[123elementm]

Drove 400 miles round trip today to get a 2007 TW with 485 miles. The owner told me it was in like new showroom condition and that it was never dropped or wrecked. When I got there it was a different story, The front fender, left mirror, fuel tank, and number plate around the headlight were all badly scratched. The left rear turn signal was cracked too. When he started the bike it reved VERY fast with the choke on and would stall as soon as you turned the choke off. He insisted that was normal for the TW's. He told me to start it and put it in gear and it would be fine once it warmed up because it is "cold blooded". I didn't want to drop it in gear with it reving so fast so I let it stall then put it in gear and started it in gear and pulled out right away. It didn't get better when it warmed up and would stall when I stopped or pulled in the clutch and coasted. Also when driving you could see that then handle bars were tweaked and the triple clamps and forks were out of whack. The front fender was also not in line with the front tire. I rode back to his house and told him that I did not want it and he insisted that it was fine and never wrecked. Oh well, back to the search for a TW. What a waste of a Saturday and $90 in gas!

 

[Gear]

Bummer, well at least you did not buy it! Were are you located? Maybe someone else has one close by for sale!

 

[ATXthumper]

sometimes i miss the good ol classifieds. it seemed that when you had to actually pay for an ad people wouldnt just post the blatant lies and google image search pictures of bikes that are "like new" or "same as in the picture but different"....goldurn craigslist.....

 

[Gene Bond]

The choke, and 'cold blooded' thing sounds right... mine likes The choke for a minute or so. And it revs pretty high. I back the choke off slowly, until it will idle with it off. This seems to be the consensus around here, so I don't worry.



The rest of the story is a heart-breaker. Too bad guys feel like they can't be honest.



I bought my '05 with 850 miles, and it was immaculate, except a couple of scratches and rough spot on the edge of the seat (apparently from the same incident). I bought it off Ebay, about 120 miles away, but the damage was shown and pointed out in the ad. The guy I bought it from got screwed on the scratches from the ad he bought it from.



Keep the faith, the right deal will come along!

 

[JarrodWeaver]

It's likely that the tweak with the forks/bars/triple tree/front fender could be easily corrected by getting the front wheel off of the ground (using a crate or similar) and loosening the fork tubes in the triple tree, verifing alignment and then snugging everything back up. This is a VERY common problem when a bike is layed over on its side and usually results in zero physical damage. The scuffed plastic is another story and the bars bend easily but if you could use the damage to get a great price it would definately be worth another look. The seller has already proven himself to be a liar though...

 

[Kev250R]

Sorry to hear about your wasted trip, though at least you didn't buy it.



I found my first TW on Craig's List, ended-up meeting the seller in a grocery store parking lot at 11 at night to buy it (these TW's sell fast!) I've bought many other things from Craig's List as well (including a dual sport Honda MC) but I've been lucky and have never had to drive farther than an hour from my house to buy anything (so far).



Here's my funniest Craig's List story: Two weeks ago I was looking for and eventually found a cross-bed tool box for a pick-up truck I've been fixing-up for my Neice. The tool box I eventually found was an older Delta model, the seller posted a couple of good pics, was honest about the lift struts which hold the lid-up not working and the price was more than fair ($60, the guy could have easily gotten over $100). So the seller and I agree to meet at his house later in the evening, I ask him for his address and he asks why I would need that, he wanted to give me directions. I politely explained that I planned on just plugging his address into my GPS or Google as I was familar with the part of town he lived in. He told me flatly Google and GPS's wouldn't be able to find his house (he lived in a tract near a popular mall which has been there at least 30 years). I listened to his directions (though he couldn't seem to remember all the street names, telling me landmarks to turn at) and eventually got his address. Plugged it into Google Maps while we we're still talking and it seemed to match his directions perfectly. No big deal though, the guy just wanted to be thorough I guess.



Later that evening I arrived at the guy's house at the time we'd agreed on (seven PM) and he seemed genuinly surprised to see me and even more surprised when he asked if I'd had any problems finding his street. Is showed him the Google Map I had just followed on my BlackBerry and I thought he was going to faint from shock! He said not even the local Pizza place could find his house. Right, again it was in a tract of homes no different from all the other's in my area.



So I go look at the tool box, it was as he described (but in a little better shape) but he couldn't find the keys. He apologized than excused himself to go inside where he, his wife and kids proceeded to (it sounded like) disassemble their house looking for the key or keys. He eventually (ten minutes later) returned with several rings of keys (some were obviously not for a tool box but he tried them anyways) eventually he found one key which fit which was all I needed. We loaded it into my Neice's truck and we spend a few minutes talking, which is where I realized this guy was a few donuts short of an even dozen. I told him my name when we spoke on the phone, when I arrived I introduced myslef and he then proceeded to ask me my name two more times, so the third time (in a 15 minute period) he asked for my name I made one up. And the next two times after that he asked, two more names. The scary part, he told me he teaches at a local high school!



Anyway's he was a nice guy, gave me a great deal on a tool box which could have easily grabbed $100-150 and said some nice things about my Neice's truck ('00 Silverado) and couldn't get over my fancy phone which found his house. Sometimes you just have to laugh =)



--Kevin AKA: Tom, Ed and Dave