How Did You Sell Your Bike?

[Blue Sky]

I'd like to get some ideas on the best way to sell a motorcycle.

I'm thinking about selling my Mean Streak for a nice down payment on a new Rubicon and I need to know what is the best way to do it.

I'm not to keen on putting an ad in the paper and having strangers come over to the house and want to test drive my bike, but if I have to do that I will. Is Craig's list a good option? Or how about consignments? Do dealers still do that?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[RogerE]

Originally Posted by Blue Sky

I'd like to get some ideas on the best way to sell a motorcycle.

I'm thinking about selling my Mean Streak for a nice down payment on a new Rubicon and I need to know what is the best way to do it.

I'm not to keen on putting an ad in the paper and having strangers come over to the house and want to test drive my bike, but if I have to do that I will. Is Craig's list a good option? Or how about consignments? Do dealers still do that?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Run an ad on the Cycle Trader website - the ads are very cost effective and attract people who are looking for a specific bike. Most buyers will travel some distance to get what they want. I sold my Yamaha 650 Classic using them a couple of years ago.

Regarding "test rides" - I would be very careful about letting someone ride a bike unless I knew them or something about their riding skills.

Dealers might sell on consignment. Your best bet is to find a store that deals in used bikes but not new ones. They typically are more receptive to consignment deals. Be prepared to pay for their services - a store that I am familiar with here in FL charges $700 to sell a bike on consignment.

Hope this helps, and happy holidays.

[WilburDink]

I have sold 3 motorcycles using craig's list. As far as test riding goes, only you can gauge that. For me, I would not buy a motorcycle that I didn't test out first so I let people ride mine when I was selling.

[Woody]

A little off topic but...
It is a good idea to be sure the bike is secure while advertising, especially if the bike is not a heavy weight. My son bought a well used 250 dirt bike. Tore it down and R & R-ed. Even sandblasted the frame and repainted. Looked and ran like new. Put it up for sale for $ for school. It was stored under the back deck. Got a call on Sat - Someone got directions to come look at it on Sunday. They came, driving a box truck (neighbor saw it) at about 4AM Sunday. When we got up Sunday the bike was gone, never to be seen again
I guess I am lucky in a way I didn't wake up and employ a 12 gauge deterent!

Woody

[twp]

I like to use craig's list its free an alot of people look at it.. I never tell them my address. I always meet them some where else. You just never know about people.

[BoneJj]

I use craigslist a lot and I get some great deals and make great deals on it.

just remember to add a few hundred for when they talk to "down" to the price you really want for it... lol.

also be sure to post big pictures so people can see the listing. I don't know if you know anything about HTML but simply using some HTML coding will make your listing stand out big time on craigslist....

you want to use line breaks to end a line and start a new one and multiple line breaks to add spaces in between lines.

The code for a line break is:

<br>

it's that simple.

To put a full size image into a listing on craigslist you will need to host that image at a place like www.photobucket.com . which is probably your best best for hosting pictures anyway.

If your image file is larger than 1MB they will auto resize the image to 1024x768 which is a pretty decent sized image as it is, I like bigger so I handle my photo resizing myself but I do a lot of photography and so on so I know what I'm doing there....

Once your photo is hosted you can simply copy the image code that they give you for HTML full size and then plug that into your listing and good to go.... Simple, effective and will make your listing stand out like a soar thumb giving you the advantage.

If you host your images somewhere else then all you need to do is take the image location such at:

http://www.timbufktwo.com/thisfolder/suckonmyimage.jpg

and place it into the right HTML tag to allow it to be displayed as an image such as this....:

<img src="http://www.timbufktwo.com/thisfolder/suckonmyimage.jpg">

and you are done......

also be sure to upload an image into the regular craigslist image thing for those who like to filter for only listings with images.

This will make you stand out and win you faster sales. There are a lot of other things that you could do but to be honest... I'm not giving out all my secrets.

[TB2000]

I used CL to sell my 900 classic and I had very good luck. A nice couple drove 3 hours to see it. I felt comfortable letting them test drive it once I got talking to them. I asked for their dl if they were going to test ride it. Remember this much, an agreement between two parties is a civil issue if anything happens while they are riding it. Just saying.
I also bought my V2K on CL. Drove to another state to get it. Drove 12 hours to buy 2 jetskis. All I can say is talk to the sellers and get a feel for who you are dealing with. Let common sense be your guide. If it don't feel right, don't go. Good luck..hope it works for you.

[Blue Sky]

Excellent info fellas, I appreciate that very much!

Woody,

Sorry to hear about your bike getting stolen. That really sucks. I hate thieves!

[Blue Sky]

Thanks again for all the help. We'll see how it goes.

Frank

[Steammaker]

Originally Posted by Blue Sky

Thanks again for all the help. We'll see how it goes.

Frank

As far as "TEST" rides I've seen it posted that the buyer can only test ride if they give you the purchase price in CASH to hold while they're out. That way if they wreck it they bought it...Sounds fair to me. A serious buyer shouldnt have a problem with that.