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Cheap 6k mile '80 MS for sale (friend's bike) near Mansfield OH
I wanted to throw this out there before I open it up to the mouthbreathers on FB marketplace: my buddy in NE Ohio is getting ready to sell his 1980 Midnight Special. It's a super low mileage bike but is not great cosmetically. Saddleman seat cover in good shape. Crappy repaint on the tank, a lot of the original gold chome was redone with some kind of "gold" spray paint, the airbox is a regular non MS one. Fair amount of corrosion on hardware throughout the bike, on the header pipes etc. Forks have some pitting but outside of the travel of the seals from what I saw. I'll just say it looks better in photos than in person, so you've been warned!
I went through the carbs, replaced the float valves with new OEM, all stock original jetting. Rear caliper fully rebuilt with new seals and stainless piston. Runs and rides excellent. The smoothness of the transmission in particular stands out to me, as a guy that has only owned 25k+ mile XS1100s. Has some older tires that will need replacing based on age. I was going to see if we might be able to get $2000 out of it at the AMA Vintage Days swap meet but he'd gladly let go of it for less if it went to an XS11 person who would appreciate it. With some cosmetic refurbishment (rechroming of some of the gold trim if anyone can do that) it could be a super low mile Midnight Special.
I went through the carbs, replaced the float valves with new OEM, all stock original jetting. Rear caliper fully rebuilt with new seals and stainless piston. Runs and rides excellent. The smoothness of the transmission in particular stands out to me, as a guy that has only owned 25k+ mile XS1100s. Has some older tires that will need replacing based on age. I was going to see if we might be able to get $2000 out of it at the AMA Vintage Days swap meet but he'd gladly let go of it for less if it went to an XS11 person who would appreciate it. With some cosmetic refurbishment (rechroming of some of the gold trim if anyone can do that) it could be a super low mile Midnight Special.