, throttle cables, choke cable, levers, h-brace, Mirrors.. All replaced in the years I've owned it.

In dealing with him, he did take care of my major issue after purchase. I had a 1" in diameter hole in carb #1 vacuum chamber that was epoxied over. The gas was eating the epoxy and I was getting major vacuum leaks. Upul fixed me up with a new set of carbs. They have been good but the float needles will need replacing soon (rubber nipples are getting worn.)
I remember meeting a guy who bought an NSR250R from Upul (Nuak). We met in Gravenhurst for bike night up there (Thursdays). He was pulled over on the side of the road, changing plugs. The bike would run great on the highway but the minute he pulled off the highway, plugs would foul. Needed work. I wasn't surprised and told him about my happenings with Upul and my bike. It all kindof was in-line with what I now expect of his bikes.

Ah well, I'll never sell my MC22 now. Once the motor stops running and I cannot repair it, I'm going to build it into a bar. Vroom Vroom:
IMG_2941.jpg
 
RetroGrouch said:
Although I can't really justify the price, you can buy a 92-95 CBR900 for the same price and not pay sportbike insurance.
Click to expand...

There's many many bikes you could buy for that kind of money. But that is not exactly the kind of math you do when getting into bikes which are rare and never legally imported to Canada .... I am surprised this is coming from you, the guy who likes older/vintage bikes .... :-)
 
mxs said:
Funny, I know a guy who has TZR as well. Maybe one day a ride meet for grey market bikes would be a fun thing to do.
Click to expand...

Is that other TZR guy in Brampton?

Syphen, I think I've probably read your story somewhere before....

and I admire your passion for your CBR. It looks very nice by the way.

If money's not a concern, I'd love to get a NSR (MC28, single sided swingarm, the bike just looks awesome.
 
Syphen said:
I kept trying for a grey-bike ride! :P Not enough interest a few years ago.

MC22's are fantastic bikes. Upul's bikes aren't great and you need to know how to and want to wrench on em. I've replaced every single thing that MXS has mentioned. Rotors & pads, bearings (all of them on the chassis and wheels), chain, sprockets, petcock, fuel filter.. first I replaced the carbs, then I cleaned the carbs out several times, fork seals, cleaned & lined the gas tank, spark plugs, throttle cables, choke cable, levers, h-brace, Mirrors.. All replaced in the years I've owned it.

In dealing with him, he did take care of my major issue after purchase. I had a 1" in diameter hole in carb #1 vacuum chamber that was epoxied over. The gas was eating the epoxy and I was getting major vacuum leaks. Upul fixed me up with a new set of carbs. They have been good but the float needles will need replacing soon (rubber nipples are getting worn.)
I remember meeting a guy who bought an NSR250R from Upul (Nuak). We met in Gravenhurst for bike night up there (Thursdays). He was pulled over on the side of the road, changing plugs. The bike would run great on the highway but the minute he pulled off the highway, plugs would foul. Needed work. I wasn't surprised and told him about my happenings with Upul and my bike. It all kindof was in-line with what I now expect of his bikes.

Ah well, I'll never sell my MC22 now. Once the motor stops running and I cannot repair it, I'm going to build it into a bar. Vroom Vroom:
IMG_2941.jpg
Click to expand...

Good job, looks great. What kind of fuel economy are you getting?
 
RetroGrouch said:
…I also like them cheap.
Click to expand...

Im with you. Really in love with vintage bikes but jesus christ the prices are insane these days.

I think ive decided im probably not going to go with one of the gray market bikes unless i get a wicked deal. Leaning towards something like a CB350/360 or 550 now...
 
I had considered getting a bike from Nuak, but after careful consideration and e-mails with him I decided against it.
He buys bikes from Japan auction with 2-3 out of 6 grading. I only wanted 4 or 5 grading and the prices he was quoting me for those was pretty high.
Was looking for an NSR250 SP with a 4 and was quoted 9000.00
I ended up importing one myself. Saved a few bucks and got exactly what I was after!
Took lots of time and effort though.....but that is half the fun with grey bikes!
 
bobjohnson said:
Im with you. Really in love with vintage bikes but jesus christ the prices are insane these days.

I think ive decided im probably not going to go with one of the gray market bikes unless i get a wicked deal. Leaning towards something like a CB350/360 or 550 now...
Click to expand...

What do you me an by a wicked deal?
 
wardlaw said:
I had considered getting a bike from Nuak, but after careful consideration and e-mails with him I decided against it.
He buys bikes from Japan auction with 2-3 out of 6 grading. I only wanted 4 or 5 grading and the prices he was quoting me for those was pretty high.
Was looking for an NSR250 SP with a 4 and was quoted 9000.00
I ended up importing one myself. Saved a few bucks and got exactly what I was after!
Took lots of time and effort though.....but that is half the fun with grey bikes!
Click to expand...

So how much did the NSR250 SP grade 4 cost you importing it privately? Don't forget you were all doing it for free, NUAK has a business to run, so you have to expect to pay more, right? I've done calculation myself and to bring it in privately was so much hassle that I immediately stopped looking into it (too loose more time on my side), and I work for a shipping company, so transportation, warehousing and brokerage is not exactly a black art for me.

People cannot have it both ways, high grade and low prices ... LOL I've bought a couple of 3s (I assume it was a 3) from him and got more less what I expected. BTW, the grading is not a fool proof as you probably know.
 
mxs said:
What do you me an by a wicked deal?
Click to expand...

Like, if someone offered me one for sub-2000 bucks.

Kind of a moot point anyway since i just put a deposit on a CB360 tonight anyway, so unless i get a bonus at work or something I wont be buying any more bikes for a while... probably :)
 
wardlaw said:
I ended up importing one myself. Saved a few bucks and got exactly what I was after!
Took lots of time and effort though.....but that is half the fun with grey bikes!
Click to expand...

I'd be interested on how you imported and registered it. Is it an mc18/ 21/ or 28 sp?
I have a couple of beat up project mc18s that I need to register and rebuild.
 
mxs said:
Deals like that don't come up often, but they certainly do if you shop at the right time of the season ...
Click to expand...

Yep, which is why I went with my more affordable dream, old honda that was actually sold over here :) Overall i probably will enjoy the cb360 more than i would have enjoyed a grey market cbr250... Im not a sports bike guy really, it would have just been a different style for me. I could see myself riding it for one season and then getting rid of it because its lost its appeal (to me).
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom