There's something weird going on in the universe lately. I'm now the owner of another motorcycle that I never went looking for and this one is a bit of a long story.
About 5 years ago my next door neighbor came to me asking for help in his search for a scooter. He'd never owned a motorcycle and had never operated a manual transmission but as a newly divorced guy this was his chance to walk on the wild side. We found one at Morton's in Fredericksburg VA where he bought it, loaded it in the back of my truck (he didn't want to ride it home) and over the next 5 years I rarely saw him on it.
Now, come to find out, my neighbor was living in the house owned by his now ex-wife and was being pitched out so that she could sell the place, I hadn't seen my scooter loving neighbor for over year and find out he's living in NYC. Fast forward, the house has a contract on it and will be cleaned out of all his stuff soon so I texted him and asked him what his plans were for the scooter. His immediate reply: "It's yours if you want it." Ten minutes later it was sitting in my garage and a few days later I get the title and keys in the mail from him.
This thing had been sitting under a cover for over a year and was a mess with a dead battery. After washing it, I took the side cover off of it and lookie there, it's a very young Die Hard AGM battery in it. I put it on a charger while waiting on the keys and the battery took a full charge and seems healthy. Better yet, it had no trouble starting and with a fresh tank of gas it runs like a Deere. I spent a bit of time just going over it and cosmetically, it looks like a brand new scooter - not a flaw on it. The date code on the tires shows that they're 11 years old and the last time the fluids were changed was 5 years (and 500 miles) ago when he bought it.
Now I'm at a decision point. Do I finish refreshing it with tires and fluids or just flip it to the next owner for that level of attention? When I pushed it in my garage I was pretty sure it was going up for sale as soon as I had the title transferred. It weighs 50 lbs MORE than my 1300GS and is a pretty large thing taking up space in the garage. However....while I've been distracted with rehabbing the Deuce, I've been riding it around Annapolis on my neighbor's old expired tag (I did a title-only transfer with the MVA thinking I'd just sell it). Is it weird that I'm kinda growing to like it? It's turning out to be very easy to use for errands and trips about town. Tons of storage space on it and it's quick enough that I've smoked a few hot rodded Civics and Subarus - that must be terribly emasculating to get owned by a scooter *grin*
So, do I sell it to fund the rehab project on the Deuce? I'll likely be a few thousand in to that project bike before it's done. Or, once I have the Deuce fully functional, do I punt all the cosmetic rehab on it and sell it and keep the scooter?
With all these new things showing up in the garage I think my GS is pissed at me like it didn't sign up for being kept in the land of misfit toys. I need to take the GS for a long ride to clear my head on where to go next on the misfits.
About 5 years ago my next door neighbor came to me asking for help in his search for a scooter. He'd never owned a motorcycle and had never operated a manual transmission but as a newly divorced guy this was his chance to walk on the wild side. We found one at Morton's in Fredericksburg VA where he bought it, loaded it in the back of my truck (he didn't want to ride it home) and over the next 5 years I rarely saw him on it.
Now, come to find out, my neighbor was living in the house owned by his now ex-wife and was being pitched out so that she could sell the place, I hadn't seen my scooter loving neighbor for over year and find out he's living in NYC. Fast forward, the house has a contract on it and will be cleaned out of all his stuff soon so I texted him and asked him what his plans were for the scooter. His immediate reply: "It's yours if you want it." Ten minutes later it was sitting in my garage and a few days later I get the title and keys in the mail from him.
This thing had been sitting under a cover for over a year and was a mess with a dead battery. After washing it, I took the side cover off of it and lookie there, it's a very young Die Hard AGM battery in it. I put it on a charger while waiting on the keys and the battery took a full charge and seems healthy. Better yet, it had no trouble starting and with a fresh tank of gas it runs like a Deere. I spent a bit of time just going over it and cosmetically, it looks like a brand new scooter - not a flaw on it. The date code on the tires shows that they're 11 years old and the last time the fluids were changed was 5 years (and 500 miles) ago when he bought it.
Now I'm at a decision point. Do I finish refreshing it with tires and fluids or just flip it to the next owner for that level of attention? When I pushed it in my garage I was pretty sure it was going up for sale as soon as I had the title transferred. It weighs 50 lbs MORE than my 1300GS and is a pretty large thing taking up space in the garage. However....while I've been distracted with rehabbing the Deuce, I've been riding it around Annapolis on my neighbor's old expired tag (I did a title-only transfer with the MVA thinking I'd just sell it). Is it weird that I'm kinda growing to like it? It's turning out to be very easy to use for errands and trips about town. Tons of storage space on it and it's quick enough that I've smoked a few hot rodded Civics and Subarus - that must be terribly emasculating to get owned by a scooter *grin*
So, do I sell it to fund the rehab project on the Deuce? I'll likely be a few thousand in to that project bike before it's done. Or, once I have the Deuce fully functional, do I punt all the cosmetic rehab on it and sell it and keep the scooter?
With all these new things showing up in the garage I think my GS is pissed at me like it didn't sign up for being kept in the land of misfit toys. I need to take the GS for a long ride to clear my head on where to go next on the misfits.
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