[mikestew]

You obviously RTFA, but it's intellectually dishonest to state that all it needs is a new battery and a little carb cleaner. Sure, you get it running, and take it down the road. Now the forks seals demonstrate that they're dried out and cracked, and leaking oil. I don't know how old the bike was at the time of writing, but let's assume 30 years old. Odds are really good that the brake lines have never been replaced. Hell, it's possible that it's riding on original tires.

As one who has made the mistake of buying a bike that had been sitting a few years, if someone asked me to ball-park an estimate, $1000 might begin to cover it. One might very well get away with less, but I wouldn't count on it for my estimate.

(And I've owned several Honda V4s over the years: those carbs do NOT come out easily, and they go back in even harder.)

[moudis]

It discounts what you're liable to run into once you start disassembling things on old bikes, really. Sometimes you discover that a previous owner or mechanic thought red Loctite belonged on the screws holding the four carburetors together[^0], and your afternoon now involves a torch and chasing threads in old aluminum carburetor bodies. Sometimes you find that the bike was last touched in an era before anyone knew what a JIS screwdriver was, and every fastener is nearly stripped. Sometimes it's not even the bike, but that the last supply for a part is some shop in Maine that just happened to hold one for two decades.

My last encounter with a VFR750 involved a heat gun and a pry-bar to remove the carburetors, they're no joke.

[^0]: I love my GS1000G, but this wasn't my favorite part of getting it roadworthy.

[taylodl]

I'm a new motorcycle rider riding a Suzuki and I didn't know what a JIS screwdriver was! Thanks to you I do now!

[names_are_hard]

If all that comes off this entire HN post is that you get a good set of JIS screwdrivers, it's all worth it. It'll save you trouble down the line. Don't try to open the brake reservoir [0] screws with a Phillips. Ask me how I know.

[0] You might have a plastic reservoir with a screw-off cap, in which case... you'll use the JIS for something else.

P.S. Congrats on the new bike! Take an advanced riding course, read Keith Code, and buy good gear and you'll have a ton of fun with it.

[1970-01-01]

No, "all the problems from sitting" for 2 years should not include new brake lines, forks, etc. It does need just a carb clean and battery. Over-estimates are just as bad, if not worse, for a mechanic's reputation. He either did work that did not need doing, or simply said $1000 because he didn't want that shitty job.

[pengaru]

$1k is a reasonable ballpark estimate for something like that sight-unseen from an experienced mechanic who understands how to manage expectations and prevent getting into situations where he's over-promised and under-estimated costs.

When you err in the other direction it tends to produce worse outcomes for everyone involved, with the mechanic often ending up eating the difference.

(I've worked as an auto mechanic in a former life)

[bityard]

I restore and wrench on vintage motorcycles. I also balked at first when I read this, but I think it comes down to bad storytelling rather than a shady mechanic.

A motorcycle that has been sitting for 2 years does NOT need a complete overhaul, as you point out. But there is much-better-than-even chance that the 1983 motorcycle hadn't had ANY major maintenance done to it up to the point it stopped being ridden. It was probably parked in the first place because it stopped running due to lack of maintenance. And everything the mechanic listed that needed to be done likely hadn't been done in decades.

[futureproofd]

Here in Ontario at least, when you transfer ownership of a bike, you have to get it certified for safety. In my case, the bike was an '81 xs400 which required a fork seal replacement and new front tire (due to side wall damage). With parts and labour I paid approximately $500. Fair enough.

Now, if he had recommended a full carb clean and battery replacement, of course that would bring the total to over $1000. Those recommendations are optional though, and your bike can live without them (if you enjoy using the kickstarter constantly ;)