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Saturday afternoon after rolling a poker run with one of my patch holder buddies, Gina and I decided to roll out to Lake McConaughy where another of my patch holder buddies and his girlfriend were camping and had ended up setting up camp next to the campsite of a patch holder from one of the 1% Clubs here in NE.
We roll in, and we're sitting around chatting, and this guy, about my age, tells me he has a Goldwing at home that he picked up from his boss for next to nothing and was going to fix, but might be interested in getting rid of. I didn't really express any interest, but made a mental note of it.
Long story short, Gina and I spent the night in a motel due to the cold weather, storms, and her chemo treatments causing her immune system to be in the toilet, and this morning my buddy calls me and tells me that the patch next door invited us over to his house for lunch before we rolled out.
Ok, free food...I'm THERE!
Anywho, this gent had acquired this black '84 Aspy from his boss when the boss bought a Harley. The Aspy had been sitting awhile (last registered in '06), it needed a battery, it wasn't running well (carbs seemed a little gummed up) and he couldn't figure out how to get the rear brakes to bleed.
As he's telling me about the bike, I'm thinking can of seafoam, and the rear and front brakes are tied together, if all you're bleeding is the rears, you'll NEVER get 'em right...but something in my head screamed "SHUT YOUR STUPID PIE-HOLE MIKE!!!" before I could say either of those things.
Then the guy says "I'd let it go for $1000"
I'd already given it a severe once over and can see that with a little wax and a little chrome polish, it'll be a beautiful ride again (dang, wish I'd had my camera with me), and Gina could see the gleam in my eye through my sunglasses and had already given me the nod provided I could hear it run and couldn't find anything major mechanically wrong with it.
No problem with that...I yanked the battery out of Precious right there in his driveway! Ground on the starter a bit and the '84 sputters to life...yep, she's a bit lacquered up.
Finally get her to semi-idle off the choke and headed up the road with it. Even sputtering, and running on half-choke, I could feel her whispering "I know how to do this, and you know how to make me do it right!"
So I get back to the guy's house, and I'm talking to him, and I'm mentioning that it'll need some carb work, and probably need to have the M/C and calipers rebuilt, and that I'm going to have a hard time justifying to mamma spending $1000 to buy it, and another $1000 to make it roadworthy again, and just how much do you have in it anyway?
"$750...I'll let you have it for $800"
I FLEW to the ATM! Granted, being 160 miles from home and hauling a trailer, I apologized to Precious all the way to the bank, and assured her that she wasn't being sold or replaced, this would give me the chance to spend the time restoring her to her prime again while NOT putting 1000 miles a weekend on her.
Left $500, my card, and half of a receipt for the deal with the guy and headed on home happy as could be.
Lucky me, I found a guy who had no idea what he had, or how to fix it with a real diamond in the rough sitting in his garage.
Saturday afternoon after rolling a poker run with one of my patch holder buddies, Gina and I decided to roll out to Lake McConaughy where another of my patch holder buddies and his girlfriend were camping and had ended up setting up camp next to the campsite of a patch holder from one of the 1% Clubs here in NE.
We roll in, and we're sitting around chatting, and this guy, about my age, tells me he has a Goldwing at home that he picked up from his boss for next to nothing and was going to fix, but might be interested in getting rid of. I didn't really express any interest, but made a mental note of it.
Long story short, Gina and I spent the night in a motel due to the cold weather, storms, and her chemo treatments causing her immune system to be in the toilet, and this morning my buddy calls me and tells me that the patch next door invited us over to his house for lunch before we rolled out.
Ok, free food...I'm THERE!
Anywho, this gent had acquired this black '84 Aspy from his boss when the boss bought a Harley. The Aspy had been sitting awhile (last registered in '06), it needed a battery, it wasn't running well (carbs seemed a little gummed up) and he couldn't figure out how to get the rear brakes to bleed.
As he's telling me about the bike, I'm thinking can of seafoam, and the rear and front brakes are tied together, if all you're bleeding is the rears, you'll NEVER get 'em right...but something in my head screamed "SHUT YOUR STUPID PIE-HOLE MIKE!!!" before I could say either of those things.
Then the guy says "I'd let it go for $1000"
I'd already given it a severe once over and can see that with a little wax and a little chrome polish, it'll be a beautiful ride again (dang, wish I'd had my camera with me), and Gina could see the gleam in my eye through my sunglasses and had already given me the nod provided I could hear it run and couldn't find anything major mechanically wrong with it.
No problem with that...I yanked the battery out of Precious right there in his driveway! Ground on the starter a bit and the '84 sputters to life...yep, she's a bit lacquered up.
Finally get her to semi-idle off the choke and headed up the road with it. Even sputtering, and running on half-choke, I could feel her whispering "I know how to do this, and you know how to make me do it right!"
So I get back to the guy's house, and I'm talking to him, and I'm mentioning that it'll need some carb work, and probably need to have the M/C and calipers rebuilt, and that I'm going to have a hard time justifying to mamma spending $1000 to buy it, and another $1000 to make it roadworthy again, and just how much do you have in it anyway?
"$750...I'll let you have it for $800"
I FLEW to the ATM! Granted, being 160 miles from home and hauling a trailer, I apologized to Precious all the way to the bank, and assured her that she wasn't being sold or replaced, this would give me the chance to spend the time restoring her to her prime again while NOT putting 1000 miles a weekend on her.
Left $500, my card, and half of a receipt for the deal with the guy and headed on home happy as could be.
Lucky me, I found a guy who had no idea what he had, or how to fix it with a real diamond in the rough sitting in his garage.
