07-03-2024, 06:08 AM
(07-03-2024, 04:04 AM)3rd_Gear_Steve_imp Wrote: Maybe related to the listings you’re seeing, maybe not - but an interesting read anyway:
https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-vall...co-mexico/
Very interesting, 3rd Gear Steve. I imagine in some of my FB Marketplace searches for a new bike, I have come across some listings like the ones in that article.
Updating from my original post, in the past few days, I have purchased a "newish" version of the bike I mentioned. While I have been enjoying reviving my old 18 and 30 year old rides, I made the mistake of going to a bike shop and test riding the new model. Wow, what a difference a few decades make! I became obsessed as I do, and did my standard research (staying up till 3 am for days on end, just as I did to find my CB1100, Bonneville and Interceptor 650), and found one sold by a legitimate seller. He's moving out of the country and jettisoning most of his stuff, including a near-new bike. What you want is out there - just takes dogged searching to the exclusion of things like eating, sleeping, and communicating with your spouse.
But, I kept looking at the nefarious listings of the "New in Box" bikes. They're still out there, yet none of them got back to me. Maybe they all sold and as these are likely "shell" FB accounts set up to sell the bikes, why bother taking down the listings.
One of the listings showed the label on the box. I did some digging on the model number on the box, and found out that it is a non-U.S. European variant of the bike currently selling in the U.S. Did a container-load of bikes bound for Europe mistakenly get loaded on a ship to L.A. Harbor? Maybe they're like "lost luggage", and sat in a holding warehouse with no paperwork until they were sold off and bought up wholesale by bike sellers? Who knows.