Well, I decided to give away a 1980 GS850G that I paid $600 for in nearly turn key condition back in about 2006. It hadn't been registered in two years, and it hadn't been run in three years, when it was last put to loaner use. It had been sitting in my shed since 2011, kind of in the way. The battery still had enough juice to light up the dash, but not enough to run it. Hung it on a battery tender over night and it started right up. It was pretty grody looking. The tires are 2009, and in way better shape then I remembered. I spent four hours cleaning and primping it, and it looked damned good. I threw a set of Samsonite bags on it, and installed a Hondaline trunk off of a Silver Wing, that was on it when I bought it.
This bike has some 45000 miles on it, about 15000 of those while I owned it. It is the smoothest running and slickest shifting GS850 I have owned. I swear, the trans isn't fully broken in until 30000 miles on these beasts. It can use a rebuild on the tach drive. It has a decent leak there, and I definitely reused the valve cover gasket one or two many dimes past its ideal useful life, but it is a solid well used reasonably well cared for ready to ride bike. I put a nice used stock exhaust system on it purchased off this list in 2011, after the old one showed some rust throughs.
I gave it to one of my cool brothers in law. He and my sister are not super prosperous right now, and are fighting a lot of student debt from their daughter. I would drive it anywhere, right now. It is the first one that I modified the charging system on, and I do it a bit differently now, but it still charges fine.
I enjoyed giving it away to someone who will use and appreciate it far more than I would have enjoyed waiting for a$$ holes to come over to try to get me down to $500 for it. My sister is thrilled, they have been wanting to ride for years, and its a turn key tourer.
This bike has some 45000 miles on it, about 15000 of those while I owned it. It is the smoothest running and slickest shifting GS850 I have owned. I swear, the trans isn't fully broken in until 30000 miles on these beasts. It can use a rebuild on the tach drive. It has a decent leak there, and I definitely reused the valve cover gasket one or two many dimes past its ideal useful life, but it is a solid well used reasonably well cared for ready to ride bike. I put a nice used stock exhaust system on it purchased off this list in 2011, after the old one showed some rust throughs.
I gave it to one of my cool brothers in law. He and my sister are not super prosperous right now, and are fighting a lot of student debt from their daughter. I would drive it anywhere, right now. It is the first one that I modified the charging system on, and I do it a bit differently now, but it still charges fine.
I enjoyed giving it away to someone who will use and appreciate it far more than I would have enjoyed waiting for a$$ holes to come over to try to get me down to $500 for it. My sister is thrilled, they have been wanting to ride for years, and its a turn key tourer.
