Sonny
Full Member
Offline
DeSoto, TX
Posts: 224
Gender:
|
Yes, I didn't intend to discourage HollisJohnson. I was ready to spend $2500 US on a clean used S40, but I couldn't find one that was sufficiently issue-free, or there was something jicky about the seller or some other factor making me nervous.
Neither one of my two Savages has been down, best I can tell.
This is a good time to buy a MC, and I would think an even better time in wintry Canada than down here in Texas. I await hearing about Hollis' new ride.
Dealers feel the pressure to close deals before cold weather hits, too. It hasn't been a good year for sales in general I don't think. I have been tire kicking Kaw Vulcan 900s a little bit, somewhat interested, and my local Kawasaki shop has their new bikes marked down substantially.
It just pays to be cautious lest you drop a wad and then find out you have a lot more work to do 'cause you didn't catch something. People here say and it's true: low miles on a 5 or 10 year old bike implies its own set of problems due to sitting and biodegrading.
The most important question is, was a bike broken in carefully and not run to redline on every shift. For that you size up your seller, you look at the spark plug and put a finger up the exhaust and see how clean it comes out, look at the oil, ride and listen. Because let's face it: a lot of people have no mechanical sense or sympathy and they abuse a bike til it has problems they don't want to deal with, then put it on the block and sell it. If there are enough dubious signs to make me want to compression test it, I'm going to pass on that one.
But the sunny side is, if you enjoy getting your hands dirty and have access to know-how from a resource like this forum, the things that made someone sell the bike may not be that big of a deal to fix.. may be fun and rewarding to fix!
|