I see a good deal, but will he?

I'm trying to convince my friend to get this as his first bike. 12K $700obo $500 would be my offer it needs tires, battery, carbs cleaned & synced valve adj. drive chain & sprockets and the brake system gone through. I've been looking for a winter project and here it is.

 

Good deal for $700. Even better deal for $500.

 

If it runs and has good compression, it's worth it. I paid $800 for my '81 in similar condition, 18K miles, although it was running.

Looks like a nice bike that needs rescuing. Potential to be a jewel.

Be sure to get the fairing if the seller still has it; even if you don't put it back on, it's worth some cash.

 

the bike has that 70's look. not too many people want a 70's looking bike.

good looker though.

 

More '80s than '70s.

But you're right, nobody at all other than maybe the 8753 other members of this forum who OWN them...

 

let's be realistic here. put that bike up for sale and let's see who wants it.

that may be an 80's bike. but that seat is so 70ish.

it took me 2 MONTHS before a second buyer came along and took my 81 away.
that bike was clean. had all it's parts. needed NO work. and was priced cheap.

8753 still own that bike becuase it was mass produced in great quantities. more then any other model of that era. and is still around to be had.

that bike was mass produced becuase yamaha wanted to increase sales and compete with honda. it was cheap for yamaha to build and could be priced reasonable for the consumer. but the economy ended up in a slump and no one was buying bikes in the early 80's and that lead to mass inventory buildup and reduced prices.

wonder how many people would own it if this forum didn't exist. and the members weren't known. and the bike wasn't produced so heavily.

 

You missed my point.

My point is that XJBikes is made up of people who "want" '70s-'80s bikes, we own and ride them (well most of us anyway.)

"Who wants a '70s looking bike?" Pretty much everyone on this site. That's why we're here.

 

i didn't say NO one wanted one. i just said not too many people. LOL.

 

That bike is easily worth $700 from the pics.

You know, the seat strap was required by law in some countries - - for the passenger to hang on to !!!

 

Kinda like an O'S**t handle.

 

Really? WOW.

I think they look ugly, but I never had a bike from that era. Though my wife might appreciate it :twisted:

 

always wondered what the strap was for.

guess it's better then actually hanging on to the driver. which would make more sense then to use a strap.

quite frankly, i prefered the girls hanging on. as they have a tendency to rock back and forth a little when shifting gears. and we all know how the top portion of a gal is shaped. hehehehehe.

as for the guys. they can just hold the strap.

 

I'm a lanky MoFo, so the first thing I've done to every street bike I've owned (and all of my street bikes have come with them) was to amputate the silly strap.

I always end up sitting directly on it.

 

"Who wants a '70s looking bike?" Pretty much everyone on this site. That's why we're here.[/quote]

Who wants a 70s bike well I do. I like the style of the 70s bikes and the ease
of maintaining them. My TX500 Yamaha has points and carburetors. If something goes wrong I can fix it myself. I was looking to buy a Honda 750
four when the XJ650 came up for sale. I did not want to buy it because it had
electronic ignition but I liked the shaft drive and so I bought it. I have also
bought 3 spare TCI units off ebay just in case this part fails. I can fix every
thing else in my home work shop. If I can not fix it I wont buy it and this goes
for cars as well and so I have an old car as well as my old bikes. 1980 is as
modern as I will go.