Topic: What's a whole none running 76cb550 worth?

[andmoon]

I have the task of offering fair price to a friend to get as a parts bike.
The bike is whole w/ ~10k miles.  Isn't running due to none use for several years.
i want to offer a fair price but have no clue where 'ballpark' is.

Green is that matters.

[fmctm1sw]

Worth "crazy amounts of money."  In this age of eBay, it seems everything anyone has is worth "a mint."  Sorry to be a pessimist....  Considering it's a friend, you may get a good deal though (it's the only way you can get a reasonable deal)....

*edit*  sorry to be a pessimist.  Non-running means anything and everything could be wrong.  Brakes may be seized and carbs may need rebuilt at the very least.  Does it have a tiltle?  A replacement title is worth $100 alone and that's assuming you want the risk of it showing up as stolen...  I'd start at $200 or so sight unseen.

[pdxPope]

A 1976 CB500 is probably worth a billion dollars. (Honda stopped making the 500 in '73) 

Ballpark for a non-running CB550 in 'fair' cosmetic condition in a major city in the US is about $350-500.

Depending on how good of friends you are, you two could both work on it and enjoy it together.....

-JP

[fuzzybutt]

cb500 twin

[Terry in Australia]

If it's a CB500 twin, it's worth about a dollar a square foot, they weren't one of Honda's better efforts. They should have been, but Honda turned a gem (CB450) into a dog. They vibrated so much, riders were known to involuntarily wet themselves..........

"Sight unseen" is a dangerous term. I recently sold a Suzuki GS750 on Ebay to a bloke from New Zealand. Really nice guy who knew I was into GS1000's, so he contacted me and said he'd found a genuine "one owner" GS1000E with some Yoshimura parts installed for only 300 bucks, did I want it?

I said yeah, I'll take it "sight unseen"............... Well to say I was disappointed when I first clapped eyes on it is an understatement. First of all, he thought that 300 bucks wasn't enough, so he gave the woman who owned it 450, she must have been 'rapt. It looked like it'd been pulled out of a drain full of salt water, it'd been bashed, crashed, then bashed some more.

My Kiwi mate didn't realize that the tank had been resprayed, (no decals) and the white stuff under the missing paint was old bondo. The PO had cut bits off the frame for the Yoshimura race pipe (now just a rusted-thru memory of it's former glory) to fit, the brake calipers, engine cases, fork lowers etc were covered in a thick layer of oxidation, and everything else was either rusty or crudded up with chain grease and mud.

What did I do? Yeah, I bought it anyway............. I "gingerly" pulled the plugs, and as the bike had sat since leaded fuel was still available, they were still a nice "tan" color. I pulled the carbs, cleaned 'em, put some fresh fuel in it and it fired right up on 4 cylinders. I took the cam cover off and the cams look stock, but I'm told it's been treated to a 1085cc big bore kit.

It feels nice and strong, and I've just repainted a spare frame so I'll have it all together next weekend as a complete bike again, but I learned an important lesson about agreeing to buy something "sight unseen".............. 

[bryanj]

If you are in UK and its a complete four £150 as a parts bike If you are anywhere and its a twin you need cash to take it away

[dustyc]

If he's a friend, give him a friend price.  $20?  $50?  It is going to be a parts bike right?  Would it be a better candidate for someone to fix and ride?  When I think parts bike, I don't think of a good running bike that just needs a little TLC to get back on the road. 

How much did you pay for it?  To me, that would have some bearing on it possibly. 

And if you're answering questions, is it a four or a twin?  I think they still made 500 fours in the UK and possibly other parts of the world in 1976, so that would help since we're such an international group here and your location isn't in your profile.

[andmoon]

cb550

[pdxPope]

Maybe another question we should ask is: what are your plans for said 'parts' bike.

If you already have a 550 and plan on keeping it for yourself for spares, then it might change what the value is.

If you have another SOHC and plan on keeping it for yourself for spares- be carefull, whilst some parts are interchangeable, not all of them are (even between the 500 and 550!)

If you plan on parting it out to make a little additional cash- that will definitely depend on your location & method of advertising. Considering the cost and/or availability of replacement parts one would think that the bike is worth more in pieces, not necessarily true. There are some parts that are unobtanium, but it depends on the condition. And you kinda have to know what you are looking at (my guess since you asked this question in the first place is that you don't.)

If you plan on restoring it to it's original factory glory........how deep are your pockets???

-JP