One thing I have noticed about rare sport bikes is that you wont see a bike for sale for a long time and then suddenly multiple versions pop up either within months or at the same time. One of my first posts to to RSBFS was when three Red Bull KTM RC8’s came up for auction on ebay at the same time, which made me think a guy named Beelzebub was breaking out the ice skates. Recently we had multiple posts of Harley VR-1000’s and earlier this week there were multiple Ducati MH900e’s available at the same time.
1990 Suzuki GSX-R 750 for sale on eBay
We had an almost identical 1990 GSX-R 750 on RSBFS earlier this year (click here to see that listing). Just like that bike, this one is located in Texas and is in the rarer but to my eyes better looking red, black and white color scheme instead of the traditional gsx-r blue and white . EDITORS NOTE: I am located in Texas myself so I may be biased towards any bike that is in the colors of a local university team (go Red Raiders!)
This particular example has higher mileage than the one from earlier in the year. The seller is a dealer but includes over 50 pics which provide a pretty good way to assess the bikes true condition.
From what I can see in the pictures attached to the auction, it has some very light scuff marks in the clear coat on the riders left side which makes me think it had a low speed slide at some point, probably onto some grass. Also the front forks are a little rough but look serviceable and it has a few small non-stock items including a D&D pipe and a tank cover. Overall it looks very pristine to me but I am not an expert on these bikes so perhaps others can comment.
While KBB lists these bikes at a retail value of under 3k, I think that price is well below the current value being placed on these bikes. Due to the mileage and condition this one will likely not go for the price of the one earlier this year but this could be a way for anyone who missed out on that auction to add this bike to their personal collection.
-Marty
Also one of my “love” paint jobs (I have 1 of each 88 B/W, 88 R/B/W, 89 B/W, 89 R/B/W all 750’s and one I really love is my 91 B/W 1100) these bikes are good handling and are almost trouble free with proper maint. While the 1st gen is more collectible the 2nd gen is a better rider.
“Well under 3” may be for a typical example, This is not typical. Beautiful bike.
I would of liked to add this to my collection but I believe they said they wanted 6500 for it. In great shape but seems a bit high. There’s a really clean blue and white 1100 in canada (early 90’s though) but not sure if it’s difficult to import bikes from Canada (into the states) …anyone happen to know?
Adam-
I helped a guy in Regina locate a laverda ghost strike earlier this year, he had it shipped to montana and then went down and got it. Apparently it was pretty easy.
His name is doug durst at the university of regina, email is doug dot durst at uregina dot ca. Maybe shoot him a note and see if he will give you any guidance on getting a bike into CAN
Thanks for that. Let me see what he will let it go for. Really appreciate the help. That damn NSR from China ended up a costly mess so now I’m much more careful. I’ve learned that it’s worth the premium to buy domestic! I’ll send him an inquiry today.
no problem..I sent him a note that you might be in touch…he seems like a good guy.
I would be curious to hear more about the problems you had with the NSR, also I think the forum might be too. I think we are all tempted by bikes outside of North America so stories regarding the process, what to expect would be appreciated.
Cheers
It was a really bad experience. Bear in mind, I’ve been in Logistics my entire career and moved just about anything and everything throughout the world but the process of bringing a MC into the US is awful. If I had it to do over again, would do just stuck it in a container as I did with my first MV Augusta when they were still quite rare back in 2000. I listed it as home goods, paid the duty and rolled the dice. If they would of examined the container, it would of been destroyed so wouldn’t suggest that tact…
As far as my most recent project, found a awesome NSR500 that one of my factory owners acquired at a race in Europe. Getting the export permit from china was easy enough but once it hit the water in an APL container…the sh** hit the fan. The DOT paperwork was one thing and I though I was there but then I had to prove it was road worthy and legal…never planned on ridding it on the road. I then hired a very good Attorney to help me with the process, he worked out the DOT side with some special permit fees and a signed declaration that it won’t go on public HWY’s. Next was EPA and turns out, it’s easier to bring in weapons then a 2 stroke! Finally though we had a loophole by sending the bike back to Hong Kong rather then China as it sat In a FTZ warehouse for 3 weeks with 1500 in fees. I found a shop in Kowloon that would pull the motor and ship it in pieces, only to find that the Vin had already been flagged and now my DOT temp permit was an issue.
So…nearly 9,000 dollars in fees, shipping, storage and attorney fees.. The bike is in HK and it appears that My factory friend and I have a buyer in the UK. He’s handling all the shipping etc and I’ll never do it again. The bad thing is I sold my last bikes to find this endeavor which I’m bummed about. Good news is I’ve secured 4 replacement bikes in the last 3 weeks and working on another :).
Guess it was time to refresh my collection! Could of been worse, could of lost the bike to customs and lost much more then 9k! Oh well…
You should have hired a smuggler. Would have been no problem rolling an NSR in the back of the Millenium Falcon. Borders suck if you love rare sport bikes.
Are you talking about the one in Winnipeg?
If so, yes very nice and looks to be very clean.
$3600 CAN is a great buy.
Would have gobbled it up if it was the 750!
I can’t imagine it’s much more difficult than bring a bike into Canada from the US. If it’s over the 15 year period it should be a cake walk (CA excluded ) Probably just have to have the emissions stickers on it though.
Usually the bikes up here have a low mileage due to short riding season.
Cheers
“these aren’t the motorcycles you’ve been looking for”….”move along now”
Thx for the above.. Actually, smuggling would of been the better call!
Guys it’s not that hard to get bikes into the states.. Adam if you’ve been in logistics for years I can’t believe you haven’t figured out how to do this… Ever wonder how the Barber Museum gets bikes into the states? They have plenty of bikes that aren’t DOT or EPT compliant… and just because they are a museum doesn’t mean that they don’t have to follow the same rules… smuggling is not the answer lol
IMHO GSXR’s are the “Band-Aid” or “Coke” of this sportbike generation. Sure when you said you rode anything other than a Harley, members of the general population would say, “Oh, you have one of those Ninja-bikes?!” No, I have a Suzuki GSX-R/Hurricane/FZR/ZX7. It didn’t mean anything to them, but you knew what you rode.
Regardless, bikes like this are becoming impossible to find. And when you find a “bargain” remember to consider how difficult it is to find parts and the cost to get them to the level you’re looking for.
$6500 might seem like a lot, but try piecing one together.
Regardless, I love this generation of GSXR’s. To me, they are the definition of the sportbike for this era. Muscular and curvy, they even have a little sex appeal. You can’t say that about the current offerings from Suzuki. Sure they will out perform the bikes from this era. But if we’re comparing souls, the new bikes might as well be atheists.