flogged me cbr600fx

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Because I've never ridden it much, I had a really strong urge to just get rid of my cbr600fx (last of the carbed ones). At first, I listed it on Gumtree and eBay for £2650. It had 13k miles and was in really good cosmetic nick as well.

Meanwhile I was seeing similar bikes listed for £2.7 with over twice as many miles. So I was thinking, great - this will soon go.

Wrong! I had no interest at all. Couple of two grand low ballers on Facebook, and that was it. I thought hmm, okay. Let's say offers, then. Two weeks later, nowt. I was keener than ever for it to be gone. I didn't need the money, nor even the space. But nevertheless, I was itching for it to go.

Next step, rejig my ads to say £2.5k, offers.

Quite soon, I got a confident bite. £2250 from someone wanting to collect that very day. I was immediately suspicious after an "old lady" had messaged me on Scumtree, wanting to send a van around immediately because it was her son's birthday the next day. Amazon gift cards and breaking it for spares up in the mountainous regions of Albania seemed imminent.

I said to the facebook messager, no way dude. Whomsoever are you and from whence dost thou hail? Well, it turned out that THIS particular guy was 100% kosher. He claimed to be from Earnshaws Two Wheel Centre in Huddersfield. So the next day, I rang them and they confirmed it all.

A dealer wanted to buy my bike. And in fact, turned up in a van less than 24 hours later. The lad sorted it all out on his phone, really professionally - V5, money to my account via online banking, loading it into his big van. Everything. Totally pain free. Actually this lad does race - I forget his name. Nice guy though.

But I had one question. How come the shop can sell it for £2700 or more, and I couldn't get any interest at £2500. The answer was simple, even if I didn't suss it out: Finance. Ah yes. Of course. It all made sense.

However, do people nowadays not have even £2.5k to spend? I appreciate it's a chunk of cash, and for many, too big a chunk. But really? In these times when we're not having our big stupid holidays abroad, and not going out for expensive meals, etc. etc.? Weird.
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[A100man]

[Bhud]

[DJP]

[c_dug]

I've sold two bikes and a car privately in the last 18 months.

Back early last year I sold an R1200GS and a Tuono 125 2 stroke. Both bikes I had to slash the price considerably to get gone, I ended up getting barely any more for both bikes combined than I was originally asking for the GS!

You're sort of up against it with that era bike. There was a marked change in design and technology in the mid 2000's and your carby 600f falls very much into the old school mould of steel frame, right way up forks, older styling.

£3k will get you all sorts of newer bikes, and you're so close to that mark than many people would opt to scrimp an extra £500 and go for the bike with newer technology and design, things like fuel injection, ABS, and a digital readout dash.

You're basically selling to somebody who really wants a 90's/00's sports bike because it's "old skool cool" - and at that point you're instantly competing with the likes of SRADs, ZX7R's, B1h's etc where the 600F of the era sadly get's a little outshone.

I hit a similar wall with my Tuono and I nearly halved the price in the end to get it sold.

My car on the other hand... I bought it about the same time as I sold the two bikes, around April last year. I sold it about three weeks ago at a significant profit, talking around the 35% mark in profit.

Apparently there is a new car shortage or something and it is dragging up the price of used cars. Suited me nicely!
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[Hong Kong Phooey]

^ the fx was the first with an alloy frame, and the carbs are no less powerful and easier to fix/tune than the following years efi.

The chassis remained largely unchanged until 2007, the bodywork was the major change for 2001 on bikes.

I can't bring myself to sell mine, didn't pay much for it, reliable, cheap to run/insure, and is still good fun on the road, not that much has changed in reality since 1999. Yes ABS and traction control are improvements but for 99.999% of the time you'll never notice the lack of it, unless you're either unlucky or not riding to the conditions.

Brakes were not the best but they're easily sorted, rwu forks make little to no difference on the road.

Would I pay £2,500, probably not if I could get a striple near to the same price.
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'81 CG125, '97 FZS600 : '99 CBR600F4, '09 KTM RC8

[c_dug]