Hello From Sunny Qld

TL : DR, I miss out on a Guzzi I can afford, but the Universe send me the bike that I need. Hooray, now I have the high torque I want, with ABS.

Hey it's been an absolutely mad couple of weeks, but I have confirmed today that it is going to be a Street Twin after all, will be collecting on Wednesday 26th. It looked like I wasn't going to be able to find the funds then a mad series of events occurred, which culminated this morning in the deal being closed.

FWIW, here's the whole gory story. OK so I'm selling my GS500, got a lot of kms on her 76k to be precise but she has a lot of good stuff in including R6 shock and Givi Monkey etc plus leaks absolutely not a drop of oil, only used a cup of oil between 6k services and run beautifully, starts instantly when cold with no choke. But someone wanted it but I needed it to see bike. In the end I had to sell her and commit to public transport.

Looked like it was going to take me six weeks or more to have enough for the street twin I had my eye, on but someone who I have done some big favours for that saved them much agro and cash would not lend me 1500 I needed to borrow. OK I just accepted that and moved on.

So now I've got a very charming 2013 Guzzi V7 Stone 12k kms Arrow pipes, in my sights, 8.5 grand, I have the funds but it's in the workshop getting some sensors replaced, looks like it had been waiting months, so I forgot about it then I get the call that it will be ready. I spoke to the workshop about the bike and after a long chat I was satisfied that I could purchase it without inspecting so I offered the seller his asking price, but he didn't want to sell. He told me a week before that I was at the top of the list of enquiries so that was a puzzle. Especially as he's moving and didn't want to faff around.

Apparently he has decided that for some reason it wouldn't be right to accept the asking price with no lowballing he had to tell everyone at once that it will be ready to inspect on Sunday. I really didn't understand this. I explained once again that I'm already buying it, and no one else has said that but no, he's adamant that Sunday is the day, so he sends a 'group text'. I said again that I'm offering you your asking price and it's 100% definite, what more do you freaking want. He says...get this and put it on the shelf for later..."it's not about the money".

I say I know, isn't it about just getting all the crap over with, isn't that what I'm saving you... No sunday is the day. BUT then he highballs me!. I kid you not suddenly if I pay him 9 grand, like an extra 500 over the asking price I 'can secure it' he says 'I'm just helping you to get what you want'. So being 'fair to everybody' goes out the window for some extra cash that he doesn't care about apparently. I said well you're asking me to make a four hour journey on public transport with over 8 grand in my pocket and you may sell it before I get there, then I'll be stuck in the middle of Brisbane with all this cash on a Sunday evening with no fcuking way to get home. I just said, I can't do that. Look just give me a call Sunday night, if it's sold, fine. If not I'll come down on Monday and buy it. OK that's where it stood.

Meanwhile, I'm rolling around this strange "I'm just helping you get what you want" comment around in my brain. I don't have any 'wants' that are binding. So I wrote back to him saying "nobody has anything I want because the only thing that is valuable to me is 'peace of mind' and 'knowledge' so I cannot be manipulated I'll let the Universe decide. It was just a by the by comment, it didn't intend it to rile him. But apparently it did.

He immediately wrote back that he's not going to sell me the bike now. I said, fine. So now I'm looking at a W800, and some other Bonnevilles in my price range but I really wanted the high torque Street Twin, so I had settled on a Kawasaki W800 fro 2012 with low milage. It has the very low down torque I wanted and a nice green paint job and the bevel desmo drive does look nice. But the owner is away till next week, it was 7500 so a grand cheaper with more torque at 2500 rpm. However I'm not really happy with wire wheels as I've had three nails in three different tyres the past 5 years, so with wire wheels I'd have been screwed. As it is I didn't even find the nails till ages afterwards, the tyres never went down and they are easy to plug.

Then lo and be 'ken hold, I get a call this morning that the Street Twin I could not stretch to is available to me if I respond immediately for just enough reduction in price that it's doable! So that's the Universe giving me yet another life lesson. Be true to yourself.

So this guy tries to upset me, by telling me I can't have his shitty guzzi, but if he just said yes I could have it for his advertised price I'd have missed out on the Street Twin. And I must say it's a beauty, got a custom bench seat, and an LED strip light in the rear, with header pipe tape and bar ends. So very pretty looking.

I'll post some shots when I have it. So there you go :¬)

 

Had to ride bad in very gusty conditions on the freeway for 200km because I couldn't leave till late. It's still freezing this morning but in one week on the 1st Sept the reliable Queensland weather will kick in. The bar end mirrors are a bit tiny, might have to upgrade them but I'll see how it goes. It just means that I do more head checking which is not a bad thing.

She is a beauty though only 5k kms, the British Customs seat felt rock hard but to my surprise caused me no bum ache. The LED strip brake and blinker lights at the back are very nice, however she has tiny blinkers on the front mounted on the side of the headlight so I might have to get a touring screen, as that is where the Dart Marlin mounts! And the license plate is xxxTT which reminded me of the famous Isle of Mann race.

All thanks to Guzzi Guy, bless.