$850 per hour

[OTB]

That's how much I made today!!

A little background.

A couple weeks ago, I spotted another 99 GSXR600 on CL for asking around wholesale money, owned adevertised in 'excellent" condition with under 10K miles....piqued my interest as I had moved another one in January so easy even tho it was so cold at the time; thought it was worth a look.

Called the guy, made an appointment for the next afternoon and showed up as planned. Guy takes me 'round back, pulls a decrepit cover off this thing.....the bike was filthy, nasty and had a birds nest built on the swingarm pivot..........and of course would not start. Owner got a charger, finally got it to turn over, but ran like crappola......opened up the gascap and the gas was like goo......

He smiled and said, "Well, waddaya think?"

Now, I don't normally walk away from most good deals, but this one was looking like a major pain in the hindquarters to get right, so, most unlike me, I said "Thanks but no thanks" and started to walk back to my truck. He said "Why?" and most unlike me, I blew up. I yelled at him for making me drive 45 minutes to look at a piece of crap that wouldn't run; I had a copy of his CL ad in my pocket, pulled it out and yelled that if this POS was his idea of EXCELLENT CONDITION, I'd HATE to see what his idea of "needs a lot of work" looked like, turned on my heel and stomped away. He chased me back to my truck, and as I was getting in , asked me how much I WOULD give him for it.

I shook my head and said I'd give him a grand and not a dime more (less than !/2 his asking price). He signed the title and handed it to me through the driver's window of the truck. I gave him the money, loaded the bike and drove home, cursing myself for taking this POS that I KNEW was going to be a money pit. Got home, rolled it off the truck, stuck it back into the "corner of shame" where I park and cover up mymistakes, turned off the light and slammed down the garage door, and tried hard over the next few weeks to forget about this red-headed stepchild I'd brought home.

Had acouple spare hours on Thursday, so I yanked this poor bike out from the back, sat down with brushes, rags, Purple Power and hot soapy water and began removing the patina brought on by years of neglect...........and found out it looked pretty good under all that crud.

Emboldened by at least presentable cosmetics, I ambled (us olde guys amble, as we're not so hot at running ) on down to the Battery Warehouse, and made a stop at the Auto Zone for a new sealed battery, some carb cleaner and a can of Seafoam.

Another hour and and an emptied and rinsed and flushed gastank and floatbowls, and ther Yosh sytem was purring out that low buzzy bark of an on-choke fast idle high-revving four. Waiting till the water temp was showing 150, I eased off the choke, snicked it into first and went blasting round the lot behind us, laughing all the way.

Put it on CL yesterday, sold it about an hour ago for $2700............

Now THAT"S what I'm TALKIN' about.......

[marko138]

Damn. Wow. Impressive. You've still got the touch.

[Mr Lefty]

nice. no pics though?

[derf]

lucky bastard

How much you wanna bet the guy thought that the bike was completely fucked and was quoted an insane amount to fix it bu a dealership

[njchopper87]

You jackass.. I mean good shit.

[OTB]

Originally Posted by derf

lucky bastard

How much you wanna bet the guy thought that the bike was completely fucked and was quoted an insane amount to fix it bu a dealership

To be honest with you, that's what I thought. I really thought I was going to end up parting it out rather than having to dump a bunch of money in to get it running right and never being able to recoup it. That's the big risk in doing this as ahobby. Every once in a while I get just a little too clever for my own good and end up with some truly awful piece of crap.

This one was a big success, but I've lost money big time on others and just been grateful to get out from under.....that's how I ended up with my "corner of shame" in the back of the garage.

I nearly bought a wrecked RSV1000R a couple of weeks ago for what seemed like a good price; an 07 MSRPed out at about $16K. Guy was selleing one with rashed plastics (both sides and upper plus dented tank) for about $7K with clean title and 1000 miles on the odo. Then I priced the plastics (about $3K, and the tank (about $900)). Looked doable.........

I called the guy up, started wheeling and dealing, guy moved a bit on price and I was really getting excited.....

....but this was more than I usually deal with moneywise on a single bike (but those Ohlins and all that CF was singin' the Siren Song). I usullay stick to bikes that will retail out no more than $5K or so. That way if I get stuck on a bike I'm not gonna lose a big wad.....(but man, I'll bet once I had it put back toegther that would be a REAL snazzy thang.......)

Anyway, before I committed money, I went back out to dealers sites to get an idea of the market for these (I've never dealt with Aprilias, have no idea of supply or demand) ....and found out dealers had beaucoup 07's leftover and they were going out the door for around $10K (with the benefit of full warranty, unlike the one I was looking at).

So, I could drop 6thou +almost 4 thou for parts and still have a rebuilt wrecked bike, or I could buy a new one for the same money.......hmmmmmm, let me think: wrecked or new for the same money..........




Came to my senses and haven't looked at bikes I don't know about since...............