Topic: 1970 KO CB750 to be sold by original owner.

[Clarence De Barrows]

Before I go to E-Bay, or some such thing, I thought I'd query you guys as to what you think my CB 750 is worth.  I bought the bike new in July of 70 and its been with me ever since.  While it was in use I was the only person who ever rode it.  It was stored for the better part of 30 years and is in original condition.  It has been completely gone through by Charlie before he moved his shop from San Francisco to L.A.  Anyone interested could contact Brandon at that shop as he did most of the work on the bike.  Charlie's Ad can be found in the classified section of "Classic Motorcycle" magazine.  I have the bill for the work that was done on the bike after it was taken out of storage.  It amounts to just a tad under 6000 dollars.  The bike has never been damaged and is in original - not restored - condition.  Everything on it has been upgraded to make it a dependable and safe road machine.  The engine was not torn down as it checked out fine.  All other components, such as brakes, wiring, instruments, clutch, forks, etc. were serviced and upgraded where necessary, being replaced with new, state of the art, components where indicated.  For instance electronic ignition and complete rewiring were installed as upgrades as well as "Forks by Frank".  The bike has 36000 careful miles on it.  As I say it is original - not restored - and not damaged in any way other than a scratch or two on the Gold tank and a little fading on the black accents on the tank.  At my age I'm not riding as much as I used to - I've only put 100 or so miles on the bike since Charlie got done with it so I thought I'd check this site out and see if any of you guys might be interested in it or can tell me what you think it's worth.  It's not a sandcast, but it's the first of the next breed.  Anyone interested can reach me at turtl2@att.net.  I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area so if you find yourself there I would be glad to show the bike to you.  I would put a few pictures with this note, but I'm next to illiterate when it comes to working this computer so I will work on adding pictures later if anyone is interested. 

[MCRider]

I'm not an expert but you're dealing with a specific market here. I'd think things like replacing the instruments and ignition with non-OEM parts makes it worth less. And you can't call it original condition either. It's been modified.

[Stev-o]

Spent $6K and its not restored?   

We will need pics to be able to put a value on it, but I'm guessing it's less than $6K.

[TimK]

My "opinion" is that it is worth what you can get for it.  Sounds stupid but it doesn't matter what you have into it.  It only matters what someone will pay.  It sounds like a nice bike and it seems like you have to find that one very specific guy who has a hard-__ for that particular bike.  $6000 would buy a near state of the art bike - so you can't sell specs.  Its an emotional purchase for someone.

I think the only way you can do that is take a bunch of super sweet pics and write up an ad for ebay that will make someone salivate.  It doesn't cost anything if it doesn't sell.  Just start the auction at $1.00 and put your reserve price.  You'll get a ton of questions ... what is your reserve?  Then you can find out. 

[Stev-o]

...an ad for ebay...  It doesn't cost anything if it doesn't sell. 

Not so sure about that.

[Stev-o]

It's not this one is it??


http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=140228.msg1588460;topicseen#new

[harisuluv]

For a K0 bike, the target market and people who are going to be in the market to buy are looking for original bikes.  Pretty much anything you do to deviate from that whether better or not, doesn't really matter, you can expect lateral movement in value at best, but will actually probably result in lower value.

That being said, 6k is an awful lot to spend and not have the bike restored.  Sounds like original paint still so not even a paint job was included in that price. 

As was said, if you want to get what it's worth list it on ebay and you will get the market price.  If you want to get MORE than the market price and are looking to get your $6k back and more, then you should entertain the idea that it may be more valuable to you personally.

[ekpent]

I would love to see a copy of that repair invoice just to see what the Big Boyz charge for things that we muddle our way through.

[Tews19]

I would love to see a copy of that repair invoice just to see what the Big Boyz charge for things that we muddle are way through.

I think that is well said. 6k is a ridiculous amount to spend and not have it restored.  Do you mind posting pics?

As Ekpent stated, it would be helpful to see an invoice. They ripped you off IMO. Not sure if anyone stated that out loud but that's the truth.

[Stev-o]

I would love to see a copy of that repair invoice just to see what the Big Boyz charge for things that we muddle are way through.

I think that is well said. 6k is a ridiculous amount to spend and not have it restored.  Do you mind posting pics?

As Ekpent stated, it would be helpful to see an invoice. They ripped you off IMO. Not sure if anyone stated that out loud but that's the truth.

$3500 HM300 exhaust?

[guitarkev66]

I sold a nice unrestored gold K0 on ebay two years ago for $8100.  it had everything original unrestored rider and around 20,000 miles.  I regret that sale everyday I really thought that was a fair price at the time.  Its my avatar picture.....

[Tews19]

I would love to see a copy of that repair invoice just to see what the Big Boyz charge for things that we muddle are way through.

I think that is well said. 6k is a ridiculous amount to spend and not have it restored.  Do you mind posting pics?

As Ekpent stated, it would be helpful to see an invoice. They ripped you off IMO. Not sure if anyone stated that out loud but that's the truth.

$3500 HM300 exhaust?

That's what I was thinking

[ekpent]

I sold a nice unrestored gold K0 on ebay two years ago for $8100.  it had everything original unrestored rider and around 20,000 miles.  I regret that sale everyday I really thought that was a fair price at the time.  Its my avatar picture.....

K0's can definitely bring some very good money and the fact its a gold one that you do not see as often as the red and blue may very well help its appeal. Looking forward to some pictures as I am sure it is going to show very well.

[Tews19]

Update?

[Stev-o]

Sold?

[PeWe]

Why replace parts when the bike must have been really good?  The value must been decreased by that.
I doubt that the restoration was performed by CB750 SOHC specialists. Electronic ignition is nothing an OEM CB750 should have for a collector. Points works fine!! I have recently tested both PAMCO and DYNA S, ended up with new points by TEC.
Forks must have been really good too. Fork seals might been dry.
No other spareparts than HONDA NOS are accepted.

The only thing to update must have been the engine, replacing all seals and gaskets, lap valves, clean carbs.
Maybe new carb boots if old are too hard. New OEM available. I have a set when I got wrong for 25 years ago, short model of spigot fitting.

Reminds me about the Sandcast murder on the TV show Café Racer where they molested a CB750-69 and transformed it to something really ugly. The TV show is not serious when it encourage the terror agains Motorcycle history. Motorcycle knowledge must be close to zero.
I become really mad when they show that on TV again, change channel direct.
It should be jail with mental treament for such imbecile act.

[lrutt]

Hard to say, I'm still trying to get my head around a $6k spend on what would have been a pretty nice bike to start with according to you. Oh well. You should recover your $6k investment but honestly you would have made more money if you'd have just cleaned it up and got it running IMO. Unless it was REALLY pooched out. 

[Tews19]

Owner must be camping out at the shop waiting for the owner to come back. He is fuming over 6k spent on NOS motorcycle oil change.

[MCRider]

Owner must be camping out at the shop waiting for the owner to come back. He is fuming over 6k spent on NOS motorcycle oil change.

LOL or...

OP + no responses = troll

[6adan]

PeWe I am with you about the TV show. I still get PO (not previous owner) about that.

[greenjeans]

The show in question, although I agree that it sucks, took a great amount of liberty with that episode.    The bike was definitely not a sandcast and had been modified over the years - motor was not original to the bike etc etc etc.    I was there and ended up with some of the spare parts.

Around my parts, you can get good money for a K0.   The non-original pipes and non-stock parts take the value down.  Might actually be worth it to find a used set of HM300s and convert it back to points...

Or - trade it to me.

[vames]

Sorry to chime in with the same message, but $6K? And it didn't need engine work? I'd love to see exactly what they did.

If it was well cared for and running before you stored it, there really shouldn't have been that much that it needed.

I agree you can recover your $6K but I doubt you're about to get much more out of it. People spending money up in that range either want unmolested original or fully restored, not something in between. 36K miles also scares people spending that much $$ on bikes. Then again, there are a lot of tech company guys with lots of dough who want to be cool and retro around the bay area, so you never know. What you do know is that a guy like that would probably be the bike's last owner. They don't tend to baby their toys, they just buy bigger and faster ones and let the old ones rot.

[harisuluv]

Looking at the original post again, it looks like he was offering it up for sale "before it goes to ebay" in an indirect way.  That being said, with an seller, I would take it with a grain of salt in regards to "$xxxx spent on the build."  Usually statements like these imply that the bike is worth the money spent PLUS whatever it was worth before. 

6K spend, no new paint, no engine work, I don't see that being followed up with NOS OEM HM300s or something. 

[MikeKato]

Here's one that is 2broken fins away from being worth (to me)just about what he's asking.

http://southbend.craigslist.org/mcy/4616139010.html

[Stev-o]

Here's one that is 2broken fins away from being worth (to me)just about what he's asking.

http://southbend.craigslist.org/mcy/4616139010.html

He posted the listing 8 days ago, it's not selling quickly at that price.  I'm confused about the details in the listing about the carbs. 

[MikeKato]

Here's one that is 2broken fins away from being worth (to me)just about what he's asking.

http://southbend.craigslist.org/mcy/4616139010.html

 
He posted the listing 8 days ago, it's not selling quickly at that price.  I'm confused about the details in the listing about the carbs.

He's saying he has the old style carbs with each carb having it's own cable that merges into a single cable heading up to the throttle grip.

[harisuluv]

yeah, i'm not sure what he is talking about.  If his bike is a 1970, it is a K0.

I think he is confused about the carbs too.  Sounds like someone said such and such and he took it as dead fact.

There were multiple iterations of the 4-1 throttle cable.  I think he is just confused, his confusion carries over to the reader though, what he appears to be talking about really doesn't even warrant mentioning.

[harisuluv]

Here's one that is 2broken fins away from being worth (to me)just about what he's asking.

http://southbend.craigslist.org/mcy/4616139010.html

 
He posted the listing 8 days ago, it's not selling quickly at that price.  I'm confused about the details in the listing about the carbs.

He's saying he has the old style carbs with each carb having it's own cable that merges into a single cable heading up to the throttle grip.

Yeah we got that part, but that's normal.  What does "Not a K0" despite being a 1970 cb750 mean?  The bar he is talking about sounds like the later style linkage from 71 up which is NOT normal for a k0.

[Stev-o]

yeah, i'm not sure what he is talking about.  If his bike is a 1970, it is a K0.

I think he is confused about the carbs too.  Sounds like someone said such and such and he took it as dead fact.

There were multiple iterations of the 4-1 throttle cable.  I think he is just confused, his confusion carries over to the reader though, what he appears to be talking about really doesn't even warrant mentioning.

Exactly.  I think we know more about his bike than he. 

[MikeKato]

Here's one that is 2broken fins away from being worth (to me)just about what he's asking.

http://southbend.craigslist.org/mcy/4616139010.html

 
He posted the listing 8 days ago, it's not selling quickly at that price.  I'm confused about the details in the listing about the carbs.

He's saying he has the old style carbs with each carb having it's own cable that merges into a single cable heading up to the throttle grip.

Yeah we got that part, but that's normal.  What does "Not a K0" despite being a 1970 cb750 mean?  The bar he is talking about sounds like the later style linkage from 71 up which is NOT normal for a k0.

I had to read it again and yes it is confusing. Now what i'm thinking he's saying is that it's a late 69 titled as a 70 because HE THOUGHT all the 1970 bikes came with the later carbs.