What should you do when your wife is on a work trip for 2 weeks? Buy a $1 MOTORCYCLE!

 June 12, 2023

Let me paint a quick picture. It's summer time, the weather is beautiful, you have just sold your two latest projects (Seadoo and 4Runner), and your wife is leaving town for 2 weeks. You have a couple of options to fill the time during her absence:

1. You perform the required chores around the house and focus on keeping the house immaculate (maybe even in better shape) for the duration of her trip
2. You sit down, have an ice cold beer, and enjoy the projects that you already have (including potentially spending a day on the lake)
3. You sit and play mindless video games
4. You mindlessly search to find and purchase an unnecessary project to detract attention away from any required chores, while passing time in the fastest possible manner (because you miss your wife so much)

If you selected option 4, we are probably already friends. Within 1 hour of my wife leaving, I was en-route to pick up my latest purchase: 1999 Kawasaki Vulcan 750. Here was the ad on the motorcycle:

If one thing in the ad sticks out, its the price at $1. As soon as I found the ad and sent the annoying "Is this still available?" tagline on Facebook Marketplace, I had already hooked the trailer up. Thankfully the individual contacted me back and provided an address. A few short minutes later I was in the seller's driveway ready for pickup. This was the first time that I could really ask questions (didn't want to lose the deal by asking over Messenger). Here's what I found out:

• Clean title
• 16,000 miles
• Stopped riding in 2011/2012 due to health-related reasons
• The bike had sat since

The seller was a nice, older gentleman who actually asked if I still wanted the motorcycle after seeing it in its resting place of the past decade. Without skipping a beat and trying to keep my smile under control, I expressed that I absolutely wanted it. I backed my trailer up the driveway, laid my ramp down (by the way, anyone purchasing a motorcycle that does not run should absolutely purchase the Harbor Freight folding ramp), and loaded up the motorcycle with the seller's assistance.

Once loaded on the trailer, the seller signed over the title and I checked my wallet for the $1 only to realize that I didn't have one... Fortunately I did have a $10 bill that I provided to which the seller asked if I wanted change. Contrary to what most individuals think about me and my "cheap" spending habits, I requested that he keep the change and expressed my gratitude for the opportunity of working on the bike.

My 15 minute drive home was uneventful, until I arrived at my (very steep) driveway. With the motorcycle on the trailer, I tried backing up my driveway. While looking back at the trailer going backwards, I could only watch as the motorcycle headlight went from vertical to horizontal in a matter of 2 seconds (felt much longer than that).

One of my ratchet straps had failed, allowing the motorcycle to topple over. Fortunately, there was no damage and it hadn't even fallen off the trailer. I checked that the remaining ratchet straps were tight (they were), got back in the car, and got it to the top of the driveway!

Then I used about every muscle in my (weak) body to deadlift the 500LB bike upright again!

Finally ending the trailer escapades, I backed the motorcycle off the trailer using my ramp with the bike's brakes (which worked surprisingly well).

Now that it was home, it was time to start working. In my next post, I'll be diving into the engine and trying to get this '99 Kawasaki Vulcan 750 back up and running (teaser alert: it's alive).