Bad influence on my kids

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JSBail
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Bad influence on my kids

#1

Post by JSBail »

Anyone who knows me well knows I have a passion for 70's vintage Japanes bikes and the worse shape they're in the better, I'll get them running and looking like new again while spending more than they're worth in the process. You would think my boys would learn from their dad's poor spending habits but nope that doesn't seem to be the case. Today I helped my youngest son pick up a 75 cb400f, it's got no title, missing its side covers, battery, keys and missing a few other odds and ends, hasn't ran in over 10 years and best of all those famous last words every buyer hears when buying a non running bike and that is "It ran great before I parked it".... yes, that's what the previous owner said as we loaded it up. :roll: It's basically the PERFECT bike that I would buy to throw money at in fact I would've bought it myself except I already have more bikes than I have time to ride as it is. My sons cbr600 is a track only bike so the 400 will be something for him to play with and ride around town and he already has big "cafe bike" plans for it but for now the first order of business is get it running to see how solid the engine is then go from there.
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Scott
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#2

Post by wingrider »

Nice! Still has the original header by the look of it!

Looks like what happens a lot around here...old bike no one cares about ( but should because of how few there are today), toss a knobby on the back and go off road with it. Lose the hard to come by parts along the way, and when they get bored, it sits, then gets sold.

Glad you were part of rescuing it!
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#3

Post by chewy999 »

A classic indeed. I believe David Silver (certainly in the UK) rebuilds these more than any other bike so good place for rare parts.

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Previous Rides,
1980 CB250N Good to learn on
1981 CX500 good mid range tourer, went to Austria on it!
1983 GL1100C Pride and joy, sold when I bought my 1st house, big mistake
1985 GL650 Silverwing another mistake, horrible bike
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#4

Post by JSBail »

The previous owners claims to have had it for 20 years (he's 31 now) but never registered the bike and used it mainly to drive up and down the gravel country roads where he lived as a kid which is why he put a knobby dirt bike rear tire on it but he eventually got busted by the local police for riding it without him or the bike being licensed so he parked it 10 years ago. The odometer says it only has 6,600+ miles on it and so far I'm inclined to believe it because the faces of the gauges are still sharp in color not faded, the inside of the gas tank is almost pristine and aside from years of dust the engine looks clean and seems to have good compression. The bike is missing a few things but for the most part it's actually reasonably complete and many key items that I'm used to seeing missing on a bike like this are still there and intact like the factory air box and the headers are original although the muffler is gone. A friend of mine was the first one to spot it on a local facebook ad then let me know about it and I passed that info to my son, he's been wanting a cb400 or cb450 4cyl to play with but they're very rare around here. About 3 hours after I let my son know about it I get a call from him saying " hey dad, I'll be needing your truck tomorrow ....." The biggest drawback is that it's title has been lost however the last registered owner of the bike is a close friend of the previous owners father and they still keep in touch so hopefully getting a legit title wont be too much of a headache.
Scott
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#5

Post by Whiskerfish »

Never owned one of those but I did ride a couple. Lots of fun!!
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Graham Cracker
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#6

Post by Graham Cracker »

Congrats on a great find and hats off to you and your son for "saving" another classic action1
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

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Post by salukispeed »

Nearly bullet proof so likely a good start.
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#8

Post by Rednaxs60 »

Your kids could have worse habits. Good project for dad and the kids together. With the lack of expertise in the motorcycle industry and want to work on these older bikes, your son could possibly turn his learning experiences on these older bikes into a small business. Look forward to reading about the refurbishment/change.

Cheers
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JSBail
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#9

Post by JSBail »

Rednaxs60 wrote:Your kids could have worse habits. Good project for dad and the kids together. With the lack of expertise in the motorcycle industry and want to work on these older bikes, your son could possibly turn his learning experiences on these older bikes into a small business. Look forward to reading about the refurbishment/change.

Cheers
Many have told me that I myself should start a small business repairing vintage bikes but I get along well with my neighbors and want to keep it that way and can't afford to rent a shop elsewhere. I do work on other peoples bikes from time to time mainly just to help them out but I'm choosy on what bikes I mess with mainly in regards to how loud they are. I once worked on my oldest son's previous 73 cb750 that had a very obnoxious Kerker 4 into 1 exhaust and my neighbors weren't too happy with me when I was rapping it's throttle while I was syncing its carbs. Keeping that in mind I recently worked on a 1200 HD sportster with straight pipes and talked with my neighbors to make sure I fired it up at the most appropriate time so it wouldn't annoy anyone.

As far as my sons 400 hopefully we can at least get it fired up soon to get an idea of it's condition but he needs to get the lost title situation sorted out before putting any money into so it may be a while till any serious work gets done to it.
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#10

Post by Track T 2411 »

Looks like a fun project! Title issues can be a pain, so, yeah, get that sorted out!
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77Gowing
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#11

Post by 77Gowing »

Nice find, good luck with the title work.
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#12

Post by Gowing »

Congratulations, I've always wanted one of those. Cool motor, and smooth too!!
I recommend getting the old owners contact information, and send him a lost title application. Have him sign and get it notorized, if they don't get it done for you, might work i don't know.
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#13

Post by JSBail »

Well my kid is kind of bummed at the moment, he initially thought getting a title for the bike wouldn't be so bad but he found out the last registered owner passed away some time ago so his only option now is to apply for a court order to get a title which is time consuming and once all is said and done end up costing him around $300. Forget the Vermont loophole, it's not accepted anymore at any of our local license branch offices here. Soooooo he's thinking about maybe getting it running then sell it so someone else can deal with the title issue. That $300 would add to what he paid for the bike which makes its value questionable however considering all the "cafe" mods he wanted to do the bike that additional $300 wouldn't be so bad but it's his money he's spending not mine. The situation kind of sucks because unless somebody makes the effort to get a legit title for the bike then chances are it will be used as a parts bike or just plain parted out and forgotten.
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#14

Post by Lucien Harpress »

So.... silly question maybe, but how hard would it be to find a titled frame and just transfer everything over? I have no clue how rare these bike are, and it may be worth seeing if you can get it running before you start looking, but if it turns out it DOES need a little something extra, why not deal with it with all that stuff out of the frame?

I just had to do something similar to my CB750, and honestly it wasn't that bad. Much simpler than a GL1000, at least. Being a similar vintage, I can't imagine it'd be too different.

Now, it IS more work than, say, setting valves or cleaning a carb, but having two frames is a whole lot nicer than stripping a bike and putting it back together. Rather than having to remember where everything goes, just take it off and immediately bolt it on the other frame.

Just spitballing here.
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Re: Bad influence on my kids

#15

Post by robin1731 »

Lucien Harpress wrote:So.... silly question maybe, but how hard would it be to find a titled frame and just transfer everything over? I have no clue how rare these bike are, and it may be worth seeing if you can get it running before you start looking, but if it turns out it DOES need a little something extra, why not deal with it with all that stuff out of the frame?

I just had to do something similar to my CB750, and honestly it wasn't that bad. Much simpler than a GL1000, at least. Being a similar vintage, I can't imagine it'd be too different.

Now, it IS more work than, say, setting valves or cleaning a carb, but having two frames is a whole lot nicer than stripping a bike and putting it back together. Rather than having to remember where everything goes, just take it off and immediately bolt it on the other frame.

Just spitballing here.

I've done the same thing a couple times. The GL in my avatar is one of them. $200 for a frame with good title. Not that bad switching parts around when you consider most of them are coming off for at least a partial restore anyway.

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