If you've been searching for the best deal on a "new to you" bike then you're probably aware that there are many of them out there, it just depends on your price range. But did you get a good deal on the motorcycle you just purchased? We wanted to show you some of the things to check for when you get your used bike back to your house or shop.
One of the HOT BIKE staff was in the market for a project bike and like most guys out there had a budget to stick to. He was trying to spend less than $10,000, so he started searching for Evos. He found tons of bikes in the 10 grand range, however this limited any extra money for maintenance or repairs. So he kept looking and found a '91 FXSTC Softail Custom with 40,000 miles for around $8,000 tucked under a sheet in some lady's garage. The new owner is not sure how she acquired it but he knew she needed to sell it to pay some bills. She said the bike had been sitting for over five years but she remembers it used to run. After he checked the paperwork and VIN everything seemed fine and a deal was struck.
So the next thing he did was load it up and took it over to Freedom Cycles in Orange, California. Devin the shop owner went through the bike and put together a parts and labor cost sheet to see just what it would take to get the bike up and running safe, (note: this is priced at Freedom Cycles so others may vary).
As we added up the cost for all the parts needed to get this bike on the road safely it came to about $1,050. The labor charge was around $ 1,200 (just an estimate due to the fact that some stuff will overlap as the work is getting done). Add that to the cost of the bike and that puts us just over the $10,000. Maybe it wasn't a steal, but with some updating and TLC it could be a cool ride. After we had all the work done and the bike out on the road for a ride, we started to hear a noise from the cam area. We're not sure what it is at this time, but we took it back to Freedom so they could check it out. Check back in next month where we find out what's making the noise and how much this may cost.
 1. Here is the '91 FXSTC...  1. Here is the '91 FXSTC as it was rolled out of the garage; it is a nice setup similar to what could be seen on the streets in the `90s. It was kept under a blanket so it was a fairly clean and it was a complete bike. |  2. After we rolled the bike...  2. After we rolled the bike up onto the lift, we started by draining the oil and replacing the oil filter. Later we will replace the primary and transmission fluid as well.
Complete fluid change $90 Just an oil and filter change about $45-50. |  3. We pulled the plugs and...  3. We pulled the plugs and they looked like the bike was running rich. This could be due to a couple things such as a dirty air filter, sticky choke, rich fuel mixture, or low engine compression.
Set of new plugs $8. |