Well... It has been a while and i thought I would give you guys an update.
Actually it has been a looooong time, so grab a beer and sit back if you want a good story about this bike. I am going to call it the Phoenix Project now!
Here's the story:
After becoming fully frustrated with my electrical skills and both of my other vintage bikes [1979 CB650 and 1981 CB750 Super Sport] suddenly developing electrical problems that I couldn't figure out, and due to the fact that I have a nice newish 2005 Suzuki SV650 that is a bad mutha... I got this wild hair and decided that I liked riding bikes more than wrenching on bikes and I sold all of my vintage bikes. I actually did pretty well considering none of them were running correctly with "mystery" electrical problems.
The subject of this thread actually sold for $1200 [Which was my asking price.] Of all the bikes I was the saddest to see it go, because I had put so much sweat equity into it. So I have pretty much spent the in between time riding the crap out of my SV650 and teaching my new wife how to ride and buying and fixing her up a 1994 Nighthawk 250 and then selling it and upgrading her to a newer 2004 Ninja 250, but still there was a longing for another project bike.
Well it came along in the form of a 1983 Honda VF750F. A guy at work was selling it for $800 and I talked him down to $500 and brought it home. It sat until I could figure if I wanted to fully restore it, turn it into a track bike or make a rat bike out of it. Well, one day I was riding with a friend who has a 1986 VF750F and we were at one of our stops and we decided to switch bikes so I could ride his and he could ride mine. We did and after a while I realized that I didn't really like the VF750's that much. I just didn't like the dynamics and besides, it was too similar to my SV650 to worry about going to all the trouble to have similar bikes in the garage. I knew then that I wanted to sell it. I knew in the back of my mind I wanted to do what ever it took to build and finish a vintage cafe style bike.
So, last week I am looking around on Ebay, and I type in "Cafe Racer" in the search function and one of the bikes that shows up is the subject of this thread...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&viewitem=&item=220275895847Well, I just couldn't type fast enough and I get the guy's contact information and email him and we talk and sure enough he's the guy that bought the bike from me and I promptly offer him $1500, because he's local and he says that he has the bike for sale locally. He wouldn't take it. I tell him that I would go as high as $1700, but that is as high as I could go. He writes back and tells me that he has had people offer him as much as $2000 and would I go higher, I say no and I will just see where the auction ends up.
So I list my VF750F on Ebay with a $495 reserve and a $575 "Buy It Now". [I know this is getting long, but stay with me.
] After a few days my bike is up to about $200 and 53 people are watching it and I am getting lots of emails and interest. Several people are wanting to hit the "Buy it Now" button. So I wake up the next morning and the bids are up to $495 and folks are saying "Where is the 'Buy it Now'?". I tell them it went away when the reserve was met, and they just need to bid as high as they want and let the auction run it's course. Which brings us to yesterday...
The wife and I get back from our all day ride up to Mt. Cheaha and back to find the the bids on my bike are all the way up to $885.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=STRK%3AMESOX%3AIT&viewitem=&item=200251550987And a set of wheels also sold that I paid $100 for:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=STRK%3AMESOX%3AIT&viewitem=&item=200251556547Well needless to say this nice gentleman from Louisiana bought the bike and I've got the wheels sold and I have $1205 in the Paypal that I didn't have the day before. So I flip over to the auction of my former CB500 Cafe Project and it is still going and the bids are only up to $1009. I'm thinking I am going to bid $1205 and just see what happens. So i hit the bid button with about 5 seconds left and then hold my breath and hitthe refresh button and I end up winning my bike back for $1125 [Or $600 if you count what I had in the items I sold.]
So anyway I am pretty stoked, considering:
I got my bike back.
I originally only asked $575 for my VF750F and I got $885 for it.
I originally offered the guy $1700 for the bike and ended up only paying $1125.
Anyway... I will pick it up on Wednesday and will be resuming this thread complete with pictures. Sorry for the long post, but I just thought I would share a very far out story.
