I sold my first bike last night, a bike that I’ve poured tons of blood, sweat, tears, time and money into. The bike that instilled my love of motorcycles, the bike that is the basis for nearly every mechanical, fabricating, electrical, and tuning skill that I’ve learned over the years. A bike that I swore I’d keep forever.
I got this bike right out of high school as a worn out bone stock UJM and it’s changed nearly every year for the past 10 years, getting better every time. Over the years it’s had four different paint schemes, five or six different bar setups, the frame cut, two different seats, three different speedometers/gauge setups, a custom built wire harness, two headlights, an unknown amount of miles (rough estimate 15k) and countless other little things. This latest configuration was by far my favorite, but with two other bikes it wasn’t getting ridden much, and having three bikes on registration/insurance didn’t seem like the best idea, even though they’re cheap.
Deciding to let it go was probably the hardest part, I went back and forth for months about whether or not to keep it or sell it, but threw it up on FB to see if there was any interest. Not a day later someone made me an offer only slightly less than my asking, but still more than I figured it was worth so I decided to let it go. The guy was pretty excited by it and really liked the bike when he came to pick it up despite the fact that the carbs were dumping gas (sat dry for a few weeks, gaskets apparently dried up) and the battery barely had enough life to get it started. Knowing he was excited about it and will probably take care of it made things much easier.
My master plan has been to sell off most of the things that I don’t use much and use all of that money for something fun I can share with my family. I’ve yet to decide what that is, but the top contenders right now are a Jeep (YJ, maybe TJ), a fun car, a camper, or a boat. There’s still two bikes, a truck, a parts truck, and potentially my beater car to sell before I need to make that decision.