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A few months ago a close friend of mine gave me a call and told me there was an 07' 1098s at a Auto/RV/Motorcycle Auction house near where we live. Every two weeks they put up hundreds of wrecked cars, RV's and Motorcycles for auction. My buddy goes out there often and has bought a few bikes. He took my out there awhile back and all the bikes that I had seen had been down; some were involved in spectacular high energy crashes, head on's etc. I thought well, maybe someday if I was in the market for a track bike I may give this auction thing a whirl.
Anyway, back to the story. We go out and take a look at this bike. Here is a beautiful 1098s with not a scratch on the fairings sitting out in a dirt field covered with dust. The ignition lock/key assembly had been broken off its mountings. The immobilizer ring was sort of flopping out in the open, as the rubber or plastic cover that houses it was missing. Other than the damage to the ignition and some scratches on the tank (but would be under the cover) the bike was in pristine condition.
My buddy knows the owner of the auction and so we asked him about the bike. He said it was a theft recovery bike. Apparently the thieves broke the ignition mounting bolts to get the steering unlocked to push the bike and load it up into a truck. Once reported the insurance company paid off the orginal owner. The bike was then recovered somehow. Since the original owner had his money, he did not want the bike so the insurance company took it over. The orginal owner gave them the key. So the insurance adjustor inspects the bike and finds the tabs that mount the ignition switch had been bent when the thieves stole the bike. He totaled the bike since the "frame" was bent. But acutally the frame was not bent, just the tabs that hold the ignition, so off to auction the bike goes.
The auction owner gives us the key to go and check it out. I take the immobilizer ring and place it over the ignition switch (like a condom), put in the key and turn on the bike and it starts right up! I go over the bike and cannot see any other damage to it. The bike showed 4200 miles on the odometer. I check out the all the controls and everything works (lights, turn signals, etc.). I decide I am going to bid on this one.
Bidding is alot like ebay. You can put in a maximum bid and when the bidding commences, it increases by $25 until the highest bidder is found. You can bid ahead of time or show up and do it in person. They get on a computer and do the bidding right there. I put in a max bid of $7525 and waited for the results. Bidding started at a minimum of $1000 and went up from there. The computer kept putting in my bid and it started climbing. Apparently, after around $4500 there were only two of us left and the other fellow stopped bidding at $7500. Funny cause my last bid was $7525. One more bid by him and he would have won it.
So I got the bike and took it home and starting pulling it apart to fix the ignition. I found the ignition cover on ebay. I took off the tank and used some big channel lock pliers to bend the ign. mounting tabs back to straight. I then found two long bolts at the hardware store to mount the ignition back onto tabs, installed the cover with the immobilizer and bingo, the bike is up and running.
I took the bike out for a spin and everything seem to work properly but there was a slight vibration during braking. Turns out the steering head bearings were a bit loose, and once tightened to spec, the bike runs perfectly.
My son had saved some money as he was going to buy and 848, but when this bike came up, he said he wanted it. So I sold it to him. He has put about 1500 miles on it since I fixed it and so far all is well.
Here are a few pics of it.
So good deals can happen when you are at the right place at the right time with the cash.
Mike
Anyway, back to the story. We go out and take a look at this bike. Here is a beautiful 1098s with not a scratch on the fairings sitting out in a dirt field covered with dust. The ignition lock/key assembly had been broken off its mountings. The immobilizer ring was sort of flopping out in the open, as the rubber or plastic cover that houses it was missing. Other than the damage to the ignition and some scratches on the tank (but would be under the cover) the bike was in pristine condition.
My buddy knows the owner of the auction and so we asked him about the bike. He said it was a theft recovery bike. Apparently the thieves broke the ignition mounting bolts to get the steering unlocked to push the bike and load it up into a truck. Once reported the insurance company paid off the orginal owner. The bike was then recovered somehow. Since the original owner had his money, he did not want the bike so the insurance company took it over. The orginal owner gave them the key. So the insurance adjustor inspects the bike and finds the tabs that mount the ignition switch had been bent when the thieves stole the bike. He totaled the bike since the "frame" was bent. But acutally the frame was not bent, just the tabs that hold the ignition, so off to auction the bike goes.
The auction owner gives us the key to go and check it out. I take the immobilizer ring and place it over the ignition switch (like a condom), put in the key and turn on the bike and it starts right up! I go over the bike and cannot see any other damage to it. The bike showed 4200 miles on the odometer. I check out the all the controls and everything works (lights, turn signals, etc.). I decide I am going to bid on this one.
Bidding is alot like ebay. You can put in a maximum bid and when the bidding commences, it increases by $25 until the highest bidder is found. You can bid ahead of time or show up and do it in person. They get on a computer and do the bidding right there. I put in a max bid of $7525 and waited for the results. Bidding started at a minimum of $1000 and went up from there. The computer kept putting in my bid and it started climbing. Apparently, after around $4500 there were only two of us left and the other fellow stopped bidding at $7500. Funny cause my last bid was $7525. One more bid by him and he would have won it.
So I got the bike and took it home and starting pulling it apart to fix the ignition. I found the ignition cover on ebay. I took off the tank and used some big channel lock pliers to bend the ign. mounting tabs back to straight. I then found two long bolts at the hardware store to mount the ignition back onto tabs, installed the cover with the immobilizer and bingo, the bike is up and running.
I took the bike out for a spin and everything seem to work properly but there was a slight vibration during braking. Turns out the steering head bearings were a bit loose, and once tightened to spec, the bike runs perfectly.
My son had saved some money as he was going to buy and 848, but when this bike came up, he said he wanted it. So I sold it to him. He has put about 1500 miles on it since I fixed it and so far all is well.
Here are a few pics of it.
So good deals can happen when you are at the right place at the right time with the cash.
Mike
Mate what a bargain, unless your in the reselling trade the value is through the roof every time your son takes it out for a spin knowing you/he paid much less than full price. Even a repaired write off would still be over $15K in Oz.
