Need advice on purchase please

[Shooter1]

"Yeah, I am very limited by budget, and unless there are significant improvements  from the 1988 to the late nineties, then I have found myself a nice tidy well looked after '88 fxstc for the right price".

I bought an '89 FXRS-Sp new and put 43K on it. Not a lot of miles but I did ride it fairly hard over the 23 years I had it. One set of base gaskets and a new petcock is all it ever needed. If the fxstc is clean, runs well and show signs of good maintenance and you like it. I'd buy it.

[Adam76]

Hey thanks shooter. I have a feeling if I waited until the perfect bike, at the perfect price, with the perfect miles and no engine mods came along, I'd Probably be waiting a long time... And when that bike does finally come up, some other bastard has nabbed it before I got a chance to get it!!

PS. Do the PRE - 1990 evo's have a particularly heavy clutch pull compared to the latter model evo's?? The reason is I have a long-term left hand injury that doesn't make riding much fun with a heavy clutch, or  even a moderate clutch... I was aiming to put on a VP clutch or something to lighten it up, but nothing good sends to be available for the pre 1990 bikes?

I also would like to go chain drive and that also seems to be primarily 1990 and up only?
Thanks

[Shooter1]

  I have a feeling if I waited until the perfect bike, at the perfect price, with the perfect miles and no engine mods came along, I'd Probably be waiting a long time... And when that bike does finally come up, some other bastard has nabbed it before I got a chance to get it!!  <-- Lot of truth to this. Also, the perfect bike most likely won't be at a good price and I see you are on a tight budget. It's kinda like in business, there is "price, quality and delivery". You can have two but not all three so pick the two you want the most.

PS. Do the PRE - 1990 evo's have a particularly heavy clutch pull compared to the latter model evo's??  <-- It seems the '89 -SP I had and the '91 FXRS I have now have similar clutch pulls. There are some products out that improve the leverage of the clutch cable mounting point inside the transmission you may want to look into.

I also would like to go chain drive and that also seems to be primarily 1990 and up only?  My '89 had belt drive and most likely a few years prior to that did as well. You would have to do some research on that. i'd consider keeping the belt unless you intend to build big power or intend to travel a lot on gravel roads!?!? 

Good luck

[Adam76]

Thanks shooter.
Much appreciated.