Why do I feel guilty?
Discussion
So, I contacted someone though Gumtree who was looking to swap his Trophy 1200 for another bike; I was offering the Teapot 750 I recenly bought.
We exchanged emails, photo's and phone calls, and he agreed to come and see my bike this weekend; if we were both happy we would do a straight swap.
The thing is, the guy lives almost 300 miles away. However, undaunted, he offered to come down here as he said he wanted a bike trip anyway.
He arrived late this afternoon, I made him welcome, made him coffee etc and we chatted bikes as he unwound.
We then went out to look the bikes over.
He didn't really seem too worried about checking mine over, didn't really give it more than a cursory glance, on the basis that "it just went through an mot today so it must be fine..."
I am always a bit more thorough though, so was prepared to do the full "crawl around on hands and knees and poke my nose into everything" inspection.
However, within 20 seconds of starting, I noticed that the clamp which holds the eccentric adjuster for the rear wheel spindle was snapped on one side, i.e. the bike needs a new swingarm.
The owner denied all knowledge of it, claiming it must have happened recently when he had a new chain and sprockets fitted by his local garage...
Now I have changed a Triumph swingarm before (on a Trident) and, while it wasn't massively expensive (£50 for a used one off ebay) it was a pig of a job to do. I can only imagine the Trophy will be even worse as it has less clearance to work around the suspension linkages.
Obviously, I didn't really want to go through with the deal and told him so.
He hummed and hawed a bit before offering me some money in with the swap, on the basis that he would probably be spending that much anyway to get it fixed (not at a Triumph dealer anyway!).
Again, I wasn't keen to go ahead.
We parted with him heading for an hotel to stay overnight, and me to think about it and call him in the morning to let him know what I want to do.
Now, the obvious things that will get thrown up are:
Did he know about the swingarm?
If he did, why hasn't he had it fixed?
If he did and wasn't letting on, what else might be lurking for me to discover?
If he did, why did he ride 300 miles on an unsafe bike (it did take him a very long time though...)?
If he didn't, why not? Is he really so mechanically unsympathetic?
If he didn't, why was he so keen to do the deal?
If he didn't, why did he ride 300 miles to see a bike "on spec"?
Either way, I now feel guilty that this chap has come all this way and I've told him his bike is unroadworthy and I don't really want it.
Help me out here good people of BB; tell me I have done the right thing and that he was a charlatan, secretly trying to kill me...
Or not.
We exchanged emails, photo's and phone calls, and he agreed to come and see my bike this weekend; if we were both happy we would do a straight swap.
The thing is, the guy lives almost 300 miles away. However, undaunted, he offered to come down here as he said he wanted a bike trip anyway.
He arrived late this afternoon, I made him welcome, made him coffee etc and we chatted bikes as he unwound.
We then went out to look the bikes over.
He didn't really seem too worried about checking mine over, didn't really give it more than a cursory glance, on the basis that "it just went through an mot today so it must be fine..."
I am always a bit more thorough though, so was prepared to do the full "crawl around on hands and knees and poke my nose into everything" inspection.
However, within 20 seconds of starting, I noticed that the clamp which holds the eccentric adjuster for the rear wheel spindle was snapped on one side, i.e. the bike needs a new swingarm.
The owner denied all knowledge of it, claiming it must have happened recently when he had a new chain and sprockets fitted by his local garage...
Now I have changed a Triumph swingarm before (on a Trident) and, while it wasn't massively expensive (£50 for a used one off ebay) it was a pig of a job to do. I can only imagine the Trophy will be even worse as it has less clearance to work around the suspension linkages.
Obviously, I didn't really want to go through with the deal and told him so.
He hummed and hawed a bit before offering me some money in with the swap, on the basis that he would probably be spending that much anyway to get it fixed (not at a Triumph dealer anyway!).
Again, I wasn't keen to go ahead.
We parted with him heading for an hotel to stay overnight, and me to think about it and call him in the morning to let him know what I want to do.
Now, the obvious things that will get thrown up are:
Did he know about the swingarm?
If he did, why hasn't he had it fixed?
If he did and wasn't letting on, what else might be lurking for me to discover?
If he did, why did he ride 300 miles on an unsafe bike (it did take him a very long time though...)?
If he didn't, why not? Is he really so mechanically unsympathetic?
If he didn't, why was he so keen to do the deal?
If he didn't, why did he ride 300 miles to see a bike "on spec"?
Either way, I now feel guilty that this chap has come all this way and I've told him his bike is unroadworthy and I don't really want it.
Help me out here good people of BB; tell me I have done the right thing and that he was a charlatan, secretly trying to kill me...
Or not.
Long Drax said:
I'd tell him to take to take it back to his local garage
and get them to fix what they've allegedly broken. Then agree
to meet him somewhere equidistant to swap machines(if you're
still interested, that is).
He "wondered" if it had been like that before it went in but he "hadn't noticed it"...and get them to fix what they've allegedly broken. Then agree
to meet him somewhere equidistant to swap machines(if you're
still interested, that is).
Busa_Rush said:
I'm not sure he knew about it, I can't picture the bit that's broken but I'd not go on a 600 mile round trip on a bike with a broken swing arm.
It looks like this:
If you overtighten the bolt the casting snaps, pulling the bolt through and leaving no tension around the eccentric.
Therefore, the spindle is fixed on one side and free to rotate on the other; not a good idea...
Mr2Mike said:
I presume the clamp snaps at the thinnest point at the top or bottom? He's a mentalist to ride it like that, a fatal accident in the making.
However, if that was the only significant fault and he's offering money for a replacement swing arm then I'd probably go for it, but then again I actually enjoy working on bikes.
It was snapped about here:However, if that was the only significant fault and he's offering money for a replacement swing arm then I'd probably go for it, but then again I actually enjoy working on bikes.
They all do that sir.
If you're a hamfisted buffoon!
I can get a swingarm for about £50, but it's the hassle of fitting it and as I said earlier, what else has been hidden?
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