New to forum and in the xs market, opinions?

stoo

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Hey guys,

I am brand new to the forum as well as new to the xs400. I am in the market for an older cafe style bike and came across one for sale in my area. I figured this would be a great place to get some opinions and insight on the bike I am looking at. Here are the specs that I know of so far (haven't seen the bike yet, looking to in near future however):

'81
8056 miles
kick and electric start
the current owner said it had some electrical issues, which I've briefly read is common with some of these bikes, however they have been resolved and bike runs fine.
asking price is $3k

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Anyone who can offer their 2 cents it would be very helpful and much appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Well this is my opinion-

There is nothing on that bike that makes it anywhere near worth 3k.

If anything, the value of that bike would be lower due to the changes you have to make to get it right.

Bikes are no different than cars. If I take a decent $5000 car and toss a body kit on it and paint it, it's still a 5k car, if not lower due to most buyers not wanting the body kit. If I take an old classic that's beat up and do a restoration to near perfect stock, the value is high. If I piece together a hot rod and put tons of money into performance parts, I can possibly make money on it.

That bike is pretty much the first example from above. All that was done from what I can see, is the flavor of the month hipster tank and seat.

Those tires are junk. In the scene they are known as clown shoes or balloons. They handle like crap and are old tech. The bike won't turn anywhere near as good as it could with proper rubber. So lets add $140 for a decent set of tires, and $50 or so for dismounting and mounting them.

No fenders. Throwing away fenders just for the sake of looks is the dumbest thing ever. Ride it without them and you'll soon see why I say this. It at least needs a plate put on the back to block road crap from constantly flinging against the back side of the motor and carbs. Removing the front fender removes all bracing that the junky stock forks had. So it now has even worse of a front end.

Hard to tell from the pics, but most of the accessories look like the common run of the mill eBay, DCC, Amazon, etc parts. Nothing fancy.

License plate is in the dumbest spot and is illegal in every state that I know of. Looks like it's missing turn signals as well. Might not be a big deal to some, but get pulled over once, and all those infractions will slowly add up if the cop is having a bad day.

All that work put into it, and he couldn't even bother to get proper length cables. chain looks like crap as well as the sprocket. Wiring looks hacked up from what I see and run all weird. The coils in that position is all wrong, too much heat from the headers/motor, and the plug wire looks stressed against the head.

No tach? Have fun with that.

Cheapo Monza/Chinese shocks from he looks of it. Work ok to get the ass end raised up(I had a set) but they fell like they are sprung for a 300lb rider. Kinda feels like riding a hard-tail. For $70 more you can get Hagons.

At least he added rear-sets to compliment the clip-ons. Be warned though, that riding position HURTS LIKE ALL HELL with the bars low and the pegs back that far. Your wrists will be dying after 10 minutes of riding. Once again, something I did and now have changed. You live and learn.

Only thing decent I can see is that it has a Mac 2into1 exhaust. Looks to be the only performance improvement on the bike. And no pipe wrap, I'm impressed.

So that's my opinion. If you just want something for the looks, and you have 3k to blow, then give it a ride. But go test ride a stock bike first and get a baseline to judge it on. If I were going to buy the bike, I would offer the guy $800. There are plenty of XS400's out there in the range of $250-800. And with the extra $2500, you could build an insanely nice bike that would be much better than that one.

If I had 3k, I would grab another RZ350 and burn up the streets.
 
guy asked of 2 cents and Wolfe gives about $2,000 worth of advice!:thumbsup:

It just another example of someone who thinks because they put "X" dollars in to parts and "X" hours in to the build it is worth that much money. I don't care that you spent $2,000 on a paint job getting the pink Unicorns all over the bike, if I want a 1978 XS400 with stock red with gold pinstripes I will need to spend many dollars getting them stripped off and the bike repainted.

I know many here may not want to admit it but 99% of the time owning old bikes is a loosing proposition. I think it would be a very rare case where someone could even break even much less turn a profit doing this. Might be a different story if you are running a shop fixing bikes for someone else. But how many of us could justify paying even $50.00 an hour, which I think is way low labor rate, to someone.
 
I agree with wolfe on this one. The tank looks like one of those aluminum ones. Those can cost a bit of money.
 
And no pipe wrap, I'm impressed.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

$3k is steep... especially if there are was electrical issues. Most people find these bikes for under $800 w titles that only need a carb clean, new rubber and a fresh battery to get running. I got mine for around $300

If the cafe look look is what your going for and have a buddy with a volt meter and a wrench, find a cheap runner on CL (with a title) and have a go. Will save you a good chunk of coin. There is a TON of info on this site that will help you get through any project.
 
guy asked of 2 cents and Wolfe gives about $2,000 worth of advice!:thumbsup:

It just another example of someone who thinks because they put "X" dollars in to parts and "X" hours in to the build it is worth that much money. I don't care that you spent $2,000 on a paint job getting the pink Unicorns all over the bike, if I want a 1978 XS400 with stock red with gold pinstripes I will need to spend many dollars getting them stripped off and the bike repainted.

I know many here may not want to admit it but 99% of the time owning old bikes is a loosing proposition. I think it would be a very rare case where someone could even break even much less turn a profit doing this. Might be a different story if you are running a shop fixing bikes for someone else. But how many of us could justify paying even $50.00 an hour, which I think is way low labor rate, to someone.

Agreed!

In this case the OP would be far better served finding one of many bikes just sitting in a garage waiting a clean-up, the bobbing, café racering, scramblerizing it themselves. Not hard to do, and 99% can be bolt-ons.
 
I would give $500 if it ran good and had a clean title. I would have to put a lot of money in it to make it rideable.
 
A lot cheaper to build your own.and that's part of the fun.looking thru salvage yards.friends piles.trading parts.plus you end up with a bike that's all you.
 
Thank you to everyone who responded, I appreciate your feedback. I would love to find a cheaper bike and build it up however do to my current situation that just isn't possible at the moment. I am looking to get a bike that is somewhat already swapped if not pretty much 99% complete. Do you think somewhere around 2K would be better to offer? I have a feeling that is still a bit high but after looking all over craigslist I can't seem to find any cafe racers that are decent for under 2K.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Yes, I think $2k is too much to offer. I've restored my bike to almost new condition, and I expect it's worth less than $1000. But of course you are making me 2nd guess myself ;)
 
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