my craigslist add '85 VF500F

Don't short change yourself.

From the work you did on the Vf500f I'd say you could find a bike that did not run and size it up pretty well. You are so motivated and energetic that you would have it rolling in a matter of week if not days. You want a bike that somebody couldn't afford to fix and had no aptitude for fixing themselves, so they let it sit for months or years. Now it's so far gone that the wife or mother just want it out of sight, "anywhere but there". Pick it up for $200 or less. Its been sitting for so long that they really are crazy to think its worth anything in the first place and in the second place they have forgotten that they cared long ago. The cost of rebuilding the carbs is the same for both a bike that runs bad and a bike that does not run. $200 is actually high. If it does not run it is basically junk. Thats the price you need to need to get it for. So little that you could throw most of it away and not be out anything.

I presently own a V45 that I picked up for $200. Its the one with the tank rust problem. The purple tank in the pics is the tank off it. It was some guys baby until it got parked 13 years ago. The other diamond in the rough is a Sabre 750 with full honda line fairing. It was all there. Low compression but it was some ones beloved bike. It came with a factory manual. the chapters were tabbed by hand with masking tape and the guy who owned it had kept and hand made notes in it. The story goes that he died and his neerdowell son ran it into the ground. I got it for $175. I expect it to be a primo road bike next summer. You have the knowledge to find a good prospect bike to repair and made a profit on, or at least get it so cheap that you hae almost no investment in a reliable piece of transportation.

Why bother staring down an hole who has to earn a buck off every stranger that passes him by. It's a waste of all that hussle and pent up energy you have inside you. Don't go picking fights with used car salesmen, they have a mentality you can't begin to fathom. Stick to jumping all over the machinery the way you do. Some day you won't have it in you anymore. Do you want to have wasted it on arguing price with a turd in a sports jacket parked in a 4 by 5 trailer office. Skip it. There's another better deal waiting around the corner for you. Go look for it. Take your compression guage and a charged battery with you. You'll find a bike that has zero compression and only needs a valve adjustment or a cam swap like the one you performed on the Vf500f. You can get it for nothing. They'll pay you to haul it away. That used car salesman will be coming to you begging you to sell him
resurrected cycles if you show him what you can do. You need to realize that he works for you. Salesmen are dime a dozen. Mechanics who can really wail are pure gold. He works for you. You need him as a front man while you burn your way through whatever it is that possesses you to rebuild motorcycles and any other damn thing you have the curiosity to take apart and put back together.

And since you are in a college town, I want you to get your hands on a copy of a book titled SHOP CLASS AS SOUL CRAFT. (Borders, B. Daltons, Amazon, etc.) If I have you pegged right its a book about you.

But you did not tell us how the Interceptor ran after the cam and the follower were replaced. You did rub my nose in how good the gas mileage was. :biggrin:

DKC

 

Can't you guess who?

Its the used car (bike)sales man. You are his competiton man. You found him on Craigs list, don't you think he would find you? He'll shut you down every time. How many suckers with $1200 are there out there for him to fleece. He wants no completition from you. Your gonna take his mark away from him if you show a better running, better gas mileage, sexy racer type bike against his "old lady" cruiser that doesn't idle. He wants you out of his forest, Robin Hood. He sees you as a poacher. You are going to take the bread out of his mouth if anyone sees what you have to offer.

That's why you need to raise your price. From what I have seen in the pictures that you send on the other thread the bike looks decent. It could be worse. I dont see the tires or know if they have tread. But if you had been where I was today you could have put an almost new tire on the back for $25 mounted.

He's content to take $900 to get rid of the lemon. You have the better deal and your price is too close to his. Raise your price. He'll get what he wants, a sale and you will get what you need, a profit so you can quit it with the lame excuses and have enough to buy 2 replacement bikes. The one that runs when you buy it, and the one you buy for the extra $250 you get by raising the price on the Vf 500 f, that won't run when you buy (tell them you want it for parts) it for a song.

The Vf 500f is worth $1600+ with the cam repairs you put into it. Think what it would cost the college guy you are going to sell it to to have it fixed. It would have been $500 or more in a motorcycle shop. It cost you $40 and alot of sweat equity. It might have been more at a shop becase its "an old bike" which is the reason a shop gives when they are going to rob you. If you feel responsible tell the guy who's looking that if it breaks in say the first 3 months you'll repair it for free. My own son bought a damaged 84 Vf 500f for $1500 that's been sitting in my garage since last year. He rides a Kawasaki 250 Ninja now. Your deal is much better than what my son got for $1500. Don't sell yourself cheap. And stop with the lame excuses that you can't afford a second project bike. You really can't afford not to have a second project bike. Find a basket case Interceptor for $100. You have the Vf500 down pretty well. You can figure out how to get it running fast. then you can work at getting the "Old Lady" Bike while you ride the 500. Remember that you can get a Vf 500C Magna with the exact same engine and carbs for cheap too. You can fix either of them with little or no waiting.

 

Can't you guess who?

Its the used car (bike)sales man. You are his competiton man. You found him on Craigs list, don't you think he would find you? He'll shut you down every time. How many suckers with $1200 are there out there for him to fleece? He wants no completition from you. You'er gonna take his mark away from him if you show a better running, better gas mileage, sexy racer type bike against his "old lady" cruiser that doesn't idle. He wants you out of his forest, Robin Hood. He sees you as a poacher. You are going to take the bread out of his mouth if anyone sees what you have to offer.

That's why you need to raise your price. From what I have seen in the pictures that you send on the other thread the bike looks decent. It could be worse. I dont see the tires or know if they have tread. But if you had been where I was today you could have put an almost new tire on the back for $25 mounted.

He's content to take $900 to get rid of the lemon. You have the better deal and your price is too close to his. Raise your price. He'll get what he wants, a sale and you will get what you need, a profit so you can quit it with the lame excuses and have enough to buy 2 replacement bikes. The one that runs when you buy it, and the one you buy for the extra $250 you get by raising the price on the Vf 500 f, that won't run when you buy (tell them you want it for parts) it for a song.

The Vf 500f is worth $1600+ with the cam repairs you put into it. Think what it would cost the college guy you are going to sell it to to have it fixed. It would have been $500 or more in a motorcycle shop. It might have been more. If you feel responsible tell the guy whos looking that if it breaks in say the first 3 months you'll repair it for free. My own son bought a damaged 84 Vf 500f for $1500 that's been sitting in my garage since last year. He rides a Kawasaki 250 Ninja now. Your deal is much better than what my son got for $1500. Don't sell yourself cheap. And stop with the lame excuses that you can't afford a second project bike. You really can't afford not to have a second project bike. Find a basket case Interceptor for $100. You have the Vf500 down pretty well. You can figure out how to get it running fast. then you can work at getting the "Old Lady" Bike while you ride the 500. Remember that you can get a Vf 500C Magna with the exact same engine and carbs for cheap too. You can fix either of them with little or no waiting.

 

Sounds like you are broke.

Hey, you need to use your brain and get the tires for almost free. You search Craigs list. Keep searching and eventually you will find a basket case bike in a cardboard box or sitting in garage covered in dust and the debris of living in America and it will have a set of tires on it or laying in the pile, and you can put them on the 500 and get the project bike for the same dime. Hopefully it will be a Vf 500 (F or C). But as long as the tires fit the rims of the 500 you should consider buying the whole junk pile and paying what you might have paid for the tires alone at the salvage yard. I know that Ft. Collins is not a big, big city with a lot of opportunities to find parts and deals like LA or Chicago, Houston or Phoenix. But that's where you live. So for the cost of the used tires you get a project bike and a way to get around without the danger of riding on your rims.

You are not looking for tires, you are looking for a project that happens to have tires on the side. You're a poor boy just trying to make a living and you would appreciate it if they would sell you what they have no use for, and have not used for many years, for the handsome amount of $50 or if they want to be really kind they could give it to you for free. They need to think of you as their personal garage cleaner or backyard clean up guy. Then you have a streetable bike and a winter project to tide you over. And try to hold on to the Vf 500 you have running until Spring when you can get $2000 for it as a turn key windy road sex machine that needs nothing but paperwork for the buyer to hit the saddle and ride.

Meanwhile, you have a second ride in the garage and waiting for just a fraction of the money from the sale to buy the last parts necessary to get it on the road. The rest of the proceeds can be invested on your "old lady" ride with the fairing.