Selling my 71 cb500 cafe racer

[carnivorous chicken]

I'll be honest: looks like some nice work, although as has been mentioned there are some problems (tires, fork brace, etc.). But to answer your question, most folks on this forum do stuff themselves. They want the bike that looks like the before photo, not the after photo. You're marketing to the wrong folks. That being said, you must've been paying shop rates to get $4k into that bike; I don't see how doing it yourself could add up to that.

 

[oldskool]

its cause they have a name,this is not a place to post that for sell. Don't take the caferacer.net tip either. You put a lot of work into it and you should stick to craigslist n cycletrader.

 

[coyote13]

Also regarding the Gravel Crew comment, see VonYinzer post #68 below, it explains plenty.

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=54266.60;topicseen

 

[bryantr]

I like the bike. I've always had fun with vintage bikes and never tried squeezing much performance out of them so the lack of sticky rubber and a fork brace isn't as big of a deal to me. I guess in my mind cafe racers would be used for about the same use as a bobber/chopper (if I had one). I'll ride a more modern bike for spirited rides.

It's your bike and if it's worth 5k to you, don't take a penny less or you'll regret it. I'm kind of getting to the point where I don't want to sell my bikes though. May take longer to save for the next project, but you can never have too many.

 

[Rich Ard]

It's your bike and if it's worth 5k to you, don't take a penny less or you'll regret it..

Make sure not to shit in both hands, though, you'll want to leave one to wish in.

 

[rockcitycafe]

Here's the 100% honest deal. You put a bike together and came on here trying to sell it, there's a lot of unsafe stuff on it, and you never asked any one for advice as to how to do things. It shouldn't be a huge surprise that your foray into "custom building" was met with scrutiny. Take it as a life lesson, buck up, carry on and do better.

 

[Zookrocker]

Its a sweet bike, and I get why you feel it's worth that much, but as someone who just finished a flurry of selling off old vehicles, I can say that people will scrutinize everything you have done or haven't done, but if the machine won't carry a certain value, then it just won't carry it. Some powdercoat and a few visual mods do not a custom bike make, and it won't carry that kind of price. It's unique, after a fashion, and custom in a sense, but it's still just an old Honda that for the most part is going to perform about the way it did in 1971. If you feel you have to have that kind of $$ out of it then stick to your guns, but value and worth are not always one in the same.
That all being said, nice job on it. It's a great looking bike. A few more performance mods and it would probably be a spectacular performer too. Good Luck!