The $200 Bike

Letting it sit. . . 

My mother used to manage an apartment complex in the San Francisco area, and on one of my visits she introduced me to one of the tenants who was an enthusiast. He had an XJ650 Yamaha turbo and a 1976 Triumph Bonneville but had not ridden for years. He said the Triumph was seized up, so I bought it for $200.00 and hauled it back to Seattle.

First I put oil in the cylinders and let it set for a couple of weeks.  Then with it on the center stand, I turned the rear wheel backwards and sure enough it turned over. I discovered the spark plug had been cross threaded and rain water had rusted the rings to the cylinder. I took it apart, honed it, and put new rings in - as it did not need a bore job. I cleaned it up real good and rode it for 5 years.

When it was time to sell the bike, I put an ad in the paper and a photo flyer with my phone number on it in several local motorcycle shops.  One Saturday a nice young man shows up in his 3 series BMW all decked out with his Gucci shoes, Armani pants and whatnot. I don’t really know all that much about fashion, but my teenage daughters gave me all the details on what Mr. Fashion was wearing. He takes the bike for a spin around the block and comes back into the shop. He is a little upset because he lost his Oakley sunglasses but still says he wants to buy it.  Then the great money conversation starts.  Got Cash? Not at the moment, but Tuesday for sure.  I tell him that’s fine, but I’ll need a deposit to hold it or I’ll just sell it to the next guy.  He gives me his watch, which he says is quite valuable, as a deposit. He then calls my office on Tuesday and said he did not have the cash but would get it soon. I told him I was going out of town and would call him when I got back. After I returned from my travelling I called his number and to which his roommate said he moved out.  I left a message for him to come and get his watch. As this was Spring, I got busy and didn’t put the bike back up for sale.  Then one day a gentleman who had seen the bike photo in one of the shops calls and asked if I still had the bike.  He got a bike and I got $2,600 out of the deal.  We were both happy!

The 1976 Bonneville

But I still had the watch.  So I hung it on a hook where we kept the extra keys and told everyone if Mr. Fashion came by, give him back his watch.  A couple of years go by, and one day I’m throwing out all those keys that nobody can remember what they go to , and there was the watch.  At this point it was no longer running as the battery was dead.  . I take it down to Fred Meyer to have the battery replaced and the guy says it is an expensive watch.  So I’m wondering what it’s really worth.  So the next time we go to the mall I take the watch to Ben Bridge Jewelers, who happen to be a Raymond Weil dealer.  Upon inspection, they tell me that the model I have is worth $2,200.00!! I’ve been wearing it ever since. 

So what do you do with good motorcycle money?  Instead of a mini-van like the last time, we bought Microsoft stock, which then split.  A year ago I bought a very nice 1968 Bonneville. 

That old ’76 was probably the best $200 I’ve ever spent!

Don't forget, our office is closed for Winter Holiday from Dec 24th to Jan. 2nd. 

Selling bikes

The motorcycle industry has gone through several ups and downs since I got started in the early 70’s. Like many I got started behind the parts counter, but one’s enthusiasm always boils over onto the show room. The first motorcycle I sold was a Honda CL350 because the owner wanted what he considered “a bike he could ride on and off road”. Unless he lived on a gravel road, I don’t think that thing ever got off the pavement. My how things have changed!

Just a couple of years ago I was in a shop with one of my sales reps for Parts Unlimited and this young parts counter kid said he had just bought a ‘really neat vintage bike’ and asked if l would like to see it. As an enthusiast with a shop full of “proper British motorbikes”, I said “Sure. I would love to see what you have bought”.  We go in the back and he shows me a 1976 green KZ900. I didn’t really want to rain on this young man’s parade, but 1976? This might classify as a classic, but not a vintage in my book. Just because it was made before he was born I think classified it as vintage in his mind. I sold these things when they were new!

Kawasaki had a program for dealers on 25 units so my boss bought 50 and I don’t think we sold 30 the previous year. On top of that when I got down to the last 10, he bought 25 more! We had a special for $2495.00. Those were the days when if you wanted a touring bike you added a Windjammer fairing and Bates saddlebags.

The fun back then was creating your own specialty bike.  For example we were buying lots of Vetter Windjammer fairings and adding them to mostly KZ900 and KZ1000s. For the most part they were white and never really matched anything. We decided it would be cool to build one all matching -  so we got a painter to do it all in yellow…body work, fairing, bags, top box and cargo trailer. Then we took the gas cap down to the local trophy shop and had it engraved ‘Custom built for………. By Kawasaki County’ (the name or our shop). When people would express an interest in the thing we would point to the cap and say that the owners name was to be engraved as soon as the deal was done. We let the boss sell this one as he was the principal behind the entire program and a touring rider himself. 

Sorry I don’t remember the gentleman’s name that purchased it but I do remember he had a 1974 T150 Triumph Trident with probably a 6” extended front fork. I took the bike for a test ride and could not for the life of me understand why someone would take a really well handling bike and to that to it. He and his wife racked up many miles on that yellow monster.

So I had this customer come in looking to buy a good used bike for a trip. I had previously sold him a bike at the Honda shop, but now at the Kawasaki shop he was looking for something to ride from Yakima, Washington to Tennessee. The problem was he had hardly any money. We had a really clean Honda CB450 that he was looking at, and asked if it would make it there and back. I said the bike would make it but I would be a long ride for him and his wife. He came in about a month later after he got back and said the bike was fine, but both he and his wife still had numb butts. That’s when he purchased the now ‘Vintage’ GREEN KZ900 with fairing and bags.

I need to be real careful about passing judgment on fools riding long distances on ‘little bikes’. I once rode a 1968 Yamaha YCS1C (180cc) from Fairbanks, Alaska to Anchorage on the 430 mile old road. Very long trip but I was young and adventuresome.

But that’s just selling bikes. . . 

The Parts Bike

One day I was standing in my garage and thinking “I have enough parts to make a bike”.

I had the slim line Norton featherbed frame with the forks and the Triumph 650cc motor from my dirt tracker and several sets of wheels. So I ordered a gas and oil tank as well as seat and engine mounting plates from Unity in England. This was going to be a nice Triton, not a show quality piece, but nice all the same.

When I received the tank, I was a little disappointed in the quality; as the silver in the gel coat had sagged and it needed to be repainted. I asked my friend Terry to “Just put some paint on it. Nothing fantastic. Just put some color on it to cover up the sags”. He said he just got some new paint he wanted to try and was black OK? It was fine with me.  So a couple of weeks later he says it looks too plain, can we get some decals? So I got some gold stripes and a couple of Triton decals.

When he brings me the bodywork, it’s gorgeous! Now the rest of the bike looks like a junk-yard special. This presented a new dilemma because it just didn’t look right, therefore I had to tear it all apart, powder coat the frame, unlace the wheels, do the hubs, and new shouldered aluminum rims. This was turning into a real project and this thing was going to be a beauty.

Now here comes the bad news. My wife (of 40 years this year) brings a cup of coffee out to the garage one day and asked what I was going to do with this bike – sell it or keep it.  Besides, she knows the garage is full. I told her I was going to sell it and then the discussion about what I was going to do with the money comes up. In a moment of weakness I said “And I suppose you want the money?” Big Mistake, as she informs me she wants a minivan.  So there went good motorcycle money, for a not so cool set of wheels.

The story gets even worse because when I got it all done and took it for a ride, the thing was a fantastic café racer! It was very strong with the race motor and the Norton frame handled great. Not a modern sport bike, but a great ‘60s era ride. At least the new owner was smiling.

The Parts Bike, before it was shipped to it's new owner!

Years later my wife brought out another cup of coffee to the garage, so that will be another story.