I just had to tell someone about this deal!
Lately while looking for a project CB750 bike I’ve been asking everyone that I know, and putting up flyers looking for an old bike that is sitting in a barn or garage.
Well, 3 days ago I get this call from a guy that says that he has 2 old bikes in his barn if I am interested. I ask him what he has and he says an old triumph and a Honda. He says that he has the titles. He live just a little ways outside of town, so I said that I would come check them out and see if I am interested.
I pull into a long lane that takes me back to this farm house. As I pull up to the house this old man in coveralls with a long white beard gets up off his rocking chair on the porch and walks out to my truck. I introduce myself as the guy here to look at the bikes. We shake hands and he tells me to call him Brud.
He takes me back to his barn and I can see the shape of a bike sitting under a tarp. As we are walking towards it he is telling me that these where his sons bikes.
He pulls off the cover, and there sits an triumph. Though dusty it looks pretty stock. I sit down on it for a minute and then give it a kick. Fires up on the first kick. Just kidding, the motor is locked. I don’t know much about triumph’s, I don’t even know what model it is. But I know enough to know that people want them and that I can make some money off of this one if the price is right. I tell him that it is not really what I am looking for, but I may know a few people that I could sell it to. I ask him how much, he says, “ 100 bucks and she’s yours” “I’ll take it” the bike looks like pretty good and I figure I could get about a grand out of it or more on Ebay.
Bud spits some tobacco juice, and smiles at me. At least I think it was a smile. ‘If you like that one, I think you’ll like the other one too”
He asks me to help him move a couple things so we can get to the other bike. (all I can see is another tarp) When we get it clear and he pulls the tarp off there is a big crate under it. He goes and gets a pry bar and a hammer. As we are opening the crate he tells me that his son bought this bike just before he went to war. The bike came to the dealers the week after is son left. The dealer brought the bike to the house in the crate and it had been sitting here since.
When we lifted the lid there sat a mint red with a gold stripe Honda CB750. I almost fell over backwards. The odometer had 1 mile on it. ( I didn’t know what year it was) While trying to keep a straight face and not sound to excited we started talking. He said that he wasn’t sure why he was holding on to it and that it was time to let it go. I told him that I was interested and asked if he was sure that he wanted to sell it? “yep, I always hated the bikes anyway. And at my age I don’t think that is going to change”
After a few minutes he tells me $500 and it’s mine. I told him that I would give him $700. He looked at me startled and asked why. I told him that I felt guilty only giving him $500 and that even though it was worth more $700 was all that I had in the bank. “looks like you just bought yourself a bike”
We used his tractor to load it into the back of my truck, and I took it home.
After running the VIN # CB750-1000005 I realized that this was the 5th ever made Sandcast Honda cb750. By now my hands where shaking. What the heck am I going to do with this? There is no way that I’m going to leave this parked in my damp unheated garage to rust up.
Thoughts were going through my mind at a mile a minute. I have to sell it, I could use the money. How much is it worth? How do you even begin to find out what something like this is worth? Should I put it on Ebay? I know sell it to Jay Lenno, How would I even begin to find out how to contact Jay? The more I thought about it the only thing that sounded right was to call up a motorcycle museum.
I live in Ohio, and we have on the other side of the state. So I called them and asked to talk to whoever is in charge on buying motorcycle for the museum. After explaining what I had I was finally allowed to talk to a guy about it.
“This is so-n-so”
I tell Him what I have and ask if they are interested
“Sounds (Buzz) like something that we would be interested in, how much do you want (Buzz) for it?”
“50k”
Long pause (Buzz) “Hold on for a minute, I’ll be right back (Buzz)
“If you really have what you (Buzz) say we’ll take it”
(Buzz, Buzz, Buzz)
This phone connection is getting really bad.
“I’ll bring it buy tomarrow”
“ Ok, (Buzz) see you then” click
(Buzz)
Why is the phone still Buzzing we have already hung up? (Buzz)
OH, SH*T !!
It’s the alarm going off waking me up from my wonderful dream.
Told you it was a deal to good to be true.
I have really got to spend less time on this site.
