For me, it’s a labour of love & passion. There are so many great classic and historic bikes that deserve to be revived. But yeah, you gotta be sure resurrection is possible for your efforts. Or at very least, education opportunity is worth it.

 

This one was sitting for 15 years, it cost about $2.5 Aus to do a top end & brake lines etc. Luckily the patina craze is flavor of the times. Over here I could get $6K Aus for it, $900 puchase price.

 

Some bikes are more worthy of the effort than others. The GS850 is very worthy.

 

I have a few opinions on the subject.... I've restored a few bikes and wouldn't advise doing it unless it is a bike you want for yourself or that particular make/model has some specific personal value such as it was your dad's or maybe your first bike. If you think you will restore a barn find and sell it for a profit, that likely won't happen. You may break even at best.

I wouldn't let the fact that you don't have a work space or tools deter you from restoring an old bike. It really only takes a little corner of the garage or barn to do the work and you can acquire the tools as you need them. genel is correct in stating that you can learn a lot from folks on this site as well as YouTube, etc. I've gained the confidence to work on my main street bike from restoring old bikes. Previously, I would not have wanted to work on my main street bike for fear of screwing something up.

A project bike doesn't have to be running to be a good candidate but I'd stay away from "basket case" bikes i.e. those that are in pieces in a plastic bin. You won't know if the parts are all there or even the correct parts for the bike!

Working on old bikes is a worthwhile hobby and gives me something motorcycle related to do in the winter when I can't/won't ride.

 

I wouldn't let the fact that you don't have a work space or tools deter you from restoring an old bike. It really only takes a little corner of the garage or barn ...

Don't take bike from someone else's barn and put it in your barn, it'll just sit.
I find it's fastest to put it in living room. Then you can work on it while watching TV.

 

XLMark, some great comments and advice.
I currently live in an apartment, so my options are few. I did replace a head gasket on my Toyota truck recently in the parking lot, and now I've got a reputation as a certified nut or genius depending on who you talk to. As for my Honda, I got lucky. As it's 40 years old, I got lucky, it had little wrong. I did not want a basket case for reasons detailed in my last post, and so far all I've had to do is rebuild the clutch slave cylinder and clean/rebuild all 4 carbs. The worst part of that was removing them, I learned removing the inner fender worked wonders. When I move, hopefully I will end up in a place that fits my needs and my wife's.
On your comment about restoration of barn finds, I agree, but guys with youtube channels such as Brickhouse Builds and the Bearded Mechanic seem to be doing ok. However, the bearded mechanic guy never mentions selling his restorations, at least not that I remember. I wonder if they make most of their money off the channel

 

How do you guys a distinguish between the barn find that needs a dozen new parts and 100 hours of labor to make it run safely on the street --never mind running as good as new-- and the other kind of barn find that just needs to have the fluids drained and refilled, and maybe the carburetor cleaned, all old gas drained and new premium fuel put in put in, and of course a new battery installed?

 

When you are looking at a non-running bike that spent the last several years covered in a ripped blue tarp behind somebody's garage and the seller just wheeled it out into the middle of the backyard sprayed it off with a hose and put a for sale sign on it, and listed it on the Internet,


what can you do there in that seller's backyard to try to figure out how much effort you're gonna have to put into that thing before you make a bid ?

 

To properly restore worthy bikes from the 60s 70s and early 1980s defined as Barn finds a bike setting for many years in need of almost everything BUT 100% complete. Be prepared to spend countless hours on the internet searching for parts that will come at a premium price. My restorations are as near to off the show room floor as parts will allow and will never be sold for anyway near the investment and time put into them. It must be a hobby and an absolute labor of love to see these bikes that started it all brought back to life. A quality restoration can take between 3 to 4years so have lots of TIME and MONEY.

 

We never add up our time into the cost of a restoration into the selling or asking price of a finished project

 

I tend to stay away from anything Chinese for all the same reasons. Poor quality all round. I like how much you learn from working on the old bikes though. Like you I am a bit stubborn and I know what you say is quite correct in many ways but I still enjoy it

 

Im not a resto guy putting a Vincent in showroom condition is something I admire but have no desire to do. I like bitsas that homage great bikes. But I've got more works in progress than I have days to work on. Spent a year and a half getting a Moto Guzzi to electro-security. That marq's motto is "Moto Guzzi, making motorcycle mechanics for a 100 years" That used up my project time. I think I'll get my Triumphy Tiger Cub homage running this winter though. British looks and Japenese engeneering is my groove.