Good Deal on an 81 Seca?

A friend of mine is selling his 81 Seca 650 for 1500$. He just had the valves done and the carbs synced. Guy charged him $600 which seems kind of high to me but oh well.

It has a 4 into 1 header and pod filters but was never jetted. When the mechanic took off the valve cover it was warped and he had to shave it. I suspect it waped from the heat generated by running lean due to the addition of the stage 1 filters and exhaust without ever jetting the carbs.

The seat for the tach cable is leaking oil.

The comes with a spare engine and various other spare parts. I already have the newly acquired 80 XJ650G Maxim and the spare engine would be good for either bike I suppose...

Any thoughts on whether this is an ok price? I have no idea how well these engines hold up to running lean like it has for who knows how long. When I was a kid I ran my XS850 Special (a tripple) with pods but never upgraded the exhause and it ran fine. Would have lasted forever I think if I had not cracked the frame jumping the tracks and the occassional car on the thing (*not* with the baby ape hangers it came with on it - I had turned it into a cafe racer style bike).

I'm not real familiar with what's considered a decent deal on the old bikes these days.

I think it had aound 20k or so on it the last time I saw it.

 

Wow! $1,500??? If it were plated in gold maybe. For all the money your buddy dumped into it, he'll be hard pressed to get it back out (which is what I suspect he is trying to do). $1 a cc is the typical rate for older bikes to start out with (rough rule of thumb) with value added or subtracted for improvements/accessories or damage. From the sounds of it, you may want to pass this one by. If he ran it lean, good chance the engine isn't in top condition. Added parts are great if they are of use/value. A compression test would be manditory on both engines if I was to even consider the purchase.

 

Yea he paid 900 and put 600 into so he's trying to get his money back out of it. He was pissed about the leaky tach cable seat so he went and dropped 3500$ on an early 2000's ninja.

I thought it was a bit high, even with the recent maintenance. Especially since I would have done that work myself if it was my bike.

Back in the day I never paid more than maybe 3-4 hundred for an old running bike but back then you could work in a kitchen and have an apartent, a few bikes, and money to spare. Ahh the good old days.

Now, thanks largely to eBay, anything more than 10 years old is 'vintage' and 80-90% of folks think it is *made* out of gold - not just plated with it. lol

 

I bought this project bike and now I'm jonesing to ave a daily rider while I work on the one I got.

I'm thinking of trading my big PA for one if you know anyone in my area that has an extra bike and needs a 24 channel board/100' snake, Peavey power amp and massive Peavey SP4G speakers.

I may post that to the sale/trade board later on. There must be a musician on here that needs a PA and has an extra scooter....