I came across an 87 305 LTD my friend was selling for 500 bucks. It was in immaculate condition cosmetic wise; new tires, perfect paint, all lights work, zero dings or scrapes, etc. But she said it wouldn't start. She said it ran perfect when parked over a year ago (can you see where this is going?).

Gave her the cash and loaded it up, jokingly told her I'd have it running by tonight. I got it home, and pulled the plugs and cranked it to make sure both sides were getting spark; they were. Next let's check the fuel, I remember her saying she put some Stabil in it. Took the tank off and dumped the fuel into an old Honda 3 wheeler (that thing will run on muddy water). The fuel looked awful, had a yellow/green color to it (no doubt due to the Stabil in it). The problem with people adding a fuel stabilizer, is they usually do it with the engine off and leave it, therefore it never gets into the remaining fuel in the carb bowl. So I open up the carb drain valves, and only one carb would drain. I pull em off, open em up, and sure enough, that good ol' ethanol gas has turned to gooey corn meal. Jets were completely clogged. Gave it a good bath in some carb cleaner and took a guitar string to the jets, put 'er all together, and she fired up instantly! Great sounding little twin.

I threw on a helmet and took off down the road. It definitely needed a mile or so of half choke, but once warmed up, I was pretty impressed. I drive much larger bikes myself, but I had a blast on this little thing, I'm 6'1 210lbs and it cruised easily at 60mph, and still pulled well at 70. It would definitely be a little cramped for me as a daily commuter, but anyone under 5'10 would probably fit pretty well.

I'm surprised to hear all the negative comments on the net. Ended up cruising around back roads all day putting her to the test, and when I filled up, I got over 70 MPG, and I wasn't really behaving either. Oh, then I sent my friend a video of it running... she wasn't happy she let it go so cheap.