I've made some changes to some of my bikes a month or two ago, which I have never posted about.
Some of you may know that I have owned a Yamaha RD350LC for the past 9 years. I love my 2 strokes and this has been a great bike. However, it was never going to be mint, and had 13 owners before me. It had a very fit engine and had been 100% reliable in my time. It was a matching numbers bike and the owner before me had it for a decade too, so it had a lot of good points. It was what it was.
I decided a while back to buy a better example and sell the one I had. Hopefully I'd only be a few thousand on the switch.
Bounty LC
So, I start to look a few months back. Loads of the usual bikes that had either been restored or were no better or much worse than the one I had. Then one popped up for sale after looking for a few weeks. It is also a matching numbers bike, originally from Germany (some people get hung up over this, but I always buy on condition). 5,000 miles from new and not restored. A real survivor bike. It looks mint and after speaking to the very nice older owner, provisionally a deal is struck.
New LC
I go to York to view it, and it's as described. It sits in my garage a couple of hours later.
The Bounty was put up for sale. It did take a few weeks, but sold to a fella in Manchester. He'll have a good time with it. I noticed when selling it, that there are loads for sale right now and prices seem to be softening a bit.
I have spent money on the new one since.
I've removed the belly pan.
I put the Bridgestone tyres that were fitted to my Bounty LC ready for sale. I put Continentals on the new one.
The paint was good on the new bike, but a couple of the decals were in the wrong place and with the odd mark after 40 years. I had the tank and panels re-painted correctly. Also fully clear coated, which the original side and tail sections weren't from new.
I've bought some new AllSpeed exhausts in Black Chrome too. They sound mint and preserve the OEM look a bit more than chrome.
Over the winter, I'm going to pull it apart for a deep clean and paint little marks on the frame and the engine barrels.
The next question is, do I put my Guiliari seat on it, or keep the standard one on?
Part II
Then the 2nd part of the refresh.
I had always said I would buy another classic when I retired. I had a soft spot for the last of the oil cooled Suzuki GSXR1100's, having had a couple of minters back in the day. I have been looking at Honda CBX1000's over the last couple of years, loving the look of the 6 exhausts.
But what I really wanted was a Yamaha RD500LC. Again, there are a few for sale, but a load of rubbish that people want mega money for, thinking they have something they don't.
A friend of mine actually has 4 of them, 2 with zero miles and 2 with very low miles. All of them original and not restored. He did mention it was getting to the stage where it was crazy keeping so many bikes (amongst a lot of others) and he'd let one go. After thinking for a while, he said he'd sell me one.
This one in question was the 1st of the 4 he bought around 4 years ago. Originally imported from Italy by him and he was the 1st owner after the only owner from new. It has covered 2,300km (1,400 miles) from new and original and unrestored. He had some other people he knew showing interest, so after thinking it over for a day or 2, I said I'd have it.
So the 2 Yamahas now sit in the garage, being only slightly outnumbered by Ducatis.
Oh, I'm done spending ! (Unless a reasonable Suzuki GSXR1100 oil cooled 'M' model pops up)
Some of you may know that I have owned a Yamaha RD350LC for the past 9 years. I love my 2 strokes and this has been a great bike. However, it was never going to be mint, and had 13 owners before me. It had a very fit engine and had been 100% reliable in my time. It was a matching numbers bike and the owner before me had it for a decade too, so it had a lot of good points. It was what it was.
I decided a while back to buy a better example and sell the one I had. Hopefully I'd only be a few thousand on the switch.
Bounty LC
So, I start to look a few months back. Loads of the usual bikes that had either been restored or were no better or much worse than the one I had. Then one popped up for sale after looking for a few weeks. It is also a matching numbers bike, originally from Germany (some people get hung up over this, but I always buy on condition). 5,000 miles from new and not restored. A real survivor bike. It looks mint and after speaking to the very nice older owner, provisionally a deal is struck.
New LC
I go to York to view it, and it's as described. It sits in my garage a couple of hours later.
The Bounty was put up for sale. It did take a few weeks, but sold to a fella in Manchester. He'll have a good time with it. I noticed when selling it, that there are loads for sale right now and prices seem to be softening a bit.
I have spent money on the new one since.
I've removed the belly pan.
I put the Bridgestone tyres that were fitted to my Bounty LC ready for sale. I put Continentals on the new one.
The paint was good on the new bike, but a couple of the decals were in the wrong place and with the odd mark after 40 years. I had the tank and panels re-painted correctly. Also fully clear coated, which the original side and tail sections weren't from new.
I've bought some new AllSpeed exhausts in Black Chrome too. They sound mint and preserve the OEM look a bit more than chrome.
Over the winter, I'm going to pull it apart for a deep clean and paint little marks on the frame and the engine barrels.
The next question is, do I put my Guiliari seat on it, or keep the standard one on?
Part II
Then the 2nd part of the refresh.
I had always said I would buy another classic when I retired. I had a soft spot for the last of the oil cooled Suzuki GSXR1100's, having had a couple of minters back in the day. I have been looking at Honda CBX1000's over the last couple of years, loving the look of the 6 exhausts.
But what I really wanted was a Yamaha RD500LC. Again, there are a few for sale, but a load of rubbish that people want mega money for, thinking they have something they don't.
A friend of mine actually has 4 of them, 2 with zero miles and 2 with very low miles. All of them original and not restored. He did mention it was getting to the stage where it was crazy keeping so many bikes (amongst a lot of others) and he'd let one go. After thinking for a while, he said he'd sell me one.
This one in question was the 1st of the 4 he bought around 4 years ago. Originally imported from Italy by him and he was the 1st owner after the only owner from new. It has covered 2,300km (1,400 miles) from new and original and unrestored. He had some other people he knew showing interest, so after thinking it over for a day or 2, I said I'd have it.
So the 2 Yamahas now sit in the garage, being only slightly outnumbered by Ducatis.
Oh, I'm done spending ! (Unless a reasonable Suzuki GSXR1100 oil cooled 'M' model pops up)
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Decisions, decisions..