Found an old Honda 400 down the road from where I live for $300. It's weathered, and it doesn't run due to a kill switch issue. The owner basically explained to me that he had stuffed too much grease into the switch box trying to grease the throttle and messed up the kill switch, and no one has driven it since. The owner said he rebuilt the engine and a few other things, and it has been sitting a couple years. I  I'm not sure exactly what model it is. NADA lists it as worth $605 in fair condition. It's another bike to ride and something to learn to work on. Does anyone think I'm creating a money pit, or is $300 safe for a poor boy to spend on an old weathered bike that doesn't run?

Add tires, tubes, battery, and probably seat recover,... and you are over $600 on a bike you haven't made run yet...  with stale gas, plugged carbs, and possible rust in the tank...
Then,... you have to rely on the quality of the rebuild, and whatever else is wrong...

Free is too expensive...

Put a grand on the Savage, not including taxes, tire, and miscellaneous parts, such as grips, pegs, and signals. If I actually got the thing roadworthy with new tires for $600, it would probably be worth it. You're saying it's not worth the gamble, that the chances are not in my favor?

To some degree, I'm actually looking for a cheap fixer-upper I doubt that any bike I get hold of will be a "restoration", but something I can get mechanically good and mess around with, like an ugly rat scrambler or something, or sell for cheap. Why do I say this? Because I don't feel confident as a "restorer." One can spend a lot of money making a something look good and ruin it in a split second.


Why should I pay a fortune for the best of parts, basically replacing everything on it, when I could simply embrace it's raw ugliness with open arms .


Ugly is cheap, produces no burden, and rarely gets in the way of function.


Well... that is until people make fun of you, making you feel ashamed enough to hire a shrink. THEN, After having a bad day seeing your shrink and being made fun of--all because of your butt ugly bike-- something rotten breaks off and causing you to wreck at 80 mph, leaving you with a mortgage and a full body cast

I reckon that if somebody doesn't get hold of that thing soon, there won't be much left of it. It's an old man that has it. He has a few other bikes, including an old Triumph he says he's restoring. For some reason, he's just left it in his yard to rot . Wouldn't be good to let a bike die without a fight . He told me, I think, that there was someone who was willing to give that price but procrastinated due to being laid off from his job. The words he used suggested that his initial price was greater than $300. Shortly after I looked at the bike, weeks before I spoke with him, I thought of $300.

But, Dad advises me to try for a little lower price

I bought a new CM450C in 1982 and rode 30,000 trouble-free miles on it, other than 1 chain replacement and 2 sets of tires. Sold it to a friend before I bought my first BMW.

However, I do agree that a non-running "rat bike" 400 twin is virtually worthless. A 400 4-cylinder (the successor to the CB350-4) might be a decent project, but we're still talking a 40-yr-old bike and the scavenger hunt for parts. Are you willing to commit to a possibly long-term project? Have room for it in "coffin corner" of your garage?

Check the gas tank VERY carefully. At that age and level of decrepitude you describe, the only thing holding gas in the tank might be the paint.

WD wrote on 12/22/15 at 00:43:17:


It's a 400 twin To think of it, I already parts sources found for converting it to a kicker

cheapnewb24 wrote on 12/21/15 at 19:34:16:

I realize now,... that you didn't really want an answer...
You just wanted us to yell "Jump!"...


"JUMP!!!!"....

Uhhhh.... Ahem...

I rode the Savage to look at the darned thing!


Anyway, the throttle, kill switch, and brakes are more or less stuck or don't work, the seat cover is rotted off, the tires are rotten, the saddlebags are rotten, and the thing hasn't been tagged since '09 That doesn't count the ugly paint job on the tank .

He (kindly) let me know that he'd let the thing rot in his yard before he'd drop below $300. He's still holding out on that other fellow buying it.

A shame! If He'd just sell it cheap, say $100-200, or better yet give it away, someone would have the chance to salvage this thing before there's nothing left   It's a shame to let old bikes die like that . But then, we have our share of things rotting down in the yard, especially the old VW Rabbit Convertible, but that's another story . That doesn't count the MGB-GT's I let go. On occasion, a wave of regret hits me  :'( . Well, maybe not quite crying...usually...I don't know ... but it gets pretty sad sometimes.

Besides!

If I rip the fairings off and other stuff so that it doesn't look like a Ninja, maybe then no one will steal it

It's not a Ninja.... It's a Watchamamamacalllittt!