old_kaw wrote: I do sympathize with you if you indeed were duped by the PO, but there are are wayyyy too many other hands in this deal to vilify him completely. Buyers remorse is like hindsight.. 20/20. I don't follow every post on the forum, so I have no idea of any other discussions on this bike. There are a lot of assumptions in this thread though.
Shippers are not as careful as owners while handling a collectible riceburner and may have been the culprits breaking off a cooling fin during shipment. God only knows what happens to a bike when a shipper hops on for the obligatory joy ride. YeHa!
These engines are notorious for leaking from the heads as most KZriders / owners can attest to after 40 + years. The leaks are bound to rear their ugly heads soon.
Replacing all the valves and guides is something that is subjective to the machine shop's opinion, and may not have been because of mileage / wear, but instead of pitting of the seats and valve margin area's. Some shops will do this just to be through, and to make sure that it is truly refurbished to their specs. Not necessarily because it's worn out, yet pitted seats and valve margins from the usual corrosion. Something one machinist may use in his own bike would be unacceptable to leave in a customer's engine. Then of course, companies stay in business by making money, not from consultation and parts inspections.
$7K is a LOT of money to pay for a bike sight unseen. I would NEVER buy a bike long distance without personally looking at it first. As you are finding all of the little things like pry marks and broken fins are pretty obvious. I would have spent the "shipping fee's" on a road trip in a pickup truck and looked at it before shelling out any money on the bike. I would then load it into said truck and haul it home myself. That's just me.
At any rate, I hope you get your old / new bike back together soon and are able to enjoy it as it should be. Beautiful bike BTW!
All very true, but I only have buyers remorse when I don't get taken for a ride and wonder if I really needed what I bought, such as a small knee mill I added to my basement. There was nothing wrong with the mill, but for a period of time I wondered if I really needed it. In the end I have used it a lot so bye-bye any remorse. The cooling fin that is broken off is in the left rear center of the cylinder block just above the engine case. Pretty difficult for a shipper to damage that area, but I will add the shipper is well known and widely used. I suppose they could have been responsible for the spoked wheels being out of true had they strapped the bike down over the wheels and ran the straps down too tight and left it that way for almost four weeks. $450.00 to true up the wheels was an expense I never anticipated and one I can't blame anyone for.
Knowing what I know now I would have asked for many more pictures of the bike including closeups of areas I (now) know are suspect to damage. I could have perhaps seen the damaged cooling fin and the myriad of messed up screw heads on an engine that was never supposedly worked on. I may also have seen the oil running down the front of the engine block, but it's water under the bridge now. I have my fingers crossed that once the motor is back together that it runs good and then I can decide what to do with the rest of the bike. Who knows, it may be an outstanding runner worthy of a full blown restoration. We will see.
Rick H.