WTF ?! CRAZY carb prices lately...

Although I'm not looking to buy, has anyone else noticed full carb racks LISTING for $100-300 on ebay lately? (I'm talking dirty need to be rebuilt)!

Seasonal demand?

Greedy salvage yards? The same ones that think EVERY HD and goldwing parts are worth their dirty rusty weigh in gold?

Maybe I should sell a spare for $300

 

I was under the impression $100 - $125 was normal for a good used rack.

 

Carbs are the #1 seller for any bikes due to the absolutely horse cr@p gas we are forced to buy these days. As time goes on we will need to come up with a reasonable price fuel injection set up for our bikes. I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting tired of pulling the carbs off every year to clean gas film off on the insides of the bottom ends of these carbs. I forget to drain the float bowls and a few months go by and you know the rest.

MN

 

I know this sounds (Well, IS) expensive, but I know a guy that only runs leaded gas from our marinas in town. The ethanol free gas is supposed to help, I am interested in how much it makes a difference. Is the ethanol that bad?

 

I guess I got REALLY GOOD DEALS twice then. :wink: :mrgreen:

 

Have on good authority from a mech engineer who specializes in fluid mechanics, that ethanol is ruining far more than our carbs. He says: when combined with gas, high temp, & pressure it combines to form complex hydrocarbon chain polymers (like plastic) that coat the engine. I asked him wouldn't it just burn off in combustion? He said yes but not completely and not where it doesn't get hot enough. Like carbs and any other parts not subject to the most extreme heat/pressure. He believes it's a conspiracy to get us all to buy new vehicles sooner and parts more often. Hmmm....

I only use non-ethanol gas in my bike. You can find it. There are also additives that will counter-act, but safer just not to use it.

 

I don't know if you all saw the beautifully clean rack for sale on Ebay for the "buy it now price" of $150... I snapped them up!!! HEHEHEHE With Ebay I guess it's being at the right place at the right time. Any way the carbs on my Maxim showed signs that water may be in them, so I decided to just have this set handy just in case I find a disasterous situation when finally get to work on my XJ.

 

I've acquired two spare racks of Mikunis for my 550s; one "for parts" and one that is very rebuildable. The "parts" rack was around $20; I paid under $50 for the better one, shipped. Both from eBay.

 

I try to only burn fuel from my local marina. It is the standard unleaded fuel that you could get a few years ago, and does not contain any ethanol.
You can go to www.pure-gas.org and type in your zip code to find local stations. My local marina says they have people who come great distances to buy fuel from them.
I was running my bike back and forth into Washington DC so I had to fuel up for about a month with the ethanol fuel. I went riding this weekend and filled up with the non-ethanol fuel and I could tell the difference immediately. However, if your machine is not finely tuned you may not notice any difference.
I keep several 5 gallon cans of fuel in my garage for use in my boat, motorcycle, generator, and lawnmowers. Yes it costs more, but I don't spend my weekends rebuilding carburators either, and it stores better with stabil. I am convinced its a scam to do away with anything that has a carburator, and now they are pushing to get the ethanol percentage increased to 15%. This will only make things worse.

 

You know, I noticed a similar thing with forks for my 750 Seca. In 2010, I got a used set of forks off ebay. The ones that came with the bike had pitting over where the seal traveled. I lowballed an offer on one set, then bid on another set. First guy actually took my offer and I had to kindly ask to retract my bid on the second guy (I would have gotten two sets if he'd said no, I wasn't going to be a jerk). Under $10 + less than $20 shipping and I had a good set of forks and used the inner tubes.

I low sided the seca this May and thought I bent the forks. Head to ebay expecting to get another set for $30. NOTHING under $80 + shipping, many over $100 +. Not for rebuilt racings super-style fancy forks, just 30 y/o ones judiciously yanked off of parts bikes, in need of full rebuild and everything. Worst part is, there weren't that many to choose from.

Luckily, the forks weren't bent, they just twisted in the top tree and looked that way. I think there might be some auto pricing programs out there driving the price up? Or maybe our bikes are finally getting their proverbial day in the sun?