Reelthing
Serious Thumper Alliance Member
   
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Fish or ride that is the question
Posts: 5397
Houston,Tx
Gender:
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… well the bike just sat there quite happy running at a fast idle as I circled it trying to size it up looking at this and that. I had ask the salesman a couple of hours ago how long the drive belts would last, he told me maybe 40k miles what they had seen mostly was the pulleys wear out first but you need to look for cracks and replace it after you see several or any teeth starting to chip, if there was anything wrong with this belt I sure couldn’t see it. In fact I couldn’t find much of anything wrong – small crack in the top of the back rest, a little bit of paint chipped off the frame, but not a scratch or dent in the tank or fenders, both mirrors have a little of the reflective flaking off on the inside but that was about it. This took a couple of minutes and the owner shoved the choke in , the engine slow down to a rhythmic thump, thump, thump. Took a penny out of my pocket stuck it in the center of both tires – the depth was to the middle of Lincolns forehead and I couldn’t find any age cracks in the sidewalls so the these seemed to have a good number of miles let in them. Now I’ve got to find more wrong with this bike than what I’m seeing the thing is 10 years old and how else can I go to work on knocking this guy down on the price! I looked back at my wife in the truck and she’s watching me with a rather blank expression… wonder what that means... anyway the big single is just thumping away and I’m starting to hear some rattles. The guy tells me he has had the bike since ’03 and is only selling it because he had bought another and nods toward the garage, where is setting either a new or close to it HD fatboy, good I’m hearing some rattles and he’s picked up some new debt now maybe we can work on the price. So I casually say something about great looking HD , but they’re kind of proud of them aren’t they and man what are those rattles, will you take $1600 for it? And I looked back at the truck, my wife now has the window down and I believe I saw her roll her eyes… he walks around to the left side and puts his foot on the highway peg and one finger on the mirror, all the rattles stop. No he says but he’d take $1800 and shouldn’t I ride it first? Oh yeah I forgot about that as my poker face slides away and smile replaces it – I know I saw this time – she rolled her eyes…. Well there was a bit of a wet gravel road that led up to this guys drive way and I figure it might not be real smart for me to heard this bike down it until I’ve tried it a bit on the pavement – so ask asked him if it shifts well and the clutch works proper, he tells me it rides and works as good as it looks – ok DEAL $1800 it is, we shake on it, and I tell him I’ll go round up a helmet , some cash, warmer clothes, and headed to the truck. So I asked my better half what kind of look was that she gave me and I guess I’d take the bike. Well, she laughed and said she knew I was going to buy it before I got out of the truck and while I talked smooth to the guy it was all the stroking my beard and fidgeting around I was doing that had her convinced I was, in all likelihood, going to wet myself if I didn’t close the deal shortly and I had about another 5 minutes before she got out, gave the guy the $2000 he wanted in the first place so we could get on with it. Dang it’s hard to be cool. But now I understood the looks, told her thanks and could she stop laughing.
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