What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

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low-side
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Location: Canton, Ohio

What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

#1

Post by low-side »

So I recently was looking for luggage for my '78 and was turned onto a bike that had the luggage I wanted on it. It is a complete '78 with Vetter fairing and matching bags and trunk. It is also without a title and locked up. About a decade ago the original owner took the shelter and air box off to replace a coil and never put it back together. A few years back, the owner moved and gave the bike, sans title, to his son. Son didn't want to bother with the title transfer for the small amount of money the bike is worth (it didn't fair well in a dirt floor barn with the tops of the carbs open). All the painted surfaces look great, all the bare metal is heavily corroded. Engine will only rotate about 15 degrees. Exhaust is completely rotted out. Does anyone else feel a little sad when you see this stuff? It will be an organ donor to keep many other bikes going, but I just can't imagine the mindset that lets someone watch a perfectly good motorcycle turn into a pile of junk in front of their eyes.
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chewy999
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Re: What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

#2

Post by chewy999 »

low-side wrote:I just can't imagine the mindset that lets someone watch a perfectly good motorcycle turn into a pile of junk in front of their eyes.
I agree, it's like the saying 'One man's junk is another man's gold'.
But if you have no interest in an item, whatever it may be, then surely it's best to sell it on while it has some value.

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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
1986 CBX550 Good commuter
1989 Suzuki GS750 (1976) cheap and cheerful until a dog ran out in front of me on Xmas Eve, 1991
Current bikes
2010 CB1300 back on a bike after 19 years, two divorces, children grown up etc
1980 GL1100 NOW ON THE ROAD, still use CB1300.
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Sidecar Bob
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Re: What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

#3

Post by Sidecar Bob »

In '83 by someone that was into 'Wings enough to join the Canadian Gold Wing Owners Assoc bought a brand new GL1100I but an accident at work a couple of years later put an end to his biking career forever.

Now, if you had a 2 or 3 year old 'Wing and you couldn't ride any more wouldn't you sell it? And if you were keeping it for sentimental reasons wouldn't you look after it? Not this guy. He kept it in his garage for 4 years but then he rolled it outside while he had a concrete garage floor done and left it outside next to the cedar hedge. For 6 years!!! By then the clear coat on the side that was exposed to the sun was blistered over the pinstripes, the windshield had started to de-laminate and the engine was seized. A tree had even grown up between the engine and crashbar.

But 2 more tragedies resulted in a happy ending for that bike:
A furniture maker who lived not too far from me (who had lost most of his equipment in a shop fire a few years previously and had to sell his bikes to keep his business going) saw it sitting there when he was delivering something and asked about it. He took pity on it and went back to rescue it, cutting down the tree before he could move it. But with a business to run and a young family, getting it running was more than he had time & resources for at the time. My GL1000 had been written off in my 1 and only traffic accident at about that time, a mutual acquaintance put us in touch and I ended up putting the engine from my wreck into it (which I just replaced with an 1100 engine after 21 years).

BTW: The original engine went to the friend who brought my wreck and the '83 to my place and he rebuilt it for someone else that needed an engine for their 1100 so event that part of the story ended well.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
low-side
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Re: What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

#4

Post by low-side »

That's cool that you were able to save it Bob. I'm glad it turned out well in that case. In another state I might try to get a bonded title and unsieze the engine, but Ohio has no process for titling a machine for which the title is missing. I got my daily rider last year from a guy who bought 2 of them 20 years prior. The one I ride was a '78 that he parked 10 years prior because of charging system issues; the other was a lower mileage '79 that he laid down hard and parked outside under a tarp for 2 years. I ended up fixing the '78 due to the corrosion issues on the '79. I was able to save 1 of them. The other is a titled frame I'm saving for a special project or I get enough good condition running gear to assemble it. I'm glad some of us are out there that see the value in a machine, to fix rather than to discard and replace.
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Sidecar Bob
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Re: What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

#5

Post by Sidecar Bob »

I forgot to mention: Mine had less than 25,000 Km (15,500 Mi) when I got it.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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OCR
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Re: What a Shame - 18K Miles and Junk

#6

Post by OCR »

Similar to the story behind my two, Guy I got them from parked them because he was having difficulty with his legs and couldn't keep them upright very well when stopped.
Sat in his yard for 15+ years.
The exhaust on the 76 LTD is rotted away because it sat on dirt and in a grove of japanese bamboo most of that time.
The 77 was on hard ground near the road so it mainly suffered from sun damage.
79 CX500custom
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