In March of this year I decided to sell a bike I had spent 5 years and a substantial investment building based on a 1982 R80 RT.
Not wanting to be involved with the various people who might want to buy it I thought I would involve a regular bike salesman who might be able to help on a sale or return basis. I discussed it with a known bike salesman from near York and he looked at it on an Airhead social day and liked it and took it home in his van. We had agreed a price that I thought he might be able to make a sensible profit on. Several days later I had a communication from him to say he really liked it and would like to buy it and have it as a ‘keeper’. Would I consider a ’90 100GS in part ex and the rest in cash. The pictures showed a bike that looked quite good but I decided to go and look at it properly first.
This is the bike.

My examination revealed the above bike which looks fairly presentable with a good paint job by Chris Tunbridge. It ran but was noisy but I have a fairly good idea how to make them run properly (I’ve got two
other Airhead GS’s.) We agreed a price and he had sold another GS to another forum member fairly close to me that was to be paid for a few days later.
I took the GS home with me and attended the settlement meeting for the other GS a few days later at which I was given a part settlement in cash with the rest to be paid by Paypal later that day and the pannier frames and panniers that were not present originally to be delivered to a repair business a few days later as he was having a bike built there.
I set the bike up as best I could and on an evening ride found the lights to be flickering. I got under the front cover and found that the diode board was flapping about and the timing chain cover only had half the bolts in it should have had. Inside the headlamp nacelle was the same and had been butchered. The brakes were poor so I ordered some proper pads (Lucas TRW) for it which when they came didn’t fit because the caliper had been replaced by a smaller one from an RT. I have since obtained a proper caliper from a fellow forum member.
After having run it for about 1000 miles I find it is using 1Litre of oil every 200 miles and I could not make it run sensibly quiet. Time to look a little further.
i pulled the heads and barrels off and found that the barrels were worn out and the pistons likewise. closer examination of the heads revealed that the tops of the valves were badly worn along with the rocker gear. I decided to pull the engine and gearbox out and check everything, the crankcase is scrap having had the barrel studs helicoiled and butchered along with the oil pump housing, gearbox is the wrong one for the bike and is in a similar state as is the driveshaft and bevel drive.
The previous owner of this bike is a well known Airhead restorer from Derby. The previous MOT from 2008 shows a reading of 85,00km which tends to indicate it was imported from the continent.
I suspect it’s been used as a donor bike for the good bits which have been replaced with worn out bits and tarted up. I feel I’ve been kippered and I can’t afford to rebuild it properly so I’m going to break it I think.
I still haven’t been paid the outstanding money or pannier frames and panniers.
Not wanting to be involved with the various people who might want to buy it I thought I would involve a regular bike salesman who might be able to help on a sale or return basis. I discussed it with a known bike salesman from near York and he looked at it on an Airhead social day and liked it and took it home in his van. We had agreed a price that I thought he might be able to make a sensible profit on. Several days later I had a communication from him to say he really liked it and would like to buy it and have it as a ‘keeper’. Would I consider a ’90 100GS in part ex and the rest in cash. The pictures showed a bike that looked quite good but I decided to go and look at it properly first.
This is the bike.

My examination revealed the above bike which looks fairly presentable with a good paint job by Chris Tunbridge. It ran but was noisy but I have a fairly good idea how to make them run properly (I’ve got two
other Airhead GS’s.) We agreed a price and he had sold another GS to another forum member fairly close to me that was to be paid for a few days later.
I took the GS home with me and attended the settlement meeting for the other GS a few days later at which I was given a part settlement in cash with the rest to be paid by Paypal later that day and the pannier frames and panniers that were not present originally to be delivered to a repair business a few days later as he was having a bike built there.
I set the bike up as best I could and on an evening ride found the lights to be flickering. I got under the front cover and found that the diode board was flapping about and the timing chain cover only had half the bolts in it should have had. Inside the headlamp nacelle was the same and had been butchered. The brakes were poor so I ordered some proper pads (Lucas TRW) for it which when they came didn’t fit because the caliper had been replaced by a smaller one from an RT. I have since obtained a proper caliper from a fellow forum member.
After having run it for about 1000 miles I find it is using 1Litre of oil every 200 miles and I could not make it run sensibly quiet. Time to look a little further.
i pulled the heads and barrels off and found that the barrels were worn out and the pistons likewise. closer examination of the heads revealed that the tops of the valves were badly worn along with the rocker gear. I decided to pull the engine and gearbox out and check everything, the crankcase is scrap having had the barrel studs helicoiled and butchered along with the oil pump housing, gearbox is the wrong one for the bike and is in a similar state as is the driveshaft and bevel drive.
The previous owner of this bike is a well known Airhead restorer from Derby. The previous MOT from 2008 shows a reading of 85,00km which tends to indicate it was imported from the continent.
I suspect it’s been used as a donor bike for the good bits which have been replaced with worn out bits and tarted up. I feel I’ve been kippered and I can’t afford to rebuild it properly so I’m going to break it I think.
I still haven’t been paid the outstanding money or pannier frames and panniers.
amazing bike
