Buying my first bike/ cafe racer

jessy87 said:

Complete Noob here, take it easy on me. I am going to check out a 1976 Honda CB 750 tomorrow. I wanted to know what should I be looking for? The bike looks like it is in good shape, he said the only issue right now is a small leak between the engine and the pipes, which goes away after it warms up. He confirmed that the leak is in the exhaust no the engine. I am bringing a friend who knows about bikes and has two - he is also test driving it. Any help would be much appreciated. He is asking $2,500.00.

Hi,
This site is about the other kind of bike. The human-powered, pedal-driven kind.
While there may be people here who ride motorcycles too, I do believe you’d get more/better answers elsewhere.

jessy87 said:

Complete Noob here, take it easy on me. I am going to check out a 1976 Honda CB 750 tomorrow. I wanted to know what should I be looking for? The bike looks like it is in good shape, he said the only issue right now is a small leak between the engine and the pipes, which goes away after it warms up. He confirmed that the leak is in the exhaust no the engine. I am bringing a friend who knows about bikes and has two - he is also test driving it. Any help would be much appreciated. He is asking $2,500.00.

If you don't mind my saying - that bike is older than a model T for what it is. No leak ANYWHERE would allow it to sell for that much money. Though the most likely place for it to leak is the exhaust gasket at the head. Most café riders now are FAR too careless and act like play-racers. I did the real thing for several years and seeing the way these people ride shows me that they don't have so much as a clue of what they're doing so be careful of any advice.

You realize Cycling Tom that Jessy 87 wrote that on July 11th, so the tomorrow that he mentioned in his post was July 12, this is September 3rd, so he has either bought the bike or not.

Just in case he's still reading this on his email, and he bought the bike, I would recommend he buy a second one to use as parts when he can't find a part anywhere else. Plus if he decides to tackle an engine rebuild by himself, and he's never done one before he can use the spare engine to practice on before doing the main engine.

The only weak spots I've ever heard of those bikes were the carbs, and since they used 4 carbs you have to know how to adjust multi carb setups. The other was the electrical, including everything electrical related, especially checking for corrosion at the connections.

Other than that any other weak spots are typical with ANY used motorcycle, checking stuff like the chain and sprocket for wear or damage; the cam chains to make sure they're adjusted correctly; checking the suspension, etc.

Other than that stuff you have your usual maintenance items that should be checked and replaced as needed. like oil change with filter, brake pads, cables, spark plugs, battery, and gaskets.

Not seeing the bike I have no idea what shape the bike is in, was it totally restored, was it average used condition, we don't know, but for the price I think it may have needed some work since really good condition bikes go for 9 grand with an average condition price of 5 grand, so that leaves me to believe that it needs a lot of work.

Not going to lie, I know absolutely nothing about motorsickles! 😄