New to me motorcycle

As a matter of habit I often surf the internet and especially look at Craigslist for the odd good deal on motorcycles that people want to get oout of their way. One of my hopes, dreams and hobbys is to find and recondition old Japanese motorcycles from the 80's & 90's and after fixing them up, riding them a while , then sell them to finaince my next purchase.

This has ben kinda a "some day" proposition for me for the past few years as money an dtime are always a limiting factor, but this past fall I decided to do something about it and took on a part time job. The job working at a hardware and appliance store pays near minimum wage, but all the wages go directly into my special motorcycle account to help save money for my 'hobby'.

Over the past months I have followed up on a few different UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) that caught my eye.  I even wnet to look at one first hand, and regret that I missed out on a 1984 Goldwing GL1200 Standard in mid summer, however when I found recently on line an advertisement for a Suzuki GS650L in great condition it caught my eye.

I called and spoke to the owner and found he is the second owner of this 1983 motorcycle, He bought it from someone who never rode it and it sat in a garage for years until in 2010 he sold it to his brother. The brother managed to get it running, but not well due to it haveing been in storage and I presume it haas gummed up carbs, but he did ride it a bit and put on some miles over time.

Eventually the brother put the bike back into the rented storage garage wheree I found it, and it sat there for the best part of the past 24 months.

Here is the cool part....759 original miles...!

Yep - all that time the owners who had this bike rarely rode it anywhere...

After some initial bantering on the phone about the price that was listed at $1125 asking price the owner and I decided we were just too far apart with me at about $500 and he at $1000. I said I would sleep on it, and if he reconsidered my offer he should call me. At that point I had no real interest in the bike except to try to buy it right and sell it off ASAP to make some money. But over the weekend I was the one reconsidering and called him back on Monday.


I told him perhaps I should at least come to look at the bike so we made an appointment to meet. We met at the local McDonalds and I followed him to his rented storage facility and was surprised when he opened the door and saw this...

Super clean and complete with all the parts including an extra set of keys and a new side cover for the one with broken tab (battery side). The haggling began in earnest at this point and we finally decided on $800 purchase price, which the experts online saw is a great buy; and the deal was done.

 

 

 

Now this bike sits in my garage, waiting for me to get it running and riding again once spring arrives.