This $100 Bike Came Pre-Disassembled For Maximum 3D Puzzle Delight

If someone said they had a bike to sell you for $100, what would your very first thought be? I’d think it was a toy bike of some kind, not a thing that I, an adult, could actually hope to ride. A ride-on toy for a kid, maybe, but that’s about it. Of course, if that same person went on to explain that it’s a full-sized bike, just broken down into all its component parts, it’d be a different matter. 

That’s how YouTuber MotoCycle’s Project Ikea came to be. While the Swedish flat-pack furniture giant sadly does not sell assemble-it-yourself motorcycles, what MC found himself with is apparently a completely disassembled 1982 Yamaha XJ650 Maxim. The seller told him that it should be complete, but when it’s in this many pieces, even the seller might not be sure. It came with both a title and keys, which are promising and miraculous signs! 

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In this first video in the Project Ikea series, MC starts putting the pieces back together. Since it’s a bike he’s never seen before, that’s a challenge right there. A lot of times, when you’re putting a bike back together, it’s one you took apart in the first place. If you were smart, you labeled and/or organized all the bits and bobs in ways that make sense to you, so that you could get them all back where they need to go.  

Luckily, they’ve got a manual to help them figure out where things go. I don’t think anyone is expecting that all the hardware will be intact, and hasn’t gone missing at some point since this bike ended up in pieces. At the end of the first day, MC managed to get the engine bolted back into the frame and the swingarm bolted on. He also diagnosed that he’ll need new brake pads and some bolts before he can get the rear wheel reassembled, and there’s something going on with the triple tree, as well.  

Still, it’s not bad work for the first day, and it’s always satisfying to be able to watch progress unfold in front of you on a project, even if it’s not your own. The seller claimed this bike ran when they took it apart, but MC didn’t mention how long it had been apart, or if he even knew the answer to that question. Will it run once they get it back together? It’s a mystery we’ll all have to subscribe to his channel to find out.  

Source: YouTube