Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I was the one posting about older bikes and working on them. Over the holiday I found two in the local trader that were cheap:

1, 1980 Suzuki GS 750. This bike was taken to a repair shop with a headlight that did not work. Current owner said he bought it from the shop when the owner never came back to pay. Been sitting in garage for 5 years. Said has good tires and chain. Does not start. He said he thought the carborators need to be cleaned out. Seat ripped. Said as far as he knows everything else works. No title but has bill of sale. 150 bucks.

2. 1982 Suzuki GS 750. Also been sitting in owners garage. Has title. Does not start. Says he thinks carbs need cleaned out. Seat a little rough. He said this bike had about 18,000 miles on it. Said it had everything on it. 250.00 bucks. Are these bike's hard to work on? Are they safe? How hard is it to clean out and tune these carbs? I have cleaned and tuned carbs before, but mostly on tillers, lawnmowers, and old tractors. I understand these have multiple carbs since it is a 4 cylinder.

Also, I have redone a few automotive headliners before. Is it possible/hard to recover a motorcyle seat yourself?

Sorry for all the questions.

1) 1980 GS750 no title, seat ripped, dry-rot tires···$50 to $100 parts bike

2) 1982 GS750 has title $250 This bike shows some promise, is it all there? I mean the side covers, the emblems and little stuff like that. Are the turn signals still on it? Does the motor turn over? Can you roll the bike back and forth? If you press down on the gear lever does it 'click' into position? Did the bike stop rolling back and forth? If you pull in the clutch does the bike roll back and forth again? Pull up on the gear lever. Did it shift back into neutral?

These are some of the things I look at when looking at a bike that someone has left in the garage for a few (or more) years.

It won't be any harder to work on that any other.
Bikes are only as safe as their rider.
Carbs have lots of small parts to play with. And little tiny itty-bitty passages to clean out. And there are four of them on that bike.
Tires dry-rot···Buy new ones.

I was going to point out what John said about the tires - the 5 year old tires are not good, no matter how good they look.

I wouldn't be so quick to part out the '80. The deciding factor for me would be how hard it is to get it titled from the bill of sale.

Recovering a motorcycle seat yourself can be done for pretty cheap. I'm looking at doing this myself.

At any rate, I think those are both good prices. See if you can talk them down a little and buy the bikes (make a good deal even better). Do some tinkering and cleaning and see if you can get one or both running. If all else fails, you can part them out, make a little profit and get loads of experience