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Hello guys!
I am sure everyone has gone through trials with buying bikes and parts, here is one of my stories.
Well, I have had my GS for about a year and a half now, having gotten it from a co worker friend who took pity on me as I looked for an older street bike to tinker on. Once it was in my hands for $300, I started checking the usual places for the parts it needed or even another parts bike. I no longer have access to e*ay or Cracklist during the workday, even at lunch, but that is probably for the best.
I have had decent luck dealing with e*ay and Cracklist, but I have to say any free service is rife with flakes. At least e*ay scammers have to put up some coin and modest attempt at confirmation is made and payp*l offers a bit of recourse.
The one thing Cracklist offers more than e*ay is the joy of dealing one on one with some crazy individuals. I wish I would have kept the pics and the correspondence from these ads to illustrate the stories, but I didn’t know about GSR at the time so I did not feel the need.
The first ad simply stated “Suzuki $400 obo” and was a one sentence ad with several spelling errors and a small pic of an ’82 GS1100E with no front fender or side cover (at least on this side) in front of a barn. The best part was the milk crate bungee’d to the back with the dog sitting in it, an Australian Sheppard by the looks of it.
It was about two hours away, but I thought if it runs well it is at least worth that. And I might be able to talk him down some as the ad stated he needed to get rid of it quick, like today. The ad was a day old when I saw it, but it was still up so I emailed him. Normally, I hate it when there is no phone # attached and you have to jump through hoops to get a hold of the seller, but this time I am glad I didn’t give this guy my contact info.
I ask if the bike is still for sale and if he has any better description of it, like does it run, why he is selling it, does it have papers, etc. He responds back in a rambling, page long email with no pronunciation, capitalization and atrocious spelling. I really wish I would have kept it, to try and reproduce it would be like copying the Mona Lisa, and it would pale next to the master. I will paraphrase.
Yes, he still had the bike but he was being evicted (went on to tell me the injustices of the system and how his girlfriend had left with his cash and his car) and had to do a deal NOW! The bike ran, and will run again once some of the parts had been put back on. Apparently the little photo in the ad was a “before” picture. When it did run, it was FASSSST (his word), he had pulled wheelies in ALL 4 gears (I guess he started in second) and it would do 90 in second. But it needed a little work now, he said he was a get-r-done kind of guy, like me (apparently he knew me already) and could have it running in a few hours if he had to, without any new parts. You do what you have to do, right? Never say never. He did say it didn’t look like the picture anymore, but he didn’t have a camera. He still doesn’t provide a contact number, or say whether or not he has the papers for it.
I write back thanking him for getting back to me and ask the same questions again. I also ask what is wrong with it.
He writes back another page long reply talking about brotherhood and how you make the best of what you have, right? He tells me the outer covers are shattered from being dropped but not to worry, he slathered JB weld on them and they “hardly leak a drop”. He said he no longer has the seat and the tank is damaged as well as the headlight and forks. Not to worry, it wasn’t ‘recked (his word), it was from being pulled by a tractor. He says he has papers and “if I really need them” he could try to find them. Still no number.
I write back that I am probably not interested, especially for $400 in a non running, damaged GS with no papers, which needed to be pulled by a tractor. Was it seized? I thank him for his time and tell him no thanks.
He writes back the third page of his Rain Man style replies. States the bike isn’t seized, the tractor was to pull it out of the barn.
During the fire.
That burned the seat.
Which is one of the reasons for the eviction.
He rambles on about the American dream and people looking out for each other, etc, etc, etc. Still no contact number.
At this point I stop reading and write back I am really not interested, too much trouble, I can’t miss work to close a deal before the next weekend, thanks again, good bye.
This time he replies in all caps about wasting his time, how California sucks and he’s going back to Ohio. Oh, and he would take $200.
Still no contact number.
I have a second story for another time about a kid selling the GS dragbike he inherited from his uncle, while still at his uncle’s funeral. I really wanted that one.
Cheers, Erick
I am sure everyone has gone through trials with buying bikes and parts, here is one of my stories.
Well, I have had my GS for about a year and a half now, having gotten it from a co worker friend who took pity on me as I looked for an older street bike to tinker on. Once it was in my hands for $300, I started checking the usual places for the parts it needed or even another parts bike. I no longer have access to e*ay or Cracklist during the workday, even at lunch, but that is probably for the best.
I have had decent luck dealing with e*ay and Cracklist, but I have to say any free service is rife with flakes. At least e*ay scammers have to put up some coin and modest attempt at confirmation is made and payp*l offers a bit of recourse.
The one thing Cracklist offers more than e*ay is the joy of dealing one on one with some crazy individuals. I wish I would have kept the pics and the correspondence from these ads to illustrate the stories, but I didn’t know about GSR at the time so I did not feel the need.
The first ad simply stated “Suzuki $400 obo” and was a one sentence ad with several spelling errors and a small pic of an ’82 GS1100E with no front fender or side cover (at least on this side) in front of a barn. The best part was the milk crate bungee’d to the back with the dog sitting in it, an Australian Sheppard by the looks of it.
It was about two hours away, but I thought if it runs well it is at least worth that. And I might be able to talk him down some as the ad stated he needed to get rid of it quick, like today. The ad was a day old when I saw it, but it was still up so I emailed him. Normally, I hate it when there is no phone # attached and you have to jump through hoops to get a hold of the seller, but this time I am glad I didn’t give this guy my contact info.
I ask if the bike is still for sale and if he has any better description of it, like does it run, why he is selling it, does it have papers, etc. He responds back in a rambling, page long email with no pronunciation, capitalization and atrocious spelling. I really wish I would have kept it, to try and reproduce it would be like copying the Mona Lisa, and it would pale next to the master. I will paraphrase.
Yes, he still had the bike but he was being evicted (went on to tell me the injustices of the system and how his girlfriend had left with his cash and his car) and had to do a deal NOW! The bike ran, and will run again once some of the parts had been put back on. Apparently the little photo in the ad was a “before” picture. When it did run, it was FASSSST (his word), he had pulled wheelies in ALL 4 gears (I guess he started in second) and it would do 90 in second. But it needed a little work now, he said he was a get-r-done kind of guy, like me (apparently he knew me already) and could have it running in a few hours if he had to, without any new parts. You do what you have to do, right? Never say never. He did say it didn’t look like the picture anymore, but he didn’t have a camera. He still doesn’t provide a contact number, or say whether or not he has the papers for it.
I write back thanking him for getting back to me and ask the same questions again. I also ask what is wrong with it.
He writes back another page long reply talking about brotherhood and how you make the best of what you have, right? He tells me the outer covers are shattered from being dropped but not to worry, he slathered JB weld on them and they “hardly leak a drop”. He said he no longer has the seat and the tank is damaged as well as the headlight and forks. Not to worry, it wasn’t ‘recked (his word), it was from being pulled by a tractor. He says he has papers and “if I really need them” he could try to find them. Still no number.
I write back that I am probably not interested, especially for $400 in a non running, damaged GS with no papers, which needed to be pulled by a tractor. Was it seized? I thank him for his time and tell him no thanks.
He writes back the third page of his Rain Man style replies. States the bike isn’t seized, the tractor was to pull it out of the barn.
During the fire.
That burned the seat.
Which is one of the reasons for the eviction.
He rambles on about the American dream and people looking out for each other, etc, etc, etc. Still no contact number.
At this point I stop reading and write back I am really not interested, too much trouble, I can’t miss work to close a deal before the next weekend, thanks again, good bye.
This time he replies in all caps about wasting his time, how California sucks and he’s going back to Ohio. Oh, and he would take $200.
Still no contact number.
I have a second story for another time about a kid selling the GS dragbike he inherited from his uncle, while still at his uncle’s funeral. I really wanted that one.
Cheers, Erick
Came home with this.
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