If Rodney Dangerfield comes back to us reincarnated as a motorcycle, this would be his gig. All the right pieces, no respect. Built in the early 1980s and riding the fad wave of boosted power, the Seca Turbo simply never had a serious mission. Based off of the namesake Secas of the Yamaha lineup, these bikes were the poster children of the UJM. Whereas Honda followed the sport tourer route, Suzuki went for the sportbike and Kawasaki sought to own the strip with performance, Yamaha went the bland route and built the Seca. With the lowest boost and least performance of all the factory Turbo bikes, the Seca was a bit unloved.
1982 Yamaha XJ650 Turbo for sale on eBay
None of the factory Turbo bikes sold well in the showroom. Expensive and complicated, heavy and lacking performance, the Turbo hype could not match reality. Yamaha stayed in the game longer than any other manufacturer, and as such produced more bikes than the others. Unfortunately, finding a clean Seca Turbo is rare; these are all too often trashed and discarded as oddities. That makes this 1,250 mile example pretty special. Because once the hype of the Turbo era was over, the reality was that the Seca made for a reasonable mount. If you don’t expect Hyabusa power or Panigale handling, the Seca will offer a unique experience in its own right.
From the seller:
This is one of the nicest all original extremely low mileage Yamaha Seca Turbo motorcycles you may ever come across in excellent overall condition 9 of 10. Everything works as it should mechanically & electrically functioning 100% & is cosmetically as nice as I’ve seen outside the showroom in the 80’s. It has always been stored in a climate controlled environment. I am an avid car & motorcycle collector. This is the nicest riding of all the Turbo era bikes I have (all but the Suzuki XN85). It has never been down or damaged. The previous owner replaced the fork seals & tires due to age. Oil & filter recently changed and a battery tender plug-in has been added for ease of keeping on the tender in my building as I do all my bikes & cars. It has been tuned with new plugs, valve adjustment, needles & seals. The only issue I am aware of whatsoever is that if I don’t ride it on occasion, the check valve may stick which forces oil into the turbo and gets dumped out the wastegate left-hand side exhaust slight drips. Bike is always stored on the center stand with gas petcock turned off as recommended by the Yamaha Turbo Forums.
This bike is available via auction with a starting price of $3,495. Seca Turbos have not significantly risen in value over the years, and we have seen clean examples change hands in the $5-6k region. This particular bike looks to be in great shape, and the low miles and collector storage has certainly helped to preserve this example. Click the link to jump over to the auction and check it out. While you’re there, take a gander at some of the other cool stuff this seller has in his stable!
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