Negotiating OTD price with Dealer

[flynrider]

Good luck!

Hey, I just noticed the '76 KZ750 in your sig. I had 4 Kaw 750 twins back in the old days, including a red '76. Those were the days when the inline-4s were too pricey for my budget. Great bikes.

I vaguely remember the twin 750 Kaws from back in the day also. Wasnt it marketed as a budget 750 for those who didnt want to slap down the extra money for the inline 4's? I dont remember much about them to be honest. Wasnt this also about the same time that Kaw advertised their new 650/4 as outrunning any 750 right out of the crate or something to that effect?

Exactly. If you couldn't afford the pricier inline 4s, the twin was the alternatve budget bike. Much like Yammie's XS650 twin was the alternative to their much more expensive inline triple and four cylinder XJ bikes.

At the time, Kaw's popular KZ650/4 made about the same hp as the other mfrs. 750s, but was lighter (and therefore faster). Kaw didn't get around to making a 750/4 until 1980.

The twins didn't have the horsepower of the fours (about 52 at the rear wheel), but they had plenty of torque and were solid as a rock. I used to race one against the 4 cyl. UJMs in the 80s and it would tear 'em up our tight road course, but they'd catch up on the long straightaway.

My favorite was the '80 LTD twin. It was my first brand new bike and, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, I paid the $2K MSRP out the door. It looked just like this one :

Flynrider,
The KZ has been my first and only motorcycle for nearly a decade now. I got it as a bit of a basket-case that had been rotting away in the back of a friend's garage for 12 years... or at least that's how old the tabs on it were. I had always been interested in owning a bike and he owed me $100 for helping him with some work on his house so I suggested he keep the cash and give me the bike instead. He gladly accepted my offer and surprisingly still had the title so, I was suddenly the owner of a motorcycle... a motorcycle that hadn't been started in over a decade and whose tank and carbs I quickly discovered were caked in varnished gas. God alone knew what else was wrong with it. I found a Factory Service Manual for the bike online and spent the better part of that whole summer learning how to fix motorcycles... or THAT motorcycle at least. The first time it fired up and ran remains to this day one of the more exhilarating moments of my life.

It's been an around-town commuter for me for awhile now and seems to run a little better every year. However, it doesn't run perfectly and I don't trust it enough to take it out of the city. Hence my search for a new bike. The CB1100 will fit the bill nicely I think. Sadly, due to limited garage space, I will probably be trying to sell the Kaw this Spring when the CB arrives. That will be sad for me but, hopefully whoever buys it will have more time and money than I do and will continue working on it and returning it to its former glory.

[url=http://s124.photobucket.com/user/barkingshins/media/IMG_0141_zpsfda7e920.jpg.html]

Wow. Great job bringing that one back to life. I'm sure the next owner will probably get another 10 yrs. out of it. By the time i got rid of my last one, I'd ridden about 250K miles on 750 twins.

Going from that to a CB1100 is going to be quite a treat. The first thing you'll notice is the lack of vibration, followed by the kind of acceleration you've only dreamed of