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Hey all,
Sorry for the length. Yesterday I went to look at a bike for sale and with the info I have I would like to get some advice. First of all The guy told me it was a '81 GS550. After looking at the tag I noticed that it was actually a '77. I think that was a honest mistake since he seemed pretty surprised. He even told me to look at the tag on the neck. I don't think he was trying to pull one over on me. Looked clean and I didn't notice any rust. He did some work to it about 3 years ago. New paint(flames...yuck). New tires. New bearings and seals on the front. New mufflers. New battery last year. Has a plastic windscreen. Has plastic luggage box behind the tail(large enough for a helmet). Looks nice. He has had it for six years and did this stuff 3 years ago.
Now for some stuff I am not crazy about. The engine looked a little wet near where the tach cable comes out of the engine. He said that it used to leak oil there. Looks like it still may leak a little. Around the time of the leak he said he had the instrument cluster off and when he turned the cluster over some oil came out of it. He attributed it to the leak mentioned above. Ever since then the speedo bounces around when you get over 30mph. The carbs have never been taken off in the six years he owned it. For winter starage he would put stabilizer in the tank. In the spring he would put some STP carb cleaner in the tank and thats how he cleaned the carbs. I was kinda wishing he would have emptied the carbs before parking it for the winter. It's a little cold blooded. He starrted it and it had to have about full choke for a few minutes before it would run steady. He said he was not patient so instead of letting it warm up on it's own he would rap it out and hold the throttle so the the revs were higher and it would warm up faster. He also thought that maybe it ran a little rich. Didn't get a test drive because it was pouring rain. When I asked if it shifted good he said yes, but sometimes it would go into the wrong gear since they are so close or something like that. I think he mentioned 5th and 6th specifically.
He was asking for $1,500 obo. I was thinking that was a little high since I would want a new instrument cluster, try to fix the leak and get the carbs cleaned out. What do you guys think? Thanks.
Sorry for the length. Yesterday I went to look at a bike for sale and with the info I have I would like to get some advice. First of all The guy told me it was a '81 GS550. After looking at the tag I noticed that it was actually a '77. I think that was a honest mistake since he seemed pretty surprised. He even told me to look at the tag on the neck. I don't think he was trying to pull one over on me. Looked clean and I didn't notice any rust. He did some work to it about 3 years ago. New paint(flames...yuck). New tires. New bearings and seals on the front. New mufflers. New battery last year. Has a plastic windscreen. Has plastic luggage box behind the tail(large enough for a helmet). Looks nice. He has had it for six years and did this stuff 3 years ago.
Now for some stuff I am not crazy about. The engine looked a little wet near where the tach cable comes out of the engine. He said that it used to leak oil there. Looks like it still may leak a little. Around the time of the leak he said he had the instrument cluster off and when he turned the cluster over some oil came out of it. He attributed it to the leak mentioned above. Ever since then the speedo bounces around when you get over 30mph. The carbs have never been taken off in the six years he owned it. For winter starage he would put stabilizer in the tank. In the spring he would put some STP carb cleaner in the tank and thats how he cleaned the carbs. I was kinda wishing he would have emptied the carbs before parking it for the winter. It's a little cold blooded. He starrted it and it had to have about full choke for a few minutes before it would run steady. He said he was not patient so instead of letting it warm up on it's own he would rap it out and hold the throttle so the the revs were higher and it would warm up faster. He also thought that maybe it ran a little rich. Didn't get a test drive because it was pouring rain. When I asked if it shifted good he said yes, but sometimes it would go into the wrong gear since they are so close or something like that. I think he mentioned 5th and 6th specifically.
He was asking for $1,500 obo. I was thinking that was a little high since I would want a new instrument cluster, try to fix the leak and get the carbs cleaned out. What do you guys think? Thanks.
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