I Know, My Mom Must Have Dropped Me on My Head

As I sat at the computer last night to do my usual perusal of Craigslist motorcycle section, the first ad I saw was this.

"Concours ‘85’ ZG-1000 Kawasaki
Garaged last 3 years ‘won’t start’
Corbin seat
Virtually new Metzeler lasertec tires
Never down 33K miles

Extra Tank OEM seat, shield
Shoei Rf-800 helmet size Large
(full-face), tank bag – manuals etc.
Feel free to call for more info
First $800.00 takes all"

As you may have assumed, I ran for the phone. On the other end I found an affable gent named Charlie. He informed me that the bike was still available and I was more than welcome to take a gander despite the late hour. J.J. Curly and I were on our way in short order.
What we found when we got there was just as the ad described. The bike was way cleaner than I thought it would be. Charlie informed us that he was the second owner and had owned the bike since '96. He took excellent care of it as it was pretty much spotless, in almost as nice of condition as my FJ. He stopped riding it about three years ago when a small rust hole developed on the lower left rear of the tank. Not wanting to become a human roman candle he parked the bike and bought a new tank on ebay. He never got around to installing the new tank and the bike just sat from that point. The new tank was purple, nothing a quick paint job wouldn't cure. I figured all that the bike really needed was some fresh gas and a good carb cleaning and I would have a very nice vintage Concours. But when the time came to ante up, I couldn't get my hand off my wallet. I usually would not hesitate to buy a bike like this, but there were a couple things that made me take pause. First, my FJ, I love that bike and this bike is basically a redundancy of the FJ. I know it is water cooled and has hard bags, shaft drive, a better fairing and all that. They are different animals that perform the same function when it comes down to it. I would have not wanted to sell either and I really don't need two vintage sport touring bikes.
Gymi, you Jackass, you say. Buy that damn bike, get it running and make about a fifteen hundred dollar profit on it. Past experience tells me that when I by things specifically to turn a profit, I lose money most of the time. I would find about three thousand dollars worth of problems, blown head gasket, second gear is gone, a bearing is about to take a shit. I know with this bike, none of those problems were likely to rear its ugly head. Charlie seemed a completely honest man and gave no reason to believe other wise. This brings us full circle to me wanting to keep this bike.

Two,I'm shopping for a WR400 or 426. and space in the garage is becoming scarce in a hurry with the XS500 in pieces all over the place and two different tin sets clogging up my work bench waiting for my lazy ass to paint them. J.J. has the too many bikes syndrome as well and his better half would have probably had him shopping for a good divorce lawyer. Curly is a cruiser guy through and through and would not even consider a bike like this.

Mrs.Gymi was shocked when I came home empty handed. She said wow that thing must have been a real piece of crap. I told her about what I'm relaying here. She said, I knew someone dropped you on your head during your formative years. I said it is, what it is. I still haven't sprung the WR news on her yet, when I do, if that Concours was taking up space in the garage, I may have been shopping for a good divorce lawyer myself. Charlie has taken the ad down, and I guarantee you, there is someone thanking God that some dumb ass passed on such a great deal.


Till Next Time.........