Mods are for you, not the next owner.
I think mods hurts value since you have to find a buyer who likes your taste in mods.

 

And the dealer will look at some of them as narrowing the appeal, and may deduct for them.

 

They wont give you jack for all the extra's when you trade it in....HOWEVER they will ABSOLUTELY detail them and inflate the price of the bike when they are selling it!! I can guarantee that if I ever trade mine in I will be removing my wheels, suspension, air cleaner, led turn signals and headlight, aftermarket seat, and keeping my tuner. I had this same conversation back 3 years ago when I traded in my Breakout on my streetglide...they were telling me my aftermarket "stuff" doesnt add to the value and I said fine, I will be back in a few days after I remove it all and bring the bike back to stock...and suddenly they gave me 2500 dollars more than they originally presented since they either wanted the bike as it sat so they could sell it quick or because they were worried I wouldnt come back.... If you have a significant amount invested in aftermarket, there is no way I would trade it in with those parts....either make sure they pay you "some" for the parts, sell the bike private party, or strip the parts off and sell them separately. No way I was eating the cost of all my upgrades just because hte Dealer said they weren't worth anything. Go try and get a used bike from the Dealer that is modded and those mods are the FIRST thing they tell you about...how great they are....

 

I'd take it to the dealer first and see what you can get like it is. I had a Slim S for about a year and put LED turns, head light, mustang seat, a couple other small things, and stage 1 with a FP3 tuner. I got within $100 bucks of what I bought the bike for and I put about 8k miles on it. The only thing I could have swapped over was the LED turns. I probably could have made a few bucks off the parts had I pulled them off. But it wasn't worth the hassle to me to try and sell them. I also live in an area where we have bike week twice a year. So they changed the tires and sold it within 2 weeks of trading it in.

 

The common logic is take the parts off, sell them via Craigslist or the HD Forum. It might work out for you. I've bought a used Hammock seat and a set of original equipment mufflers over the years. Here's the deal - they need to look like new and be available at 50% of the new price or less. I bought a used rain suit -30 cents on the dollar. Used winter lined gloves, 20 cents on the dollar. Etc.

My advice - negotiate harder with the dealer. Leave him bleeding from the ***.
Tom

 

You're absolutely correct.

When I traded in my 2012 Road King for my 2017 RGS, I sent the initial e-mail with all the add-ons/mods I did to the bike. The salesman said "Sorry, we only go by bike book value. It's too hard to value parts."

So I took off all my cosmetics but left some stuff on like the Screamin' Eagle Pipes and Kuryakyn speakers.

Sure as crap, when I read the listing on their site, they pimped out the parts I left on the bike and I guarantee they used them as an excuse to make another $1,000 on the bike.

 

I didn't get squat for my Vulcan when I traded for my road king. Had BR Customs apes, the intake modified, the emission nonsense removed and blocked off, the exhaust modified, LED lights on every single bulb, mustang touring seat and pillion braided stainless cables and hoses, metzeler wide whites, memphis shades detachable windshield kit. I got $1000. As others have stated, the numbers only account for the year make model and miles, NOTHING else.

 

I would like to thank the guy that traded in a beautiful Ultra that I bought from the dealer. Low miles, Stage 1 already done. It was loaded with chrome and tasteful add on's. Except that SE tuner, it was a POS. Yea, I payed a bit for it but didn't have to do much to it to make it my own and I am still riding it

 

 

Like other state, bolt-on mods mean "easy money" to the dealership(s) b/c the offer nothing to the seller, but hike-up bike's value on sales floor w/these doo-da's. Unless it's internal (e.g. cams, rods, lifters, gears, etc.), best to return as much back to stock & then do the Frozen theme (e.g. "Let-it-Go"). Good luck and hope the deal goes well.