Modding before Sale.

[Narcissus]

I'm getting ready to sell my  98' GS500E this summer and I wanted it to be a little more appealing then stock because I'll be selling it on the privately no doubt. I'm starting with the instrument panels. I have a black bike and they were painted silver, although I thought they'd look much better black so I'm changing the bars and I'm painting the upper and lower halfs of the panels gloss black as well as putting blue LEDs into the gauges. I'm using the WLED 5-LED Wide Angle LED bulb from superbrightLEDs.com which I'm assuming are the right ones??? Also do I need the little icons under the indicator lights to be legal? It might be a stupid question but I'm going to have to sand them off and try to find replacements later...

[pantablo]

dont bother to do anything FOR a sale...wont add value or desireability.

[Kasumi]

This is true. The only thing you need to practice if your desperate to sell is the old  . Personally il be as honest as possible about a bike im selling whether its good or bad. I think if your nice to people they trust you and they won't insult you by trying to bring down the price. I went to look at a GS for sale the other day. The guy gave me some  story about how he bought another GS for his son to ride on but his son passed his car test and didnt want to ride. The bike had seen one winter, and im not kidding, everything on it had rusted, all the bolts were corroded to the point of falling off. I asked him about his GS while my dad took the one we went to view out for a test ride. Turns out he has done 40k miles on his bike - much more like the condition of the bolts on the bike we viewed (the bike we viewed had 2k on the clock and was clean except for bolts all over) He showed me the GS in his garage, turns out he bought brand new bolts for it (my f'in arse he did) We didn't buy from him because he wasn't honest and im 100% sure he bought the other bike to switch bits out with his newer GS and then planned on selling it.

My tip for selling is just be honest, it will be more pleasant and you will have a better sale. Tell them the bad points and the good points without trying to sound like your trying to shove the bike on them. Honesty is definatly the best policy. If there is any really cheap things you can do. Like touch up paint chips on the swingarm and things to protect from rust then do that. But if i were you i wouldn't go into repainting the bike etc...

[bargovic]

When looking for a bike to buy, i'd be more insterested in a stock bike than a modified one. It shows that its been tinkerd with less. less variables and possibilites for things to go wrong.

[Mandres]

When looking for a bike to buy, i'd be more insterested in a stock bike than a modified one. It shows that its been tinkerd with less. less variables and possibilites for things to go wrong.

It's safe to say that's how 95% of the people who actually have the money to buy a bike also feel.  The only 'mods' I would consider value-adding are a rust-proofing treatment for the tank, a new chain and new tires.

-M

[The Buddha]

Black dash panel is great. I have done the entire triple/bars and headlight ears and bucket and dash panel in black, put blue light in the black guages ... knock out.
BTW its more work than $$ ... In my case I send to powder coat and prolly cost me 20 bucks.
In essence doing stuff for sale is a possible way to lose $$ ... however cheap mods that knock someone's socks off are a good way to recoup the $$ as well as sell it faster and sell for closer to what its worth.
An exhaust system costs like $250+ ... but spend say $100 (wileyco flange as of summer 05, its more now due to wileyco $$ going up) or something that is more elbow grease than $$ like rejetting etc ... you do it right and the buyer just goes ... man this runs better than the 10 newer bikes I rode, and I tell them right on the phone that this will run better than anyhting else they may have ridden recently ... and they think "I should buy this". Valve adjustment ... same thing. Of course spending $400 at the dealer wont get you shaZam!. In a lot of cases I'll offer to show the buyer how to do the valves. Its cheap/free for me, and worth $400 every 4K miles to the buyer ... cant beat that. Air filter, carbs, oil changes, chain adjustments all of those are the same category. You need to wow them, and good maintenance trumps everything. In some cases I just tell them they can bring it to me and I'll show them how to do the job even at a later date, or go to their house and show it. Not just about being a salesman, you might as well educate and help out a fellow biker.
Cool.
Srinath.