Chad,
K's and early Sportsters are some of the toughest bikes to buy and restore. People bought them because they were fast and light, and they were usually ridden hard and put away wet. They weren't ridden by little old ladies only to church on Sundays, so a lot of them got wrecked, or the engines blown up. That's when two factors came into play. First, the low production numbers meant that it was hard to find correct replacement parts. Second, a large number of parts from different years will physically fit on other years. Wreck your 1954 KH front end? No problem - just find a 1952 K front end, or a 1962 Sportster front end. Blow up your 1962 Sportster engine? No problem, just find a 1969 Sportster engine. Or a 1957 Sportster engine. Or heck, pop a 1956 KH engine in there. Lots of that went on back then, and as the years went by, a whole lot more did.
Consequently, 95% of the K's and early XL's you will find have serious bitsa problems (bits of this, bits of that). It's not unusual to find a bike that has parts from 5 or 6 other bikes on it. While you may be looking for a nice looking rider, and not something you're going to turn into a 100-point restoration, you definitely want the motor and chassis to be from one bike. In AMCA judging, a wrong engine/frame combination is an instant disqualification. In the real world, a wrong engine/frame combination means that it will probably remain a "bitsa", as finding the correct frame is a challenge. Frames are date-coded, and you have to find a frame that was made within a couple of months of the engine. The wrong frame may mean that some parts may not fit right, as not every part is interchangeable through the years.
"Not running" can be a serious problem. Read what Kurt Von Zech wrote on his website.
Buying-----Simply-My-Opinion. Engine rebuilds cost big dollars - even assuming you can find someone reliable to do the work. Some engine/transmission parts are cheap and easy to find, but some are pretty tough to find, and expensive when you do find them - perhaps six months later.
The Gallery section of this website has exemplary examples of different years/models. There aren't a whole lot of them, simply because there aren't a whole lot of exemplary examples out there! And many good examples don't have good photos that you can really see details. DaveC just sent in some photos of a 1961 XLCH he restored, and I'll get them posted in the next few days.
Click on the photos in the Gallery to see larger versions. Most of them have a "Supersize" button at the left. Click that to get a huge photo. When you're in Supersize, hold down your mouse, and drag the photo around your screen to zero in on a particular area. Now you can compare that to the photos of the bikes you are looking at.
Perhaps the AMCA judging methods would help you with a structured method of looking at a motorcycle. Perhaps make yourself up an Excel spreadsheet so you can print it out for each bike you look at. Go down the list of 25 categories, and look at the things in that category and nothing else. Compare the bike for sale photos to the appropriate exemplary bike in the Gallery. Write down any differences you see. Not sure? Write something with a question mark.
For the 1961 you were considering, I figure you would probably need 2-4 hours to go through the categories and compare the photos of that bike with Murph's 1962. Heck, I spent about 30 minutes just looking at the one photo and writing down what I thought was wrong. If I spent another hour on it, I probably could have come up with a more comprehensive list. But I don't have the time...
You gotta do your homework first. I'm not going to spend an hour critiquing every bike you find on Craigslist - 95% of which are hopeless bitsa-s. If you do your homework first, you will eliminate a large percentage of them, leaving only the serious contenders for sharper eyes to critique. I speak only for myself, but perhaps others on this forum have more spare time than I do.
Here are the 25 categories:
Frame / Fork
Front Fender
Rear Fender
Wheels / Tires
Nuts / Bolts / Mounting Hardware
Handlebar / Grips / Controls / Comp Release
Engine / Transmission
Carburator / Intake Manifold / Air Cleaner
Exhaust System
Headlight / Magneto
Oil Tank / Oil Lines
Footboards / Footpegs
Chain Guard / Primary Cover
Seat and Seat Springs
Kick Starter and Pedal / Pedal Assembly
Front Brake / Clutch
Rear Brake
Rear Stand / Center Stand / Side Stand
Instrument Panel / Speedometer
Generator / Horn / Drive Apparatus
Battery Box / Tool Box / Sparkplugs
Gasoline Tank / Gas Lines
Wiring / Taillight
Plating / Bright Work
Overall Paint Finish / Includes Decals, Pin Striping
The AMCA requires that the bike start and run, although that is seldom enforced. But you, as a buyer, should be very concerned about this. And there's only one way to do it - by going to the bike, and starting and running it yourself. There are lots of beautifully restored motorcycles out there that do not even have pistons in the engine. How are you going to know, unless you start it up, and take it down the road running through the gears? You can't do this from 1000 miles away.
Chad, please don't take offense at what I've written. I want you to get a nice K or Sporty, but the antique motorcycle world is not quite the same as the old Ford world. And I want you to spend your money wisely...
Dave Hennessey