newbie with questions

[newbie10]

Hi all,
I have the opportunity to buy a ’99 GZ250 with 7K miles for only $400. The guy who’s selling it says it needs a new battery (been sitting several months) and it’s recently developed a problem with the carb. He said it runs just fine, but after shutting it off & parking it, he’ll come back out & there will be a huge puddle of gas under the bike. He says it looks like it’s coming out of the carb. and through the air filter. Sounded to me like either the carb. float is sticking or there’s some junk clogging up one of the jets. He didn’t sound too mechanically inclined, and although I’ve worked on plenty of cars, I don’t have that much experience with bikes. I haven’t seen the bike yet, but plan to check it out this coming weekend (he lives about 150 miles from me). With these things in mind, does $400 sound like a good deal? I’m pretty sure I could fix it, maybe with some help from the folks on this forum :). Any thoughts?

[Easy Rider]

Hi all,
With these things in mind, does $400 sound like a good deal?

Yes, no......maybe.

The price is probably very good BUT........

VERY IMPORTANT....that you get some battery power to it so that it turns over and you get at least a little "putt" out of it so that you know there are no really major problems......like a siezed engine from having a lot of gas in the oil. :cry:

The gas problem has to be a combination of needle valve problems in the carb AND a petcock problem up by the tank......unless he was in the habit of leaving it in the PRIme position all the time. BOTH things must fail at the same time to get gas leakage like that.......but neither is a big deal to fix.....probably.

If things go sour, you probably could part it out for lots more than $400.

P.S. FORGET any idea you might have of RIDING it home. With that gas leakage problem, you could have a fire or do major damage to the engine.

[alanmcorcoran]

Depends on what your time is worth and if your main goal is fun/transportation or troubleshooting/fixing. From what I've seen on here you could get a newer bike that need's no work or parts for $1200. You already need a battery, and, unless the guy has already replaced them, you're going to need tires, and then possibly more. So you could easily spend another $300-400 on parts or more plus your time. As you've probably noticed, carb problems are very common on these bikes and it might not be anything serious. Personally, I'd be suspicious of anything priced that low but I'm only interested in riding them, not fixing them.