Astrolite
XS650 Member
I know this is a difficult question to answer with the small amount of information I'm about to provide but I value the opinions of the experienced XS650 buffs here and am just looking for a general idea. This would be my first XS650 purchase since 1972! My original goal was to buy a bike that could be restored back to stock condition.
The bike is pictured below. It starts on first kick and runs and accelerates smoothly. It does have a title. The owner is a used/classic, car/motorcycle dealer with a passion for Yamahas. He has several Yamaha builds in his shop right now along with a frame off restoration of a 1965 GTO. He says he rebuilt the carbs and synchronized them and replaced the points with an electronic ignition. As you can see it is missing a few parts, has some incorrect parts, needs some parts replaced and has had a paint job. There are things that I would still want to check, of course, like compression, whether it is charging, that it drives and shifts properly, etc.
Lets assume, for this exercise, that the bike checks out to be in reasonable mechanical condition. He says his bottom line is $1800 and I'm feeling that maybe that is at the high end of the price range for what I'd be getting. I'm not planning on flipping it, so I don't need to make any money on the deal, but I don't want to feel like I'm being taken either. So what is your opinion?
The bike is pictured below. It starts on first kick and runs and accelerates smoothly. It does have a title. The owner is a used/classic, car/motorcycle dealer with a passion for Yamahas. He has several Yamaha builds in his shop right now along with a frame off restoration of a 1965 GTO. He says he rebuilt the carbs and synchronized them and replaced the points with an electronic ignition. As you can see it is missing a few parts, has some incorrect parts, needs some parts replaced and has had a paint job. There are things that I would still want to check, of course, like compression, whether it is charging, that it drives and shifts properly, etc.
Lets assume, for this exercise, that the bike checks out to be in reasonable mechanical condition. He says his bottom line is $1800 and I'm feeling that maybe that is at the high end of the price range for what I'd be getting. I'm not planning on flipping it, so I don't need to make any money on the deal, but I don't want to feel like I'm being taken either. So what is your opinion?