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Don't need no stinkin maintenance

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Lich
  • Start date Start date
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Gary Lich

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I was heading out for a little ride Friday night and got two blocks from my house when I saw a guy parked on the side of the road on a 1980 GS850L . I pulled up alongside and asked if there was problem. He said the bike just died. It wouldn't turnover so I suggested we push it back to my house to check it out. The bike looked pretty rough but it just needed to have the rust cleaned off the battery terminals and a charge to get it to fire right up and it ran pretty smooth. (I checked the charging system and it was OK) I asked him how old the battery was and he said he thought he might have put a new one in 7 or 8 years ago but wasn't sure 8O. He was looking at my bikes in the garage and said "they look pretty nice when you keep em out of the weather". He proceeded to tell me he bought his GS new new in 86, (it now had 55K on it) and "it hadn't needed ANYTHING done to it (except for some tires)" 8O . I could resist asking him a few more questions: Like had he ever adjusted the valves ? He said "Nope, it was starting to make some noise a while back so I added some synthetic oil to it and it quieted right down". He told me he was "building a Harley but didn't have it done yet". I said "I hope you have as good as luck with it as you have had with your GS". He said "yeah, it's been a pretty good bike", thanked me for all the help and headed down the road. As he drove off I noticed that it did need some additional maintenance (the tail light wasn't working) :roll:
 
How did he buy a new '80 in '86? Still these are remarkable bikes, they DO need very little. Still, ya gotta be watchful. Bulbs burn out, oil gets used, etc. He'll wake up when he gets that Harley going... or when he gets rear ended... :(
 
Want to take a bet he probably has never changed the oil or oil filter, just added oil all these years. LOL

Earl
 
Hotblack said:
How did he buy a new '80 in '86? quote]

Back in the early 80's the Japanese flooded the market with bikes and lots of new ones went unsold for years. I knew several people who bought brand new bikes that were three or four years old at fire sale prices.
Click to expand...
 
Gary Lich said:
Hotblack said:
How did he buy a new '80 in '86? quote]

Back in the early 80's the Japanese flooded the market with bikes and lots of new ones went unsold for years. I knew several people who bought brand new bikes that were three or four years old at fire sale prices.
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty cool! Too bad the surplus didn't last until now though, whouldn't that be cool?
Click to expand...
 
Hotblack said:
Gary Lich said:
Hotblack said:
How did he buy a new '80 in '86? quote]

Back in the early 80's the Japanese flooded the market with bikes and lots of new ones went unsold for years. I knew several people who bought brand new bikes that were three or four years old at fire sale prices.
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty cool! Too bad the surplus didn't last until now though, whouldn't that be cool?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

The Turbo I am currently getting was bought as a leftover when I bought my first one new. But only one year. However, I am told that they are still available as we speak in warehouses in Japan as well as several other less popular bikes that never completely sold. The issue is that there is some goofy tariff laws or something the one dealer here was telling me that prevent them from being allowed to bring them over. The only way to get one would be to have someone who lives there buy it and then ship it here. I would do it in a heartbeat if I knew someone who could help me.

Can you imagine getting a brand new crated 82 model bike?
 
That's interesting. The US did impose a tariff on Japanese bikes in the early eighties after Harley Davidson went whining to the FTC that they were going to be put out of business because they couldn't compete. Instead of making their bikes better they got a tariff put on the Japanese bikes. I wanna say that was around 82. I bought a GS650E in 81 and I don't think the the tariff was in effect then.

I don't know if the tariff is still in effect or not. Maybe if you bring an 82 over, you would have to pay the tariff that was in effect in 82.??

If anyone has any more info about old bikes being in storage in Japan I would be interested in hearing them (where are they?). Just so happens I have some Japanese friends who go back to Japan from time to time. As a matter of fact they just got back from being there for a month, last week.
 
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