Price for a 1993 GS500E with 7,500 miles

[farrella17]

 
so i was a little curious, i'm selling my 93 GS500 and wanted to know what a fair price to ask for would be.  she currently has 7,500 miles on her.  paint is in good condition, mechanically sound, and only downside is she was laid down about a year ago (15-20mph) and has a few scuffs on the exhaust, handlebar, and back of mirror.  all in all, it's still a great bike in what i would consider to be good condition aside from the few scuffs.  i want to be fair to whoever gets her, but don't want to be taken to the cleaners either.  kelly blue book has her listed around 1,500 assuming there is around 30,000 plus miles on it...obviously i have far less than that.  thanks for any input you all have, or if anyone hear knows of someone in the market in southern ohio for a GS, mine's available. 

cheers

[scottpA_GS]

KBB is about right but this is a good time of year to sell a bike... clean her up pretty make sure its running tip top and you should get 1800 or so as long as the damage isnt too bad and depending on where you live.

post a pic

[farrella17]

damage isn't extensive at all...i'm replacing the right side crankcase cover, and emblem.  should be about 35 bucks, but wasn't planning on changing anything else.  new owner can do more if they'd like.  i've really enjoyed riding her, but have always wanted a cruiser and my GS was the gateway to that, so it's time to move on.  i would assume with the mileage being so low i should be able to get more than 1,500.  can't post pics right now for some reason...i've tried a few times. 

[scottpA_GS]

You should start a thread in the for sale section if you are certain you want to sell...and you can email me your pics, ill post em up for ya. 

PM me if you want my email 

[bill14224]

If you're not the original owner you don't really know how many miles are on it.  I have a VERY hard time believing your 93 has only 7,500 on it.  My 94 said 13,300 miles when I bought it last year, but don't believe that either.  KBB explains that value of old bikes is all about condition due to the fact that mechanical odometers on old bikes can't be verified as they are totally easy to defeat simply by disconnecting the cable, so listed prices are just a rough guideline.

If your assessment is honest and complete, it'll fetch probably no more than what I paid for mine.  He asked $1500 and I gave him $1200, and it has no crash damage.  Keep in mind gas was 4 bucks when I bought mine, and it took him from April until June 8 to sell it.  People aren't exactly chomping at the bit to buy a GS 500.  Most people want a cruiser or the fastest bike on the block.  The GS is neither, but it's one hell of a bike to own, as we all know.

Your bike would have to be showroom and not consuming any oil to fetch 2 grand.  How long can you ride before topping off the oil?  C'mon, fess up!

If I were you I'd ride the GS and forget the cruiser.  Haven't you been riding long enough to know cruisers suck?  Sitting upright on a mid-size bike is where it's at, my friend.  Now, if you wanted a Triumph Street Triple I'd totally understand! 

[bucks1605]

I had quite a few people contact me over the two week span of my bikes listing, I finally got someone to give me full asking price on my '96. I asked $2,200 for mine, 6,500 miles and lots of mods. I'd say list at 1,500-1,700 and see what kind of offers you get. The guy who bought mine seemed to think my price was low... 

[farrella17]

no, i'm not the original owner, but i do know the previous owner, who was the original owner and trust him that he didn't crack open the odometer and roll it back.  granted she's not in pristine condition from being dropped, but i do know she's worth more than $1000.  i'll think about starting a thread to sell on hear, list it on  ebay/craigslist/cycletrader and whatever else.  thanks for the input.

[ohgood]

If you're not the original owner you don't really know how many miles are on it.  1) I have a VERY hard time believing your 93 has only 7,500 on it.  My 94 said 13,300 miles when I bought it last year, but don't believe that either.  KBB explains that value of old bikes is all about condition due to the fact that mechanical odometers on old bikes can't be verified as they are totally easy to defeat simply by disconnecting the cable, so listed prices are just a rough guideline.

If your assessment is honest and complete, it'll fetch probably no more than what I paid for mine.  He asked $1500 and I gave him $1200, and it has no crash damage.  Keep in mind gas was 4 bucks when I bought mine, and it took him from April until June 8 to sell it.  People aren't exactly chomping at the bit to buy a GS 500.  Most people want a cruiser or the fastest bike on the block.  The GS is neither, but it's one hell of a bike to own, as we all know.

Your bike would have to be showroom and not consuming any oil to fetch 2 grand.  How long can you ride before topping off the oil?  C'mon, fess up!

2) If I were you I'd ride the GS and forget the cruiser.  Haven't you been riding long enough to know cruisers suck?  Sitting upright on a mid-size bike is where it's at, my friend.  Now, if you wanted a Triumph Street Triple I'd totally understand! 

1) it's good to be skeptical. my 96 had just a little over 3,000 miles 2 1/2 years ago when I bought it. yes, some bikes really do sit that long. still loving it at almost 30,000.

2) bingo on that one !

[scottpA_GS]

Yep.. the GS is known to be a buy and store for 10 years then sell kinda bike 

I bought my 1995 in 2005 With 150 Miles on it.. yea 150 MILES  on a 10 year old bike!! And its at about 7K now and still MINT!

I LOVE IT 

[joshr08]

actually if you look at most any bike they are very low milage no matter the year.  look at all these bikes on craiglist that are 10 yrs old and only have 4-7k miles on them.  i actually think the gs owners on here are actually the only people that ride there bikes and dont just buy them because there neighbor bought one.

[cafeboy]

I have an 05 that I got new in 07 and it only has 559 miles on it but I have not been able to ride in almost a year. 

[Farakin]

I bought 96 Shadow New when I got out of high school....paid cash for it with my graduation money.  I hated it, but my Uncle told me to never sell it that someday I would love a cruiser.  He kept it at his house and has rode it off and on for the last 10+ years...it has 5k on the clock and 1800 of them came from when I drove it from Chicago to Phoenix last summer.

Yes it is possible to have an old bike with low mileage.

[sledge]

People will always be sceptical about low mileages on older bikes, and who cracks open odos and winds back the figures?    :D     Its easier to keep 2 sets of clocks and regularly swap them over to keep the figure on the odometer low. A low mileage means nothing to an experienced or clued-up buyer who knows the tricks. I admit to doing it myself when I owned a 550F2 and used to tour Europe every year and visit the TT or LeMans and rack up maybe 2-3k in a fortnight. Everyone was doing it back then in the 80/90s before digital odos started to make an appearance. There were even instances of speedos being removed and stolen from certain bikes while parked up!.......... On a GS5 its childsplay to swap the speedo, unlike winding back the numbers its totally undetectable and the reason why I never base values solely on mileage alone. It can however work the other way and put some buyers off, if they see a ridiculously low mileage with no proof or good reason why they will suspect something isn't right and walk away.

Unless the buyer is gullable and naive the only time a low mileage is worth something is if you can back the figure up with documentation such as service records or past MOT/inspection certificates.  My GS has a paper trail going right back to the original sales invoice dated 1 Aug 1994. People like things like this, it adds value because I can prove the mileage figure is correct and that the bike is straight.

[bill14224]

...my Uncle told me to never sell it that someday I would love a cruiser. 

Don't count on it.  Tell your uncle I'm 46 and still don't like cruisers.  I will never like a heavy bike that handles slowly, poorly, or both, no matter how old I get!  My best friend has a mint Softail and I wouldn't trade my bike for his unless I would turn around and sell it.  Standards will always rule as far as I'm concerned.  They make the most sense.  When you think you need help getting others to perceive you as cool and/or accept you, you ride a cruiser.  When you ride because you have a death wish or think you must have the fastest bike on the block, you ride a rocket bike. (real racers not included)  When you ride what your brain tells you is best for daily use, you ride a standard.  My friend bowed to peer pressure from other friends when he bought the Softail, but I like what I like.  Every time I see them they nag me to get a Harley, while they complain about vibration and the noise from each other's pipes when they go riding.  Go figure!

[fred]

People will always be sceptical about low mileages on older bikes, and who cracks open odos and winds back the figures?    :D     Its easier to keep 2 sets of clocks and regularly swap them over to keep the figure on the odometer low. A low mileage means nothing to an experienced or clued-up buyer who knows the tricks. I admit to doing it myself when I owned a 550F2 and used to tour Europe every year and visit the TT or LeMans and rack up maybe 2-3k in a fortnight. Everyone was doing it back then in the 80/90s before digital odos started to make an appearance. There were even instances of speedos being removed and stolen from certain bikes while parked up!.......... On a GS5 its childsplay to swap the speedo, unlike winding back the numbers its totally undetectable and the reason why I never base values solely on mileage alone. It can however work the other way and put some buyers off, if they see a ridiculously low mileage with no proof or good reason why they will suspect something isn't right and walk away.

Unless the buyer is gullable and naive the only time a low mileage is worth something is if you can back the figure up with documentation such as service records or past MOT/inspection certificates.  My GS has a paper trail going right back to the original sales invoice dated 1 Aug 1994. People like things like this, it adds value because I can prove the mileage figure is correct and that the bike is straight.

It seems like the easiest thing to do on a GS would be to just wrap the odometer back around to 0... You wouldn't need to get a second odometer or open the original up, just wind it up past 99,999.9 and get back to 0...

[sledge]

Whatever you might choose to do, its not difficult to fiddle it on a GS5 and hide the true figure, hence the reason why the figure is not to be relied on.

Have a look on ebay and see how much used bike clocks go for. For some strange reason the low mileage ones always seem to cost more than higher mileage ones   

[fred]

Whatever you might choose to do, its not difficult to fiddle it on a GS5 and hide the true figure, hence the reason why the figure is not to be relied on.

Have a look on ebay and see how much used bike clocks go for. For some strange reason the low mileage ones always seem to cost more than higher mileage ones   

Good point. At least most places seem to make you record the mileage on the title, so you can catch people doing stupid things like rolling it back too far. As long as a bike has had a fair number of owners, you can assume not too much cheating has gone on...

[scottpA_GS]

And in most cases like mine you can see that there was no possible way that the bike had over 20 0Miles on it... There was no dirt, nothing.... You can pretty much tell by how beatup dirty, faded, rusty a bike is and wear on certain parts/areas and guess if its mileage seems off..

[fred]

And in most cases like mine you can see that there was no possible way that the bike had over 20 0Miles on it... There was no dirt, nothing.... You can pretty much tell by how beatup dirty, faded, rusty a bike is and wear on certain parts/areas and guess if its mileage seems off..

Don't know about that necessarily... My bike with 87,000+ miles on it has a whole lot less rust than the one with 23,000+ miles on it. They are both 1994s from California too...

[pjm204]

I have to agree, some bikes just don't get ridden. I bought a '78 GS400 and it had 5k miles on it. I didn't doubt it for a second, the bike was like brand new...Original owner. ohh and it was 400 bucks...sold it for a healthy profit at 2k haha...

As for your bike, I bought a 99 with 7k, no damage, good shape for 1500. I wouldn't expect more than 1500 especially with any type of damage. my 2001 with 4k miles sold for 2200. Location, condition, and the buyer will set the price.