Sell My Harley
The place to help YOU hawk that hog!
Still Kickin!
Its been too long. Things are changing all the time around here. I hope that they are changing for the better for you.
This is a great place for me to communicate ideas and helpful hints that i have gleaned from my experiences over the last few decades. I have spent the last few entries pretty much just stabbing in the dark as to what you out there might need to hear. Well lets try it a little differently and get some input from you out there as to what you really need to hear. I can certainly help with sales stats and demographics in your area that will tell what the dry facts are. Howevr there is a telling word there (DRY) i do not want to be another boring voice that vomits up endless stats and is just ugly to read and follow. Lets see if we can get into a nice barroom conversation here at the sell my harley bar anf grill in cyberspace. We might even figure out how to shoot a game of pool or something while we are at it. So come on all of you. tell me what you want to hear. The Hawg Seller
It’s all in the words!
Yes you can Sell your Bike (or anything else)
Six little things you can do that will change your results for the better
I was at the Bar the other day telling stories and peoples legs about places id seen and rides I had taken. After I had paused for breath a friend asked me if I was really trying to sell all that rubbish.
His choice of the word sell really got my attention. After a good laugh I started thinking about just how important it is to get across to a prospective buyer just how much fun riding this bike can be. If it take a short story or two (do not bore them) by all means insinuate the person first handedly into the picture and talk up a storm. If you are anywhere near as passionate about riding as I am you’ll have no trouble getting this important fact across to them.
Coming up next time TheHogSeller
Murphys Law
Well i have heard that if you want to see a house that needs painted just go to the home a someone who does it for a living. Yeah!; well i can say that i have been having some very distracting infrastructure problems that have almost been taken care of. I have just now got up and able to say hi and hello. Ill be back real quick to see what we can do about catching up and selling that HAWG! Sincerely the HogSeller
Hang on tight because here we go again. I have posted this 32 ford Headlamp assembly because i have access to several old assembleys similar to it. It is free it is in good physical shape and the fact that it is old and made in America appeals to me also. This unit is about 2 inches bigger in diameter than the one you would find on a stock Sportster and has a bottom mount instead of the Nacelle type integrated mount that comes down from the small sporty dashboard and idiot light assembly. This will do three things in my mind. One it will give us a bigger and brighter headlight. Two it will give us a lot more room to work with the wiring that goes into the lamp housing. Finally Three it is more in proportion to the look i want to achieve with this bike. The fact that it is painted and not chrome is fine with me also.
Speaking of proportion this bike has had some parts changed it no longer had the stock triple trees but some aftermarket aluminum units that effectively widened the forks to somewhere between a wide glide and the stock width. It is further towards the wide than the narrow. This gives a feeling of size that the bigger lamp fills nicely.
One of the owners had put a front wheel on it that had dual disk brakes from some other brand bike. They look fine and work nice, so i see no reason to change them however the wheel is dinged badly from rubbing against a curb or something and i will replace it with a 21 inch spoker as the tire is that worn so as to not want to save it. Plus i have access to a nice used 21 inch rim and tire. So all i will be out is spokes and time to lace and true the assembly. As you can tell i am a little bit of a ratholer and will save most things that i think will come in handy. Till tomorrow TheHogSeller
Making It Work
Hello readers! After giving it some serious thought, i decided that i would use my fictitious 1990 Sportster as an example for a putting the bike up for sale.
I will follow my suggestions and try to give you a good idea what a bike might entail. I purchased this bike used in 2008, and noted that it had more that a little wear and tear. Good ole Boulevard Bandit Bob was the previous owner and the bike was currently in the street drag motif. I rode the bike for a few years and as i did i went though the process of making it my bike.
Someone had replaced the gas tank with a large tank that went along with the lay down handlebars. I hated them right off the bat and those two were the first items to go. Now i love the look that the factory has provided for the sportys. It is timeless and easy to identify with. So off to the wrecking yard i went. While i struck out with the Handle bars i found a gas tank and a front fender that suited my needs completely. Plus they had some aftermarket turn signals that worked perfect for my use.
I noticed that the wires were gone for the front and rear signals so i looked to the instructions for the way to find the stubs of what remained and did a workman like job reconnecting the new ones. These are very inconspicuous as the front ones expand into the end of the now 1 inch shorter on each side bars. The rear ones have a nice small shape and are very bright. We will get into the rest tomorrow my friends. TheHogSeller
Making It Work
Front Signals
Rear Signals
Well we are just about done with this marathon-like sojourn into all things wired. I went ahead and googled a few examples of what can be found. The prices are anywhere from reasonable to extravagant. It all seemed to be of good quality, just some are more complete than others. I have to say it has been interesting how easy to find products are nowadays. Whether you need to install an entire harness, or just a part of it i am sure you Will be able to find what you need.last time we wound up talking about the headlight area and custom ideas for routing your wires. These pictures represent a few (and i do mean few) of the many things available to make your job easier and look pretty darn nice to boot.
Lets say that we have decided to go with a battery box combo electric housing that fits above the oil bag. This is a good central point for access and ease of maintenance.about the only thing that is left is the rear turn signals and the tail light. The best way to hide the wires for these is to run them through the swing arm or the rear part of the frame. again keep them hidden and of proper length. Make sure that you put grommets where necessary as you don’t want shorts to start appearing due to a little abrasion between frame and wires.
I hope that i have not dissuaded any one from this very important and very underestimated aspect of proper bike building. If approached in a deliberate manner with the proper tools and parts available, wiring a bike can be an enjoyable experience. Keep on the Road TheHogSellerCrazy 4 Custom
This time I am going to step a little bit away from the norm and discuss an idea that I have seen used a few times and it is an elegant solution to several problems and bad ideas that have continued on for a long time.First of all it has been determined that the best place on a bike to carry weight is as low as possible. It makes cornering and stability much better. Fuel is heavy yet where do most bikes carry this weight? At approximately 6.25 pounds per gallon the math is easy for a set of Fat Bob Tanks at a little over 5 gallons.
What do you say about moving that 5 gallons down under your seat and pump it to the carburetor? Put the oil in the frame for cooling and max capacity and you’ll even further the lowering of your center of gravity. Now you have this wonderfully large set of Bobs that can be built to hold anything that you want them to hold. Hinge them at the bottom and they will fold down to allow access to well let’s say on the left side a nice custom wiring setup. And maybe a neat little place to put an amp and a speaker for your IPod device. Now we still have a whole side left oops right that’s left. Left over that is and ready to be filled with whatever is needed, other than the requisite matching speaker of course if that is what you decide to do.
Now this is what I call true custom work as far as I know you can’t buy this it has to be made and for that matter it can be any tank you want to use. Other little idea. Depending on your imagination and the overall length of the bike you might be able to fit a bit more fuel than the original 5 gallons.
A little Light Viewing
A couple of ideas and examples of lights.
Keep on Working
Last time we went over what we have started so far and went into a little of who should worry about what. I have put a lot of emphasis on wiring. This comes about due to personal observation over the course of many years of working on bikes and listening to other mechanics experiences. The reality is that it is one of those things that we do not think of unless it is giving a reason to do so. So this is the perfect time to take care of any little item that needs attention.
I want to turn our attention to the headlight assembly. For a lot of bikes this is a major routing area that affords room to route and branch off separate chases that go to different areas. For the Sportster this has been a tough row to hoe. The Sportsters Headlight System is by design small in size and has little wiggle room to do any kind repairs or additions. When things are to be done here use a lot of thought in the process. If you have bike that has went away from the stock sporty look up front i would recommend that you consider moving to a larger plain chrome light. It will afford several benefits. First of all the bigger the better when it comes to amount of light emitted. It is also more in line with the overall size and proportion of the bikes scheme. And since we have been discussing wires it stands to reason that there will just naturally more room. This is partially due to the different way of mounting the light as you most likely know the stock mount is different in its concept than the custom replacement units available. Let me take a minute to talk about types of lights. With all the new LED technology available i would recommend you look into LEDs for the light you will be using for yourself. It may be too expensive to replace a light that you are going to turn around and sell.
Lots more to come this is a good point to think about that larger than life thing Money! It takes it to make it! But don’t be fast to spend. If you decide you want to put on a bigger light. Don’t just go out and buy a new one automatically. Think about the old way that the builders used before there were custom catalogs. Look around to things that are available. Who know what you will find on a tractor or even a piece of construction equipment! Be creative and smart. Till next time TheHogSeller
