Tommorow night my man and I are going to take a look at a 1982 FXR Shovelhead. In the pictures it looks pristine, and I spoke with somone at the dealership briefly. He wouldn't confirm or deny an oil leak, he did however suggest that ALL shovelheads have some sort of oil issues with regard to oil leakage.

Are there signs that a novice can look for (besides an obvious puddle of oil where the bike is sitting, lol) to detect an oil leak and its severity? Is an oil leak a total killer as far as a deal on a bike?

I have no concept, other than what I have learned on Discovery channel, abnout how an engine works so I can use any tips you could give me. My guy is good with a car engine but isn't as knowledgeable about bikes. The bike has ALOT of extras and mechanic frend of ours was impressed by what he saw in the descriptions and the pictures. His concern was that at $10,500 it was a little high on the price side, even as clean as it was and with all the extras.

Any comments, words of wisdom or warning are GREATLY appreciated!!!

 

The price I don't know about, as far as the things to look for, you have a good resource in your mechanic friend. Take him with you, he will know what to look for to see if the bike is mechanically sound or not, what might need fixing or might need replacement in a short time. Don't get in a hurry lots of bikes out there, but if you run into a good one that you can afford latch on to it.

Good luck

John TN

 

O.K. Fallenangel,

First of all you will never find a Shovelhead that doens't leak. They use to say that Harley's didn't leak, they just marked their spot. And mark their spot they did. I rode shovels for years and just was aware of all the leaks and carried a quart of oil with me everywhere I went.

I think the price is out of line for a 23 yr old bike. For a couple grand more you can get a 90's model in decent shape that all trained Harley mecdanics can work on.

The choice is yours. I would keep looking and try to save a little more money to get something more dependable.

If you have anymore questions let me know.

Terry

 

There's been some good advice laid out for you. But I had a Shovel that didn't leak a drop. But that was after going to a belt primary so there was no oil there to leak. And the chain oiler was shut off. And I replaced the rocker arm seals with some made of teflon. And I replaced the main drive gear & countershaft seals with aftermarket double-lip seals, and installed a supernut on the sprocket. I also replaced those seals yearly.

You will do a lot more maintenance on a Shovel than a later Evo or twinkie motor. And unless all those add-ons are exactly what you want, they have little or no value as far as resale goes. Kelly Blue book lists that model for $7800 retail. That's what a dealer should ask for one in excellent shape.

 

You really have to be in love with "That" bike to pay $10,500.00 for it. I am sure there are some out there that are worth that , this may be one I don't know. I will tell you this, I have machined on Shovels and evo's and the evo is buy far a better design cyl head and will provide many more miles between top end rebuilds.If you don't know much about doing any mechanic work I would recommend doing the evo route. You can find some FXR evo bikes with the rubber mount eng in the 8500.00 range in my area. There are alot of evo's on ebay you can get for 10K.Good luck with what ever you choose.

 

Okay guys and dolls, I am in a quandry. We went to look at the 82' FXR. Cosemetically it is in excellent shape for the year. The ghost flame paint job is impeccable. The rear wheel has this aluminum plate covering god knows what behind it, but we were planning on lowering any bike we get and getting a thicker tire anyway.

The guy at the shop tells us that the FXR frame came about the year Harley Davidson "let their engineers go wherever they wanted." He told us that frame didn't last because it was just not "economically feasible." Can anyone out there tell me if this is true? and if it is is is it a big deal?

He told us that although there are those who like the newer evo motors, pulling up on a shovel head will get you noticed. We felt some moisture beneath the crank case cover but that was the only place. There was no obvious signs of spotting where the bike was sitting. We checked the entire bike for rust and oxidation and found NONE. The shop owns the bike outright, it is not a consignment. I was hoping this would give us some play with the price tag but they weren't budging, even with the word CASH.

The bike started up immediately. There was no smoke out of the pipes. The clutch and brake handle did not match but ithat should be an easy enough fix. (It will only bother me because I am **** about things being even on both sides).

The front end has been replaced with a wide glide and with top of the line risers with Carlini 1 1/4" drag bars. These two factors alone are what they offered as reasons for not coming down in price. That and the difficulty finding FXR frames. Also, this bike only has 13,000 miles on it. The oil cooler was a bit flaky in the finish but I believe that can be replaced? There is some wiring cover that is frayed on the headlight on one side. We want to change out all hoses to braided hoses so I think this is minor.

We were able to get them down to 10 grand even. If it were up to me, an emotionally driven female with a strange attraction to the color purple and REALLY loud pipes, we would already own it.

I am torn. Is this guy a really good salesman who has me believing this is the deal of a life time or should I stand my ground?

Being a newb is EXHAUSTIING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are seriously considering putting a deposit down but I wanted to come home and get a few of more opinions. I do appreciate everything everyone has told me regarding price this far, I went so far as to print your posts and bring them along for moral support on the hard sell.

I was just wondering if any of these new facts change those opinions. Personally, I prefer the older motors, the shovel and the knuckle are my favorites. My guy prefers new everything. I want a bike that stands out and I don't mind him having to get a little dirty to get one, lol.

Thanks again to all for everything so far.

 

For those interested the bike can be seen on ebay at

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...553285372&rd=1

The bid is up to 9800.

so $10,000 would not seem unreasonable at this point. $0.02.

 

Great, Trip now what if someone outbids me?

As if it isn't bad enough that I am in the grips of such a monumentous decision you hurl obstacles at me???

Oh, the humanity!!!!

How the heck did you find it anyway slick?

 

Angel,

You better watch "Slick", he's a bidder from hell on E-Bay. He has'nt ever lost a bid yet and you better be ready for battle.


[sm=joke.gif]


By the way Slick how did you find that bike?



John TN

 

"I haf my vays," he said sticking a monocle in his right eye.

Seriously, I was trying to find a comparable bike on ebay and lo there she was.