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PostPosted: May 24, 2011, 4:45 pm 
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Joined: October 10, 2010, 10:26 am
Posts: 2032
Location: Guadalupe, CA
I hope this is the right place for this..

I'm thinking about getting a salvaged motorcycle (complete- wrecked/stolen/recovered/whatever) at an online auction (maybe "Copart" auctions?).. I'm wondering if any of you have experience with this? I'll likely find a bike that's been laid down, but is fully functional mechanically, which is of course what I want.. I'm looking into fees..

-200.00 transaction fee (broker I guess)
-125.00 auction fee
-xxx.00 paid for bike

.. when it's all added up, seems I'm out 350 to 400.00 in 'fees' alone! Maybe this is still a good way to go? I'd like to pay as little as possible (of course!).. seems to me the bike needs to sell for only 200 to 300.00 itself to make this a killer deal- do these wrecked bikes go that cheap (in my case 10/12 year old bike- sub 20k miles).. thoughts/ experience??

ccrunner

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Dean

1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com


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PostPosted: May 24, 2011, 6:23 pm 
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Joined: April 9, 2008, 8:15 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Houston, TX
Do you need a dealer license to buy off of copart? When I was looking for a wrecked bike, I checked out all the salvage auction sites and ebay and was really turned off by the fees and usually the inability to check out the bike before bidding. The best thing in my opinion is to be patient and scour your local motorcycle message boards, especially amatuer racing organizations. If you're looking for a 10-ish year old liter sportbike, used racebikes could be good candidates. They're too old to be competitive in the current classes, and not old enough to race in vintage classes. Plus, they often have a lot of goodies that are useless to you, but can be sold off to recoup your purchase price.

I'm not sure what type of bike you're looking for, but sportbikes that have good engines sell for way more than $200-300. I bought my wrecked 2002 R1 off our local motorcycle board for $2200. Some guy was in the process of putting it back together for a trackbike, but ran out of money. It only took about 2 months of searching for that to pop up, and after selling the frame and a bunch of stuff off the bike, I'm probably only $500 into an engine with a full wiring harness, ECU, and everything else that is needed to run. And I still have the forks and swingarm laying around. I should get around to selling those...


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PostPosted: May 25, 2011, 12:13 am 
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Joined: October 10, 2010, 10:26 am
Posts: 2032
Location: Guadalupe, CA
I'm learning, but it seems with Copart you need a broker for most (although not all) purchases.. I don't mind paying fees- they gotta make the auction run and I get that, but to go 3-400 bucks deep before you even bid just seems steep, unless you're buying something for say more than 5K..

I'm still a bit wishy-washy on my engine source.. I picked up a nice 98 Honda VFR800 last year (got it super cheap at 900.00 w/ 31K miles) and have been riding it with the intention of tearing the bike down and using it's motor and electrical system for my project.. Now I'm sort of emotionally attached to it, and it somehow seems 'wrong' to tear apart this otherwise wonderful bike- how silly is that :lol:

Anyway, I love the motor (1998-2001 VFR- -could go all the way up to 2009 if I must) and it will fit in my tiny engine compartment, so I just thought I might pick up a wreck (bike #2), take the engine and electics, sell the extra unused bits, take my time on the transfer of the power plant, and once my little BEC project is truly running, sell my beloved mistress, ahem, bike #1 for fair market value... I can only make this make sense if I can get a usable wrecked bike for around 1K...

This must sound so silly, but this little 98 Honda is getting me to and from work every day for pennies in gas, it's a ton of fun, and I'd sure like to see someone else get to use it.. This is the same mentality that makes me sad when I see a flatbed truck drive by with stacks of crushed cars.. oh the horror :P

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Dean

1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com


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PostPosted: May 25, 2011, 10:29 am 
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Joined: April 9, 2008, 8:15 pm
Posts: 167
Location: Houston, TX
I love VFR's. The sound of that V4 with the gear driven cams is one of my favorite mechanical sounds ever. To get one for $900 with 31k miles is amazing. It's barely broken in!

I totally understand getting attached to the bike. When I bought my $500 donor Miata, it wasn't running. After getting it running again, I started to feel guilty about tearing apart a perfectly useable nice running car, and thought about using it for a LeMons race or as a weekend cruiser. Then common sense (read: my wife) intervened and reminded me we don't even remotely have the garage space for another car. :lol:


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PostPosted: May 26, 2011, 10:09 am 
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Joined: August 13, 2008, 10:36 am
Posts: 352
Location: Lynchburg, VA
Searching for Virago 920, I bought one sight unseen on ebay for $140, unknown miles, ran according to prev. owner with ether (no fuel feed). I paid an extra $30 for delivery from 35 miles away. The bike includes other parts I need, like rear end, rear wheel, swing arm, etc. I rebuilt the carbs, opened the left cover to get at some gnarled-up wires. It almost runs!

Then I got another, engine only, for $100, plus $85 for shipping. I took down the carbs; luckily the thing had never been opened up before, so it had normal varnish and gunk but all the original settings. I haven't tried turning it over yet. 28,000 miles

Anyway, both these motors are in decent shape, for their age; mostly the owners didn't want to deal with them any more. Check with me later to see if i have a decent one or if I have to try again.


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PostPosted: June 1, 2011, 4:29 pm 
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Joined: October 10, 2010, 10:26 am
Posts: 2032
Location: Guadalupe, CA
A bit of an update on my experience/observation with a recent auction..

The bike I tracked was a 1998 Honda VFR 800 with 9,000 actual miles. It was a salvage title- laid down on it's left side- no real mechanical damage- just cosmetic, and not too bad at that.. it was a pretty nice bike that looked to have been laid down on it's side at low speed with no impact.. In the end, it went for $975.00 on Copart in SoCal.. Add to that about $325 in fees (broker and auction), and the buyer was out of pocket aprox $1300.00 total. For my purposes, I would have needed the motor and harness, and been able to sell the leftover bits for maybe 600/700 bucks(?)- bringing the total price to about 600.00 or 700.00.

I may end up going this route in the future, but I'll look for a low mileage bike that is in a bit worse shape.. this bike could have been put back on the street with a nice used left side fairing.. I'm thinking if I find a bike that's been in a bit more of a 'real' wreck/total (sans engine/wiring damage), I could get it for less. In short- It looks to me like an auction may be an economical place to get your bike donor motor- at least in this case, with an older, less popular model.

ccrunner

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Dean

1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com


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PostPosted: June 2, 2011, 1:17 am 
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Joined: February 20, 2006, 11:18 am
Posts: 3186
Location: Lexington, KY
I have bought two bikes from a small outfit in NW Ohio. I would not hesitate to buy again from them. Very straight forward, easy to work with. I got very good deals on two salvage bikes. Both run and ride just fine, but had cosmetic issues and salvage titles.

I forget their compayn name, but the guy's name is Ted and their ebay userid is "bikesnu2u" : http://myworld.ebay.com/bikesnu2u&ssPag ... X:SELLERID

They had maybe 50 bikes both times I went to pick up my ebay scores. They rarely have more than a few on ebay. I recommend you contact them, get them on the phone, and see if they have what you want.

-dave

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