Beemer Guy_imp
First service completed
Thread starter
Those who recognize my handle will remember my story. Last year I fell in love with the CB and almost bought a new 2013 from the dealer, but I got cold feet and bailed. This summer the urge returned, and I put out a thread here asking if I were too old and decrepit to ride again. The consensus was no, live a little you big dummy. So I decided that I just had to have a Deluxe, and found a 2014 in Ohio and made a deal with that guy. He delivered it to me here in NC, and as I was looking it over on the trailer, I noticed a dent in the tank and scratches on the tailcase. He claimed to know nothing about either of those, and we negotiated a small discount on the bike. Little did I know...
When I drove it off of the trailer and into the garage, I noticed that the steering was very heavy. Terrible. Later that night, I carefully checked over the mechanicals, and noticed that there was only 10 lbs. of air in the front tire, 20 in the rear. That explained the steering. The next day I took it for a ride, and my wrists started to hurt. My old injuries were flaring back up.
The following week I took it for a nice ride, and after 15 minutes I was in pain. After 30, the pain wasn't worse but it was mostly in my right hand, my carpal tunnel was flaring up and it just wasn't any fun. My riding days are over. So I put the bike up for sale, here, and on Cycletrader.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, mentioned the tank dent. No one wanted the bike, or at least not at my asking price, with that dent in it. It didn't bother me all that much, but it bothered everyone else. So I decided to take it to a Paintless Dent Repair guy, which involved a 40 minute ride (each way) on the highway. The bike rode great, I really enjoyed it (and I hate highway riding) but my tendonitis started acting up after all that, so I knew for sure that my riding days were really over, for sure, no doubt now. The PDR guy got out most of the dent, but it's still there if you look for it.
I'm one of these guys who will not sell something without full disclosure. I'm not going to hide things, hope that the buyer doesn't notice, etc. especially in cases where the shopping is all done remotely. A local buyer can look over the bike carefully, ride it, take it to a shop for a PPI, but someone on the Internet who only has pictures to go by has to rely on my honesty. I was not going to do to the next buyer what was done to me. So I took pictures of all of the damage that I was aware of, and disclosed it when talking to buyers.
Finally I got a buyer, a Canadian fellow who was very excited about it, and after over a week of getting all of the importation paperwork in order, sending deposits, etc., he finally picked it up last night. He brought with him a friend who is a dealer, and he checked it over very carefully. He discovered that not only had it been dropped, as I knew, but that in the drop it also bent the left footpeg and the handlebars. Grrrrr. So, the idiot that I bought it from almost certainly dropped it in his garage or in the driveway, hitting his knee in the process, which dented the tank, and scratched the bar end and the mirror, the crankcase cover and the left exhaust pipe. It also bent the handlebars and the footpeg.
I bought a BMW once from a guy who had done the same thing, but covered up the engine case damage with a set of bars. He claimed to have bumped the garage door, which explained the scratches on the mirror, but he never told me about the other stuff. I was pretty sure that he was lying. When I found the engine damage later, I was very annoyed, but in that case I had really screwed the guy thoroughly on the price (he was out of a job and had to sell the bike) so I felt justified, in hindsight. Hey, he could have said no. That was a great bike, that I owned for many years, farkled it to death, took it to Colorado and rode the Rockies for a week, and is one of those "I shouldn't have sold it" things.
I guess that whole caveat emptor thing really applies to everything.
In this case, I was fortunate to find this buyer, who paid my asking price and is a very nice guy, who sent me a large deposit and paid the balance in cash. So financially, this was not a bad experience.
The CB community here is great (actually, most motorcyclists in general are great folks) and I appreciate all of the positive comments and suggestions and encouragement. I hope you all continue to ride safely and enjoy your wonderful motorcycles. I'll be that guy in the cage, watching wistfully as you ride on by.
Regards,
Michael
When I drove it off of the trailer and into the garage, I noticed that the steering was very heavy. Terrible. Later that night, I carefully checked over the mechanicals, and noticed that there was only 10 lbs. of air in the front tire, 20 in the rear. That explained the steering. The next day I took it for a ride, and my wrists started to hurt. My old injuries were flaring back up.
The following week I took it for a nice ride, and after 15 minutes I was in pain. After 30, the pain wasn't worse but it was mostly in my right hand, my carpal tunnel was flaring up and it just wasn't any fun. My riding days are over. So I put the bike up for sale, here, and on Cycletrader.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, mentioned the tank dent. No one wanted the bike, or at least not at my asking price, with that dent in it. It didn't bother me all that much, but it bothered everyone else. So I decided to take it to a Paintless Dent Repair guy, which involved a 40 minute ride (each way) on the highway. The bike rode great, I really enjoyed it (and I hate highway riding) but my tendonitis started acting up after all that, so I knew for sure that my riding days were really over, for sure, no doubt now. The PDR guy got out most of the dent, but it's still there if you look for it.
I'm one of these guys who will not sell something without full disclosure. I'm not going to hide things, hope that the buyer doesn't notice, etc. especially in cases where the shopping is all done remotely. A local buyer can look over the bike carefully, ride it, take it to a shop for a PPI, but someone on the Internet who only has pictures to go by has to rely on my honesty. I was not going to do to the next buyer what was done to me. So I took pictures of all of the damage that I was aware of, and disclosed it when talking to buyers.
Finally I got a buyer, a Canadian fellow who was very excited about it, and after over a week of getting all of the importation paperwork in order, sending deposits, etc., he finally picked it up last night. He brought with him a friend who is a dealer, and he checked it over very carefully. He discovered that not only had it been dropped, as I knew, but that in the drop it also bent the left footpeg and the handlebars. Grrrrr. So, the idiot that I bought it from almost certainly dropped it in his garage or in the driveway, hitting his knee in the process, which dented the tank, and scratched the bar end and the mirror, the crankcase cover and the left exhaust pipe. It also bent the handlebars and the footpeg.
I bought a BMW once from a guy who had done the same thing, but covered up the engine case damage with a set of bars. He claimed to have bumped the garage door, which explained the scratches on the mirror, but he never told me about the other stuff. I was pretty sure that he was lying. When I found the engine damage later, I was very annoyed, but in that case I had really screwed the guy thoroughly on the price (he was out of a job and had to sell the bike) so I felt justified, in hindsight. Hey, he could have said no. That was a great bike, that I owned for many years, farkled it to death, took it to Colorado and rode the Rockies for a week, and is one of those "I shouldn't have sold it" things.
I guess that whole caveat emptor thing really applies to everything.
In this case, I was fortunate to find this buyer, who paid my asking price and is a very nice guy, who sent me a large deposit and paid the balance in cash. So financially, this was not a bad experience.
The CB community here is great (actually, most motorcyclists in general are great folks) and I appreciate all of the positive comments and suggestions and encouragement. I hope you all continue to ride safely and enjoy your wonderful motorcycles. I'll be that guy in the cage, watching wistfully as you ride on by.
Regards,
Michael
