Ramblings From Justin Penney

I purouse the Craigslist motorcycle classifieds quite often and see many would be sellers listing bikes the, "run great," or, "great runner," or, "ran great last year," then they follow up with, "needs new gas," or, "the battery is old," or, the worst, "the battery is new but needs charged."

Charge the batttery! Alternately, install a new one for the $40 some odd dollars that it costs. I can't believe these people that post up bikes, some for pretty high values, and they won't take 10 minutes to fix these simple problems. I've seen plenty of would-be-beater bikes on CL lately but all had this dumb mentality.

When I sold my Vulcan the battery (that was getting pretty old) gave up when a guy came to look at it. I didn't say, "Oh, it just needs a battery. Now pay me." I immediately got out my multi-meter and checked the battery voltage. I then said I would go buy a new battery right now or I could bump start it so he could test ride and I would replace the battery after the ride. He asked for me to bump start it ... the worst option. So I pushed the bike into the road, ran like hell pushing it, jumped on, and popped the clutch. The uncorked engine roared to life and the guy ultimately bought it ... and I put a new battery in it.

# posted by Justin @ 11:34 PM