Antique & Classic Cars Blog
One from the Doh! File
Thursday, March 20th, 2008Had lunch with a friend today who finally parted with his Honda sport tourer. He’d owned it since new and had reservations about lettin’ the ol’ gal go (–ol’ beautiful, fast, responsive, fun gal.)
The buyer ultimately made the decision easy and underscored the reason you sell valuable goods with a cashier’s check, not a personal one. He showed up a couple weeks ago when there wasn’t quite snow on the ground, but still frost and cinders and the usual hazards. My friend, let’s call him Lance, said, “you wreck it, you bought it.” Most sport-bike sellers adopt this policy because of how easy it is to turn Slim Pickens aboard an errant missile.
Lance’s driveway has a puddle at the bottom of it, about which he warned the speed-hungry buyer. The warning did not improve the buyer’s willpower. He got to the end of the driveway, pointed the bars left, and cracked the throttle with the rear tire in the puddle. The tire did what friction-limited rubber always does when you throw too much juice at it–it broke loose, and since the front tire wasn’t in front of it, the rear end kicked out and bike and rider pinwheeled across the road.
Shaken, scraped and wobbly, he apologized to Lance. “No problem,” my astute friend replied. “It’s your bike.”
Seeing it all scraped up eased the whole post-partum issue, allowing Lance to watch the new owner ride off with bent bars and clutch lever, loved-one-who-saw following him in the family car.
This story brought to you by Doh!
5 Responses to "One from the Doh! File"
What an odd story! How many people show up to buy something… anything… with cashier’s checks? “Lance” was exceedingly lucky.
The bike was several thousand dollars–not a couple hundred. This is why the transaction involved a cashier’s check. Also, knowing that this is a 100 horsepower motorcycle–and cinders and other winter hazards were still on the roads–Lance was cautious.
Sad incident–good bike got needlessly dinged up. Fortunately nobody got hurt. The buyer’s injuries were very minor. In the end it may have been a good thing, if expensive. Bikes can get a person into trouble very fast and those that are themselves very fast…well…better to give them lots of respect.
How do you dicker on price when you arrive with a cashier’s check?
Buyer had already seen the bike and they’d cut their deal. They just needed a comparatively warm, comparatively snow-free day for the test ride and, if satisfactory, trading the check for the bike.
By the way, I’m not suggesting that wiping out on a motorcycle is hard to do. In fact, it’s entirely too easy to do and almost every rider I know has gone down, and so have I. The internet and dealerships that sell used have plenty of scraped-up bike traffic. This story was just a little sadder because the buyer paid for a pretty bike but took possession of a scraped up one.
This low-speed crash is far from irreparable; it’ll just take some money, parts-hunting and time that could have gone elsewhere.
You asked for pictures of unrestored cars but I live 1900 miles west of you in rural Nevada City, CA. I have a 1955 Packard Clipper with 56,000 miles. I have owned the car since 1970 when I traded a bus I used as a moving van from Mpls to LA for it. The car is original except for the bottom portion which had to be painted 38 years ago due to the many dents the elderly prior owner left in the Packard before she gave up driving. If repainting doesn’t count, I can add a 1941 Ford, 1954 Hudson Hornet & 1965 Olds F-85 sedan, all of which still have their original interiors & except for the ‘41 Ford, original un-rechromed bumpers & grills. The only car I have that is somewhat modified is a 1930 Model A which still has Henry’s 4 cylinder flathead & crash box 3 speed transmission.
Please leave a comment
MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.
Your favorite: classic car blog, antique car blog, muscle car blog, vintage car blog. Antique and classic cars for sale by owner.
Have a collectible car to sell?
Try an enhanced classified listing for "Antiques, Classic & Customized" where you can upload photos of your vehicle, provide contact information, and filter through inquiries with ease. Sell your collectible classic online.
Subscribe to MotorMouth
Learn more about RSS
Blogroll
Categories
- Back to the 50s (15)
- Car parts (129)
- Car stories (168)
- Events (47)
- Motorcycle tales (23)
- Uncategorized (40)
Archives
Search Yellow Pages: