ok guys. i have a date to sell the car this friday. here are my options for saturday morning!
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/mcy/1284327753.html (favorite)
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/mcy/1258304233.html and this one, even though it's been down. it was up for $3k or something, and now it's down to a very cheap price. i'm thinking maybe the frame is a bit bent?.. and that's why it won't sell. but i don't know. i might take a ride on it and see what's up. but the first one is very close to me, so i think i'll have it! unless it's sold already. probably is.
The first one says... "Has been laid down twice at no speed, never been dropped." ??? Dropped and laid down are different? ??? So, I guess he decided to gently lay it down because ?? It was tired? thought it would be easy to change the oil that way?
Also the lever end is broken? Also from him gently putting it to sleep?... No... IT FELL DOWN! :laugh:
:dunno_white:
good luck :cheers:
Thanks for those ads! Just incase the insurance company tries to give me shaZam!, I'll show them market value!
i'll bet you a 1/2 a egg roll this one is a scam:
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/mcy/1258304233.html
think so? a strange ad for sure, but i wouldn't think scam. i hope i don't have to find out.
yes, the first ad was strangely worded. but i spoke to the seller tonight. it is a girl selling it for a friend of her's that is also a girl. so i just need to ask before i go up there if the handlebars or anything are bent and if it shakes, take it for a ride, and we're in good shape.
now, a question typical of someone new to bikes: if a bike has been laid down/dropped, is it likely to have bent the frame causing a speed wobble? is that how that works?
I agree with ohgood. I've seen scam ads on craigslist that are formatted exactly like this one, with the big list of specs you can look-up anywhere. The big tip-offs are it's too cheap and email reply only. If someone won't give me his phone number, I don't want to buy a vehicle from him, or even attempt to. Then he tells you he's in the service overseas. Then he asks you to send payment to a fake ebay site then he'll ship you the non-existent bike. Beware.
As an aside, the bike in the photos has been crashed.
I'd also never shop for a bike before selling the car. Not counting chickens before they hatch comes to mind. One of my co-workers had his boat sold a couple months ago, until the buyer's wife found out.
Quote from: scottpA_GS on July 29, 2009, 04:40:44 PM
The first one says... "Has been laid down twice at no speed, never been dropped." ??? Dropped and laid down are different? ??? So, I guess he decided to gently lay it down because ?? It was tired? thought it would be easy to change the oil that way?
Also the lever end is broken? Also from him gently putting it to sleep?... No... IT FELL DOWN! :laugh:
:dunno_white:
good luck :cheers:
Thought it was tired, gave me a good laugh.
Anyways hopefully you have some good luck with the first one. I do agree about the 2nd one looking pretty fishy. I had a pretty hard time finding one in my area, most of them were scams. I actually had at least 2 that I messaged that had the overseas thing just as someone talked about.
There's a decent looking GS on the Baltimore CL: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/1291039742.html
This one is more money and sounds a bit rougher: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/1289912841.html
-Jessie
Quote from: BaltimoreGS on July 29, 2009, 07:19:48 PM
There's a decent looking GS on the Baltimore CL: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/1291039742.html
This one is more money and sounds a bit rougher: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/1289912841.html
-Jessie
I saw those yesterday....both cheaper than what I paid. :mad:
Don't let it bug you, just be glad you got one ;)
-Jessie
I saw this one over the weekend..... http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/mcy/1294283943.html
It made me want to cry that I don't have $600 to spare at the moment.
yeah the second one does look pretty scammy i guess. i'm hoping for the first one though.
i'd get one of those, but i'm hard set on an F. i want the wind screen, and aftermarket wind screens for non-faired gs's don't float my boat.
so what is the deal with the dropping/wrecking -> frame bending/shaking? i'm mostly asking, because i'm not too sure if i'm going to test ride that first bike when i go look at it. supposedly it hasn't been started in a few weeks, so that batt. is dead, and i haven't done a whole lot of riding and she's in a city. so i don't really want to go ride it around a city. i mean, i'm sure i'll take it around the block, but i don't know that i'll get it to 60? is there a chance the frame is bent?
If it really was just dropped at low speeds then the frame shouldn't be bent. I bought my bike and it had been dropped by both PO's and then i even dropped it at a stop a few times everything seems to be fine with the frame and it rides just fine. I have to imagine that being dropped and real slow speeds or stopped it would be hard to even bend the frame unless you have some crazy bad luck and hit some weird object at an obscure angle on the ground. By looking at the scratched parts on the bike you should be able to tell how fast and how hard the bike was actually dropped.
As everyone else has been saying though i would avoid the second one.
Look for kinks in the frame. It's box section tubing so bends that have been straightened will show creases where the bends were, and that severely reduces rigidity because it's no longer a box section. Bassmechanicz is right. Drops won't bend the frame. Crashes can. Look for creases in the flat areas of the frame.
You must ride it at speed before buying. That's a hard rule for me. By observing that rule I have bought 4 used bikes and didn't regret any of them. Pay close attention to the feedback the bike gives you. Take your hands off the bars and make sure it goes straight without having to lean to one side to correct it. Don't touch a bike with a suspected bent frame. There's no need to. Good GS 500's are not rare, and a bent frame is an expensive time-consuming thing to fix correctly. A new frame is needed and then of course the whole bike needs to be taken apart and re-assembled on the new frame. Don't be model/brand specific when shopping for a used bike. Look for a good bike in good shape at a good price, even if you don't end-up with a GS. I know that's sacrilege here, but it's more important to get a good buy on a good bike.
If you really want an F model and are unsure of your ability to weed-out bad ones from good ones, why not buy a new one for $4000? They're dirt cheap right now. I hear there are new 2008 models still available. Even if you borrowed $5k your payments would only be about $150/month for 3 years. It's a good way to establish credit. That's what I did in 1983. I bought the only new bike I ever bought in the middle of a recession. Don't forget to try an SV650 while you're there! Then low-ball the hell out of them for the bike you want. Dealers are starving for sales right now. Also join a credit union to get good loan terms. Banks suck. Credit unions rule! :thumb:
Quote from: bill14224 on July 30, 2009, 06:01:00 AM
Look for kinks in the frame. It's box section tubing so bends that have been straightened will show creases where the bends were, and that severely reduces rigidity because it's no longer a box section. Bassmechanicz is right. Drops won't bend the frame. Crashes can. Look for creases in the flat areas of the frame.
You must ride it at speed before buying. That's a hard rule for me. By observing that rule I have bought 4 used bikes and didn't regret any of them. Pay close attention to the feedback the bike gives you. Take your hands off the bars and make sure it goes straight without having to lean to one side to correct it. Don't touch a bike with a suspected bent frame. There's no need to. Good GS 500's are not rare, and a bent frame is an expensive time-consuming thing to fix correctly. A new frame is needed and then of course the whole bike needs to be taken apart and re-assembled on the new frame. Don't be model/brand specific when shopping for a used bike. Look for a good bike in good shape at a good price, even if you don't end-up with a GS. I know that's sacrilege here, but it's more important to get a good buy on a good bike.
If you really want an F model and are unsure of your ability to weed-out bad ones from good ones, why not buy a new one for $4000? They're dirt cheap right now. I hear there are new 2008 models still available. Even if you borrowed $5k your payments would only be about $150/month for 3 years. It's a good way to establish credit. That's what I did in 1983. I bought the only new bike I ever bought in the middle of a recession. Don't forget to try an SV650 while you're there! Then low-ball the hell out of them for the bike you want. Dealers are starving for sales right now. Also join a credit union to get good loan terms. Banks suck. Credit unions rule! :thumb:
+1 for credit unions.
Or do waht I did. 1990 GS500, nonrunning. Just took me 2 months and about $500 in parts to put it together and now it runs like a champ! All for $800 bucks with only 12k miles on it!
thanks for all the great advise. i would be thinking of a new one, but i got insurance quotes for a new gs and one 3 years old, and the difference was pretty crazy as i remember. i'm also pretty hard pressed to stay under 3k, and i can't take on payments. i'm in college. i work 4 months out of the year and waste half of it because i'm dumb lol. that's why i'm getting a bike. so i don't have to spend $1k a month on my car :)
another typical noob question. will it be ok to jump start the bike as if it's a car? just jumper cables from the car to the bike battery? i'm a tard with electronics. i'm a good mechanic, but i stay away from wires lol. i'm just wondering if it's neg. ground or 6 volt or something like that.
Quote from: KasbeKZ on July 30, 2009, 02:36:36 PM
thanks for all the great advise. i would be thinking of a new one, but i got insurance quotes for a new gs and one 3 years old, and the difference was pretty crazy as i remember. i'm also pretty hard pressed to stay under 3k, and i can't take on payments. i'm in college. i work 4 months out of the year and waste half of it because i'm dumb lol. that's why i'm getting a bike. so i don't have to spend $1k a month on my car :)
another typical noob question. will it be ok to jump start the bike as if it's a car? just jumper cables from the car to the bike battery? i'm a tard with electronics. i'm a good mechanic, but i stay away from wires lol. i'm just wondering if it's neg. ground or 6 volt or something like that.
Make sure the car is off when you do this..it will work.
i understand that it would work, but why is it better that the car is off?
lol. Won't make a difference if the car is on or off. Whether the car is on or off is irrelevant, you have a battery either way. When the car is running, the battery recieves juice via the alternator which recharges it.
keep the car off :dunno_white: ? whatttt lol
anyways i dont know how well you are off money wise but i ended up getting my 07 from a dealer. i went in with cash in hand, i brought him down a lot. they are hurting but motorcycle dealers are typically pretty stiff on prices but like to throw in all kinds of gear for free if u stick with the price that they have, or at least thats how the ones around here have been. i however tossed him a number he couldnt refuse. ;)
who knows, you may end up getting a free helmet, gloves, and jacket out of the deal too. might go check out a dealer if you really do have you heart set on the f model.
well i might do that, but i'm really looking to spend $2700 on a bike + $500 on gear. and that's all. i really can't spend more than that on this.
so i've just talked to the owner of the bike i'm trying to buy. she says no test rides.... sketchy. if there were a bike that didn't ride well, that would be what the owner would say. what should my argument be? i trust you guys saying that i should test ride it. she's worried about the liability. that she'll be liable if i wreck. not sure why that's such a crazy bad thing. what should we do?
She won't even let you have a test drive with cash in hand? I could understand someone maybe just being very careful, but she has to understand that it would be difficult to purchase something if you haven't been able to try it out.
yeah that's what i'm thinking. if she won't let me ride it at all, i think i'll have to let it stay. but if i say i'm not even going to come look at it if i can't ride it, i think she'll change her mind.
No need to jump start the bike with the car on so I said don't turn the car on?? Just trying to help save a start up.. f%$king flaming chinese.
haha just wondering guy. i know what you're saying.
I bought new but test rode 2nd hand at the dealer. Before going for a ride I called and asked them what the procedure is for a test ride - do I need to book in, just turn up, etc.? He said it was best to give them notice so they could make sure the bike was lubed - which really means, warmed up so I don't think horrid thoughts about non EFI. I also asked about the Route the dealer would take me on (they lead I follow). He told me and I mentioned that the maximum road speed there was 80kph and I won't even get into 6th gear at that speed, how about I create my own route? Sure, he says - after all, a sale could hinge on whether I can use all gears, right?
I book in the test ride for a few days time. Arrive. Fill out their form - including the "you crash you pay $2k insurance excess" - and show the accompanying rider a small google-maps print out of the route I want to take. He looks and says... how about I follow you. So he grabbed a 400 Burgman off the floor, rode it out into their parking lot and off we went. A 30 click test ride route that included twisties, mid speed and slow speed, city traffic, rural road, highway and bumpy road. A route that allowed me to test everything I needed to test, for me.
My number one rule was... highway speed. If I cannot ride it at speed then forget about it. And as for No Ride? Don't even bother arguing, just move on and wait for someone else (or a dealer) who will let you test ride. You may miss out on a good bike - but - you might also save yourself buying a complete lemon - supposedly ridden by a girl who cannot even sell her own bike (red flags right there for me).
Take your time when buying. There is no rush. Read this page about Inspecting 2nd hand bikes http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html
Michael
One more from CL: http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/mcy/1284043743.html
When i bought my bike the PO let me test ride it but since i hadn't taken the msf course or even rode a motorcycle before i brought someone who did ride to test ride it for me. Then when i purchased it from the guy he even let me use his plates and his insurance to drive the bike home so that i wouldn't have to trailer it.
Their really shouldn't be any reason why they wouldn't let you test ride the bike unless their is a problem with it. Just bring the cash and say here you can hold on to this while i test ride it to ease their mind that you have the money and aren't going to just drive off with it.
I have to admit. If I were selling a bike, I wouldn't let someone ride it. I"d ride it for them and even let them ride on the back. Here's why. A friend of mine was selling his bike. Let someone he didn't know test drive it. And came back half an hour later and it was crashed. The kid didn't have the cash to give my buddy and now there's a judgement on the kid that will never be paid. My friend paid $2000 out of his own pocket to fix it so he didn't have to turn it into the insurance company. His rates would have gone up if he would have. So I can't blame someone for not letting you test ride their bike. My stipulation is if you want to test drive my bike, give me cash in hand BEFORE you ride so if you wreck it, I don't have to take care of it! If you won't give me the cash, then you a) had no intent of buying, or b) have never been on a bike before and therefore I don't want you on my bike while I still own it!!!!
i think the worry she has is if i crash into another car and insurance has to get involved, then it would be her insurance. i told her she could hold the cash, but she is still worried about the liability. not the bike damage.
but oh well. the guy that was supposed to meet me today to buy the car never called at all. i called him and he said he'd call right back. never has. i called again and his brother answered saying he moved. i don't know why the guy can't just say "i had money problems and can't get it" or something. he's got to just go silent. i hate this car selling crap. it's the best deal on a z anywhere in the state right now and i can't sell it. so ghey
Quote from: scottpA_GS on July 29, 2009, 04:40:44 PM
The first one says... "Has been laid down twice at no speed, never been dropped." ??? Dropped and laid down are different? ??? So, I guess he decided to gently lay it down because ?? It was tired? thought it would be easy to change the oil that way?
Also the lever end is broken? Also from him gently putting it to sleep?... No... IT FELL DOWN! :laugh:
:dunno_white:
good luck :cheers:
My 87 savage has been laid down several times this way. Starter clutch fiasco entirely took about 5-6 lay down's on the right, one time for over an hour on some car tars while the guy welded and ground and welded and ground ... then I laid it down the other way for another hour + 3 ft off the ground while I splashed gasoline+kerosene+diesel+whatever petro compound I had lying about ...
However that whole thing was done with no body, seat or anythign on it, and the controls were also removed and the bar it has on it was replaced after. But I digress.
So its been down, but never dropped or crashed ... ha scott there goes your theory ... booya.
Cool.
Buddha.
Quote from: KasbeKZ on July 30, 2009, 05:08:39 PM
well i might do that, but i'm really looking to spend $2700 on a bike + $500 on gear. and that's all. i really can't spend more than that on this.
Don't forget the cost of registration, inspection, insurance, and all the state nasties (well and all the accessories you'll want after you buy it...) Just sayin' cause I went in with a similar budget and ended up chewing through a bunch more than I had planned.
And based on where you're looking you'd be way more hardcore than I to ride to school through the winter... I think made it to school once on my bike, with the "yeah I'll save on gas" idea. Although mostly that's because I still don't think I've gotten it working reliably enough to trust it to get my anywhere important.
Quote from: PachmanP on July 31, 2009, 07:38:37 PM
Quote from: KasbeKZ on July 30, 2009, 05:08:39 PM
well i might do that, but i'm really looking to spend $2700 on a bike + $500 on gear. and that's all. i really can't spend more than that on this.
Don't forget the cost of registration, inspection, insurance, and all the state nasties (well and all the accessories you'll want after you buy it...) Just sayin' cause I went in with a similar budget and ended up chewing through a bunch more than I had planned.
And based on where you're looking you'd be way more hardcore than I to ride to school through the winter... I think made it to school once on my bike, with the "yeah I'll save on gas" idea. Although mostly that's because I still don't think I've gotten it working reliably enough to trust it to get my anywhere important.
Sales tax is the killer! Ughhh. I know a few people who privately bought and the seller wrote down a value much lower than they actually paid for the bike to be nice so that the sales tax was substantially lower than what I could have been. Very nice on their part, not like they would have seen the money anyways right?
that's how i always buy and sell cars. i have two bills of sale for the car i have now.
i have factored in all the taxes and gear and insurance and stuff. got it all figured out.
as far as riding to school, i'll be living there. so i just need to go home and back once in a while. every month or so. then to my gf's school about 2 hours away once in a whiile. but these aren't pressing trips. so if the weather is bad, i won't go.
Quote from: ~*STEPH*~ on July 30, 2009, 10:20:17 AM
Or do waht I did. 1990 GS500, nonrunning. Just took me 2 months and about $500 in parts to put it together and now it runs like a champ! All for $800 bucks with only 12k miles on it!
thats what i did with my first of 4 gs' a 97, got for 6 bones. replaced front forks, cleaned carbs and was rollin. damn i miss htat bike, mroe than any other. ( sold it to help mom when she was diagnosed wiht stage 4 lymphoma
This looks like a really good deal too. No pictures though.
http://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/1301474946.html (http://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/1301474946.html)