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Smoking... Then not... Then again...

farmerfalconer

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Hi folks, first post here.

I'm driving home to NC from Utah at the moment and I'm considering a spur of the moment purchase of a motorcycle in the Wichita KS area. I'd prefer to drive it home rather than trailer it.

The bike is a 1979 10th Anniversary Honda CB750. Here is a link to the ad for pics:

https://wichita.craigslist.org/mcy/d/1979-cb750/6560640511.html

The guy selling it says he has had it a little over a month and never ridden it. Claims he just tinkers with bikes for fun (as do many of us of course).

After I put a new battery in it (bought the battery in faith) it started up just fine without any hesitation. The body is in decent shape, not a ton of rust. Wiring harness looks mint. Gas tank look clean. BUT, it smoked pretty well when he first started it up (off jumper cables). Grey/white smoke. An hour later after installing the new battery we fired it up again. No smoke... But only for maybe 2 minutes and then it started smoking again.

He doesn't want me to test ride it unless I leave him with the money (which seems a bit uptight but oh well) so I had him run it around a bit for me. We added a touch of seafoam to the gas before hand and it started smoking even heavier.

So... What are everyone's thoughts?

Is this thing worth $850 (agreed upon price)?
Would you drive it to NC from Kansas if you had a support vehicle near by?
I'd plan to "cafe it up" a bit.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Cheers,
Cody
 
I prefer to ride mine home. I am not sure how far you're going.
If it smokes more on overrun (let off the gas in gear) - IIRC this is valve seals.
If it smoke on acceleration - IIRC this is rings. If it's rings, I would probably not ride it home.

I would want the tires to be in good shape, little to no cracks and good tread (check the date code). I would want the engine to "feel good". It should have good acceleration.
I would want the brakes to at least MOSTLY work. I have ridden a 2005 GSXR1000 home with NO front brakes... they were fork seal oil soaked. I shouldn't have done that. It was only 5 miles though.

Good luck.

I just got a 1979 CB750L too. It has some oil and grease around it, but not much rust. 15k miles. I got it for under $2k.
 
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