Strange Stories of Buying/Selling Motorcycles

[BlackCloudSalvage]

I'm sure at some point when either buying or selling a motorcycle you have all come across some odd characters or situations or some cool and noteworthy experiences. Let's here it!

I'll start:

This one happened to my good friend. Listed a Kawasaki Venture project for sale on craigslist for like $800. Made it clear it was a project that needed work. Guy comes down from Greenville, SC to Charleston 3 hour drive. Shows up at 8pm. Its thunderstorming and rainy. First red flag is when he pulls up in a car with his girlfriend. Then goes on to ask my buddy if he thinks it will make it back home if he got it running. My buddy says he doesn't advise it, if he could even get it running tonight. Again it's raining and storming and the bike doesn't run yet.

Well, then the guy leaves there around 10pm, makes the 3 hour trip home, gets his truck and drives back to Charleston and shows up at 6am. WTF? Meth ain't no joke.

[Whoremonger]

Back in 1974 i was sitting in l a county jail for some traffic ticket warrants i had on me. Back then i had a low rider with hydraulic lifts. They were a new thing back then and the lapd would always stop us and write us tickets for “ altering the suspension.” No way i could afford to pay all those tickets. Back them you only did a day for a traffic ticket warrant or pay $65. I would wait till i had accumulated about ten , turn myself in , do ten days then start all over.well On one of those 10 day stays i was celled up with a biker that for some reason had to get out that evening. He needed $200 dollars to bail out. He offer a Norton motorcycle for the $ 200 . I didnt know to much about nortons but sounded like a good deal. He said it need some minor work and looked like a triumph. I was familiar with truimphs.my older brother had one. I ended up getting the money to him with only his word that i could pick the bike up when i got out in a couple of days.i knew i was taking a chance.I had all his personal info in case it was bs. Well when i got out i picked up the bike. Looking back on it i think it was a norton commando. It was a twin cylinder in the same configuration as a triumph. It was in good shape but needed some carb work . Had been sitting for a long time.i took it straight to a shop somewhere in pasadena that specialized in nortons and dropped it off. I ended up forgetting all about the bike and left it there. Kick myself in the ass for that still. From what i understand, those are great riding bikes and are worth a few coins now. Win some, you lose some.

[BlackCloudSalvage]

Haha. What a trade. Too bad you forgot it but that story is worth about $200 bucks.

[Guest]

in 1990 i was selling my old 45 chop,
a fella called & asked if he could come and see it after work,
i said yes anytime I'm in all night, he turned up in a feckin Rolls Royce Shadow 2 of mid 70's vintage !!!
he gets out, wearing a pinstriped suit, introduced himself & said he had an evo & was a HOG member & wanted a new toy.
(he was some kind of a Bank executive)
when I opened the garage & got the bike out for a lookie see, he said straight away that I was wasting his time as he didn't want to buy a Two Stroke Italian Harley but a 4 stroke American one !!! (he saw the finned head & thought it was a 2 stroke as he knew fuck all about Harleys & side Valve motors)
I was pissing myself laughing at him as he got into his Rolls & fucked off !.....a total & utter Bellend.......

[DazedandConfused]

YOU'RE wasting HIS time, huh? LOL

[BadMonkeyMW]

I've got a few good ones, but here's a highlight:

I found a killer deal on an Evo 1200 Sportster on CL one Sunday morning. I go to see it that day in the midst of a shitty, freezing rainstorm in January. The guy had it out in front of his house under a tarp and it had icicles hanging off the mirrors, but I got it cranked up and checked it out and made a deal with him. Due to the shite weather, I gave him $500 cash to hold it until the next day and he gave me the title to hold, fair enough. We set a time to come by after I got off work the next day and pick it up. So............

Next evening, I've got my 2.5 year old with me, a babysitter watching my other tiny kid. I show up at his place at the time set and a buddy stopped by to help me load the bike. Dude isn't there. I call him and he says he's in the next town over doing laundry at his grandmothers but he's on the way. So my buddy helps me load the bike, which is still in front of his house, and he takes off. Now I'm just sitting there waiting with a restless toddler in the back. I wait another 20 minutes or so, still no dude. I call him again - he's now stranded in a parking lot and has run out of gas. WTF? Keep in mind, I just handed him $500 in cash the day before. He might have thought to put some of that in his gas tank, but he didn't. The real kicker is, he doesn't know exactly where he is, just what stores are in the shopping center. Now off I go trying to find this asshat. But first, I have to stop and buy a gas can and fill it so this dumbass can get out of the parking lot. I get the gas and after a couple misfires I find chuckles sure as shit sitting sideways in a parking lot. I'm so pissed at this point, I put the gas in his tank and he starts his car. I tell him to sign the title, he does and hands it to me. I give him the rest of the cash, minus $20 for the gas and gas can I had to buy for his silly ass. I get in the truck and get my little boy home, thankful the ordeal is over and I've got a running 1200 with the title for $1500. Kooks everywhere, lol.

[DoomBuggy]

My first Harley was a WL that I got from my mailman. I was screwing with my dirt bike when he drove past the house delivering mail. He calls out to me and asks if I was interested in a Harley project bike. The deal was I would paint his barn over the summer and get the bike ( or rather boxes and boxes of parts ) in exchange. Hardest fucking paint job I ever did, lol.

It took me the better part of a winter to get it running. I had the hands down coolest motorcycle of any 15 year old around. Unfortunately as the summer progressed I had a bit of a wild night with some of the older kids and proceeded to rack up a whole shit load of tickets. The ol'man said the bike had to go to cover the lawyers fees. I did get out of them, but by the skin of my teeth. You would think lesson learned, but no, only the start!

[docmel]

From a response I gave DS on another post. It's somewhat related so here we go

Back in the day (83-84?) when I was E-3 making like $550 a month, my Army buddy roommate making the same wanted an XR1000 so bad he went to one of those "We will give you a loan that will take you forever to pay back" businesses that ruled main street outside of Ft Bragg, NC. Crazy int rate, but he didn't care, he wanted one and prob would've killed for one.

I had an Ironhead sporty at the time, and I gave him a bitch ride to the dealer: We got there, he bought the bike, and when ready to leave he said "I don't have driver's license, how do I ride it? (He was from the Bronx and had never driven a car, let alone a MC)

I rode that XR to the barracks while he stayed back at the dealer and got a cab back. That bike had like 1 mile on the ODO. That XR was a good machine for the day: But man it was expensive for the day, like twice the price on an XL/XLH

About 8 months later, the XR was still bone stock: We deployed on a training mission and went he got back, his ole lady, a titty dancer he married about 6 months before, had taken battery acid and poured it all over his bike. She even poured dirt in the tank, knocked off the air cleaners and carbs off with a hammer and actually tossed dirt into the manifolds: Hammer and cup with dirt was still there by the bike. Gets better: Seat and tires sliced, spokes bashed in

So he's been gone about 2 months to come back and see that: He goes inside, and even the toilet paper roll hangers are gone along with all his shit: He goes to take a shower, towels are gone, he grabs the t shirt he has on to use as a towel: Steps in the shower, grabs the shampoo bottle (Even the soap and hand towels are gone) and starts to shower: Yep, battery acid in the shampoo bottle.

I get there the ambulance is already there. Lucky he was in the shower to rinse off

He didn't have comprehensive, and the loan was cash, so he paid on that bike loan for like YEARS because of the crazy int rate. Plus he couldn't afford to fix it back up. He sold it to a HUGE MC graveyard near Raeford NC for like $700 and used the cash to help pay off the loan balance........

[docmel]

Bringing up memories, so here's another: Not a strange story, but it was the hardest bike for me to buy as far as earning the cash

When I was at the HD dealer with my Army buddy when he was buying that XR, I distinctly remember seeing a brochure for the new 1984 FXWG on the showroom floor. It had the factory flame job on it, and I thought it was one of the most gorgeous stock bikes ever made (And the survivors today still look great)

And it cost about the same as the XR my buddy was buying

So I go back about a week later and place a down payment of like $150. The dealer at that time was great on working with customers, especially GI's

I wanted that FXWG, and I would work myself into a coma if I had to in order to get the cash (I didn't want a slave loan, and I didn't have a credit history at the time)

Man, I started work second shift at a local tool manufacturer till I was found asleep at my station. (I had to be at my Army job at 630am until 5 pm and showed up at this job at like 7pm until 3 am, three nights a week)

Then I tried another job, weekends only at a local bar. Thru that job, I quit that one and worked at a local titty bar (view was better) working the grill making basically fast food garbage and stocking the finger food buffet table that probably had cunt hairs in it from the titty dancers that danced not 6 feet away from the buffet table. That place was a serious dump and had B+ rating on cleanliness (I'm serious)

I got fired from that job after being caught taking left over food home (I was on a diet of Ramen noodles and MAC/Cheese while this was going on, saving money for that bike) Shit, they threw the food away at the end of the night anyways

So time goes on, I lost about 15 pounds during the next year or so with like 3 hrs of sleep a night. And when I finally have the money, of course the costs went up, and the EVO motor was now in the FXWG

I was lucky though: I must have looked like a long lost puppy staring at that bike when the actual owner just happened to show up. He said what's up, I told him, and I showed him a large envelope with the cash I had earned in it over the last years: He never counted it, said come back right before closing

I show up, thinking I'll just be given my money back or offered a used BT. I STILL had my 79 ironhead, and man, it was in super bad shape by that time; No money, my only transportation, you know the deal

So there was a FXWG parked outside, the only bike there as all others had been moved inside for the night.

The owner walked up, said "give me the key to my ironhead" (which I lost years back and had a toggle switch as a key), and he handed me the keys and paperwork for the FXWG. It didn't have the factory flame job option, but it could've been painted baby turd pea green and I wouldn't have cared (It was fire engine red with a gold HD shield)

I looked later at the suggested retail and I was short about $1800. So whether or not the owner took a hit or not, I do remember all the ironheads that were being traded in at the time for the new 883's, so the ironheads weren't worth that much

Fuck I loved that FXWG. Its one of the hardest things I have ever worked for in a bike

[BadMonkeyMW]

I've got another good one from when I was living in Colorado. I've got an affinity for 80's superbikes, especially Kawasakis. A guy on CL had an 86 Ninja 1000 for cheap so I hit him up and set up a time to meet. He insisted we meet at a gas station near the house where the bike was. A little sketchy but ok. I put my little .380 pistol in my pocket and headed to meet him. He's there at the gas station on time and he's a bit of a tweeker but nothing too crazy for that part of Colorado. He wants to ride in my truck, bc as he fills me in, he's not really allowed at the house where the bike is and he doesn't want the neighbors to recognize his car. Fuck it, let's go!

We drive over to the house where the bike is and he's scanning the street hard as we come down. He's like ok cool, her car isn't there. We pull and the bike is right there at the curb. I start checking it out and it looks pretty good. He's got the garage door opener and opens it up and grabs the fairings and few other parts he's got for the bike. He asks if it looks good to me kind of hurriedly, and I'm say yeah man it looks ok. He helps me load it in my truck and as I'm strapping it down he say he's going run inside and grab some of his stuff. After a minute he starts trucking out a few boxes of shit, but it's hilarious bc it's the weirdest collection of things you'd imagine: a fondue pot, ONE flip flop, etc. I'm just sitting there laughing at this point, but I am anxious to get the fuck out of there in case this girlfriend he's apparently been kicked out by comes back. I tell him to hurry up and he grabs one more box and he when head back to the gas station to finish the deal.

We get back to his car at the gas station and I give him the cash and he signs over the title. He loads his junk into his car and the cherry on this whole weird experience is when he informs me that he's a home caregiver. I just say "I'm cool man, I'm pretty healthy". And I drive away.

$450 for the bike, and I just did the standard carb clean, new sparkplugs and battery and she fired right up. I did 125 mph on it on the first test ride. Colorado was pretty fun. Some good tweeker deals as long as you're up for meeting interesting people!

[BlackCloudSalvage]

I am thoroughly enjoying these stories y'all!

[flatman]

A few years ago, buddy says come on over gotta go pick up his new purchase. We drive about 10 miles from town into rural country. Backs his van into a barn. We load the ironhead up. He slides an envelope between a couple of haybales and drive off. Never talked to anyone. I kept looking in the side mirror expecting cops, but nothing happened. Still kinda strange.

[kestrou]

Can I get by with a good “not bike” story?

In the mid-80s I was really into 67 Chevelles and had several - bought a ragged one for the bucket seats - swapped a bench seat in and then sold the car…

About three months later I got a call from the police that they had found my Chevelle abandoned, they’d impounded it and I owed storage fees. While I’m on the phone I’m looking out the window at my three Chevelles and saying “nope, they’re all right here.”

Turns out it was the one I’d sold a few months ago so I told the cop, “I sold that one, not my problem they didn’t get the title changed over after I signed it - I’m not paying the fines, so keep the car!”

He didn’t like that answer so he said I could have the car without any fees - which sounded like a good deal.

Now, keep in mind this was before cell phones and emails - I’d originally sold the car by placing an ad in the local paper, a guy showed up with cash and left with car and signed title - so I didn’t even have a name, let alone a number…

So, I got the car back, and then sold it a second time!

kestrou

[drivermark]

Now I like that story

[Slider70]

Ok I’ll chime in: I had been around dirt bikes since about the age of 12, racing MX, hill climbs, trials, whatever, even down in TX while I was stationed at Ft Hood in the mid 70’s. Got sent overseas so no more dirt bikes. When I came back and was assigned to Ft Polk, LA, I got the itch for a Harley. This was in 82. I had picked up a 75 F100 4X4 pickup to drive down there. One of the guys in my unit had an Ironhead and had joined the local MC. He knew of a guy that had a 72 Ironhead for sale. This guy lived in a run-down trailer out in the middle of no-fuckin-where, but he wanted to sell the bike and was interested in my truck. We ended up doing an even swap, on the spot. No paperwork, titles or anything! By this time, it was spring of 83 and the bike had expired 82 tags from MI on it. I was still in my mid-20’s and didn’t care about that, I had a Harley. That bike was bad-ass: 6” over stock fork tubes (flexy!), king/queen seat and sissy to match, drag pipes, all black, kick start only (XLCH). I rode it all around the area till I was getting ready to get out of the Army in July. Meanwhile I had another buddy in my unit that had picked up a 72 Ironhead in a hard tail frame, long-ass springer front end, etc. He was rotating to Germany at the same time and was also from PA, so we planned to ride home together. Well, his motor took a shit right before we were to leave, so Fuck It! We put his shit and my shit into my Army duffel bag, strapped it to the sissy bar, and off we went. I’m sure we were quite a sight going up the road – LOL. We slept under the bridges, or wherever, truck stops, etc. It took us 3 or 4 days, but we made it! He was from Pittsburgh, and I vividly remember as we were going across the freeway almost to his Mom’s, a car came up next to us with a couple of guys in it, gave us a thumbs-up, and handed a cold can of Bud out the window! My Bro took it, opened it, took a swig, handed it to me, I took a swallow and they motored on down the road! Dropped him off at his Mom’s and went on home. I heard later he never reported to Germany (AWOL) and haven’t seen or heard from him since. I rode that bike around central PA for the next several months, never bothering to register or inspect it, and never got pulled over (minor miracle!) by the Man. I still had it when the MoCo came out with the 84 Softtail, and I just HAD to have that bike. I ended up trading the Ironhead for a big bag of weed (again even up with no paperwork) and that dude road it around that whole summer of 84. I still have the Softtail with about 160K on the clock – love that bike!