hopefully the man or men that did this to you are either dead or in jail living out the rest of his days as some other dudes bitch. good luck whatever you do!

 

i have stock , new pipes from a 07, i will give you. should shine her up a bit

 

WE of course are interested in the scooter,but how bout that somanabitch what stol it???Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe restitution is in order!!!

 

Yea, what happened to the rat turds that took it? How'd you get her back? As for your scoot, why not do what you were going to do with her before she was stolen?

 

The tank graphics are beautiful. I would definately keep them. At 18 years old, they are vintage now....

If I were you, I would probably try to do most of the part swaping myself. The dealer is going to charge you a couple of hundred bucks to swap out parts that you can do yourself. As far as engine and transmission work, I would leave this for the dealer, but I am never convinced that the "techs" at the dealership really ever know more than I do, and I rely on a Clymers Manual to walk me through just about everything....

That will be a good looking bike when you are done. I would have her on the road as soon as possible and swaping out parts as I could afford them.

 

I wanna hear how it got stolen and how you recovered it after so long. I see ads on Craigslist all the time of people reporting their bike stolen. It's sad. If someone took mine I don't know what I would do, but I would sure feel sorry for the person who took it.

 

The only thing you should do to that tank is polish it up. I thought my 16 year old peanut tank graphics were cool- that is much cooler!

 

Get runnin, start srippin' it, bob everything on it (especially the rear), hard-tail it, get some mini-apes, drags, or broomsticks, and rattle can the hell out of it whatever color you want. Bad Bobber!

 

That is horrible what happened to your bike. I'm glad it was returned, and I hope you were compensated for the loss. At this point, I would ride it like that. You won't have to worry about scratching it and ride it like you stole it. That is if it still runs well. How is it mechanically?

 

This is kind of my plan. I want the dealer to get her running again and then as time, money and need converge I'll replace the rusty parts. I'll let the dealer do the first part of the work because that's the fastest way to get her back on the road and besides, Pennsylvania requires an annual inspection, so somebody needs to put the sticker on her. I figure that if the shop does the work they'll know the story and won't see her as a rust-bucket.

You like the tank graphics? There is a long and tortured history behind this bike in addition to the theft. Grab a cuppa or a brew (depending on your time zone and your inclination). I'll try to make it short.

This bike started life as a 1990 883. In 1990 there was a waiting list to get HD's, but a local dealer had this bike in stock. Only problem was that it was purple...I think Harley called it "plum" but my ex called it "Barney purple". The tank had a round, yellow Decal on the side. The salesman made a point of telling me that Harley's ran a dry sump (which I knew). "It's like a airplane engine...it'll run upside down!" he said proudly.

I said "Bro, if I'm on this bike and it's upside down, I got more to worry about than whether the thing is runnin'."

Three months later I was putt-putting along a sandy dirt road in a campground in the pine barrens of south Jersey and I grabbed a little too much front brake and down I went. As I was lying there with my leg pinned under the bike my first thought was "Son of a bitch...she's still runnin'!"

Over the next couple years I had the engine bored and added the belt, but she was always "Barney purple" and a really temperamental shrew. Left me stranded when a wire under the seat shorted (I switched dealers 'cause there was a service bulletin and recall on this - the dealer should have fixed it when I bought her). Another dealer replaced the front tire without bothering to true the wheel. An independent shop tried to tell me I had a short after they sold me a six volt headlight that immediately blew (no surprise there)...other ****ling little stuff like that. I never much worried about the color 'cause like I said: my bikes have always been for riding, not for looking at.

One spring I took it to yet another dealer for annual inspection. My ex and daughter followed me in a car. I went into the shop to put in the paper work, and when I came out my daughter said "Dad, that guy came out, took your motorcycle and started doing wheelies. He raced around the building and missed the ramp going up into the shop and drove it straight into the side of the building."

Whoa...

Well, he did a number on the front end and the tank. The dealer offered to repair the damage (Oh, ya think?) and repaint the bike. They had to repaint the tank and front fender due to the damage, and they'd have to repaint the rear fender to match the new paint, so I got to choose a color. "Goodbye Barney...hello big blue". Along with the new paint I had to choose a new tank decal. They took me to the service counter and flopped open a parts book and let me pick. I had never seen a decal like that one, and I though it looked pretty cool. Really, though, it's a stock part.

She was stolen right out of my garage (let that be a lesson - always lock the bike AND the garage you keep it in). I kind of thought my son might have had something to do with it; at the time he was a junkie, and going through some other personal problems. I never really pushed the issue with the cops. I did make out a report but they weren't optimistic. "Turn it in to your insurance company" the cop told me.

SH**...the bike was ten years old, I didn't have comprehensive on it.

Ready for the next bit of weirdness?

I get a call from a constable - not the police - telling me that my bike is reported abandoned not five miles from my house. Told me that if I didn't remove it they would (at my expense) and I'd be fined. They told me that I'd better bring a truck 'cause the heads were missing. I recovered it from a dead end road, looking like you see it in the pix.

Obviously, that bike hadn't been on that road for long. One rainstorm would have washed all that crud off it. I think that it sat in a garage for years while the thief never got around to parting it out. Eventually the owner of the garage told the thief to get rid of it and it was abandoned...upright...on the stand...go figger...

The police were happy to close their file, but not too interested in pursuing the matter, and to tell you the truth, neither am I. I mean I was HOT...but tempers cool after so long...

I guess the shrew just felt like coming home.

So you all think I should keep that tank decal, eh?