Struck Gold!

I found a promising ad on Craigslist with someone selling an RD400 for $800. In the picture, it was kind of a basket case, but I did spot some pretty nice looking chambers on it, so I tried calling the phone number posted, as there was no email address on the ad. I left two messages, but I didn't get any calls back. Later that night, I spotted someone on a 2-stroke forum drawing more attention to the ad. So I figured that the guy had already sold off the bike.

The next day, as a last ditch effort, I called the number again, and unexpectedly, someone picked up the call! The bike had not been sold and he had two sets of pipes available. The chambers I was interested in were first thought to be Spec II pipes, but after more careful examination, he reported that they were actually Factory Products. I gave him my email address and he sent me a few snaps of the pipes and they were good! We made arrangements for me to drive out and check out the goods over the upcoming weekend.

On Saturday, I drove out to meet the seller. He was putting his house on the market in a few weeks and his wife asked him to liquidate his pile of bike parts, since he hadn't riden any motorcycles for years. Basically, he had three RD400's, all in different phases of decay, the worst being he one stripped to the frame and was about to chuck the frame. He had boxes and plastic crates of parts, some parts had never been used before! The Factory pipes were in pretty good condition- some minor dents, but no serious rust, and the silencers were in excellent shape. One of the silencers got bent in a little at the end of the pipe, but it was no big deal. He was happy accepting $125 for the pipes. What a great deal!!

We got talking about bikes and other stuff. As the conversation lingered, he kept pulling parts out and offering them to me. He gave me a bag of new engine gaskets (minus a few gaskets), so I kept asking if he had other parts. The end result was I drove home with the chambers, a stator (with that rubber plug that I was missing), a practically new headlamp with the undented, uncrashed ring (it will need to be replated), and two NEVER BEEN USED VM28 Mikuni carbs!! These carbs have never even touched gas! There are a couple of jets and gaskets that have corroded, but that's not a problem. He was going to give me all this "extra" stuff, but that would've been like stealing from him, so I offered him another $40. He was pretty indifferent about the cash, but I felt better that I gave him something.

In summation, for $165, I got everything you see in the picture, plus a small green container full of extra miscellaneous carb parts, like main jets and the such (again, never been taken out of their bags). I was due for a little luck coming my way- I have nothing to complain about here!