Quick update on my new bike.
I was doing my obsessive search of the 4 main sale sites looking for a Daytona when I saw this bike. He’d only just posted it, I replied straight away, and asked to see it after work the next day. He didn’t want me to as he said the battery had died and he’d only just ordered a new one. He said if I really wanted to see it he could start it off jump leads. I was on late finishes the rest of the week so I insisted. When I got there the battery had arrived, he’d fitted it, and the bike started on the button. It looked pristine. I mean, really, really, immaculate.
It was still a bit of a gamble. It said ‘full service history’, 19,000 miles, and 2 owners (I think). But it was a grand cheaper than similar examples of that age and mileage, and had no MOT. The advert said it had only done 20 miles since it’s last, genuine Triumph, service (the ride home from the service) so it should be fine. As I said I’ve paid top dollar for a bike in the past, thinking it was going to be getting a better bike because it was dearer, and ended up feeling cheated.
I took a chance. I’d had the foresight to get £50 out to leave as a deposit, if the bike was nice. It was gorgeous. I didn’t even think of trying to haggle. I put the £50 down and arranged to collect it today.
I couldn’t get it earlier because of the late finishes, then everything being shut on a Sunday. The only way I could legally ride it home was to be going to a pre -arranged MOT inspection.
It was only down the road, so we went for it today. Wendy doesn’t do motorways so I drove us there, and she just had to follow me back. Wendy made some small talk with the seller “Are you sad to be losing your lovely bike?”
“Yes. When you’ve had traders ringing you up and offering to pay full price you know you’ve underpriced it.”
I’ll say. By about a grand!
I paid him without even taking it for a test ride (I couldn’t, legally). It was all on faith. The condition of the bike, the service history, the mileage, and him being at pains to point out the tiniest chip in the screen as a defect, made me give it a go.
I rode the bike home, slowly and legally. 24 miles of non-motorway small roads. It didn’t miss a beat. Slickly through the gears, great brakes, felt awesome. I took it for it’s MOT. This was where it could all go horribly wrong. Nope, it passed with no advisories. I’ve got a perfect bike, in perfect condition, for a bargain.
This makes me a happy, happy bunny!
The guy who was selling it had been racing motorbikes since a kid, so he was saying “It bogs down under 4,000 revs”, and “You’re used to the grunt of the CBF1000, you have to get the revs over 10,000 for the bike to sing”.
Listening to him I had visions of a Japanese 600cc, where they accelerate like a bus unless you are thrashing the top end of the revs all the time. I took it for a quick spin, (just over the Runcorn bridge and back down Walton drag). It is nothing like! Being a triple it has more torque, there was plenty of punchy power right the way through the revs. I don’t think I got to 10,000 revs, never mind over it. It’s a hoot! It’s like my sax, it will always be better than my skills demand.
Coming back into town some old fool went to go into the queuing right lane, I wanted the left lane so I started to accelerate, then, with no indication he threw it back into the left lane. I slapped the back brake and the back end just shot round, locked up. Oops. That was focusing on a new bike, to which I’m not accustomed. So, the brakes work.
Now I know the bike is as good as it seemed, and my gamble paid off, I’m reviewing it in my head.
If I hadn’t seen it straight away (he’d forgotten to load the pictures so that made it seem a bit dodgier as well, he loaded them after talking to me) and said I wanted to see it the next day, even after he said he’d prefer to wait until he got the battery, and immediately put down a deposit, there is no way I’d have this bike now. There are so many ways it could have got away from me. Then I’d be paying more for possibly less. Also, if Wendy hadn’t have talked to him, I wouldn’t be appreciating just how lucky I was.
It’s a rare thing for it all to come together so perfectly.
Happy days.
Buck.