This summer my wife and I bought a 1983 Honda Shadow for $800. I knew when I bought it that it needed a "little" bit of work, but little did I know how much the "little" amount of work would cost me. When I bought it i knew that it had been sitting in the guy's garage for two years without being touched. I went to pick it up gave the man the money I have been paying for it ever since. Right off the bat it had to go into the shop to get the carburetor worked on. While it was in there the mechanic told me the tank was rusty and needed to be cleaned and resealed. It took about a month for them to get it back to me. After I got the motorcycle back, as I was riding it back to Anderson from Huntington the speedometer stopped working and it still didn't run right, it had trouble starting. So I went and bought a new battery because the one it had in it was about 5 years old and needed to be replaced. After I put the new battery in I realized that there was more wrong with it. The carburetor still needed worked on and I needed new ignition coils. Once I got those problems fixed, it still didn't want to start up very easily so I had to buy new CDI ignition boxes. I could only afford one though. The back tire went flat and the headlight stopped working, and the starter went out. Don't get me wrong, when it did run it ran well and it was very fun. It was just keeping it running that was the problem. Needless to say it was becoming a money pit. That was the majority of my summer. I was just trying to figure out how to keep my motorcycle running so my wife and I would have two vehicles (and we really liked it). Since I bought it, I have put around $2000 in to it not including what I paid for it. I have learned some things with this experience. First of all, I now know that when I get another motorcycle I will pay a little more and make sure that there is nothing wrong with it. Secondly make sure there is nothing wrong with it before you buy it. And Third, if anybody needs help getting a seat off of a 83 Shadow, I can now do that with my eyes closed. I have a bad case of buyers remorse.
The phrase "You get what you pay for," is commonly used and could apply to a lot of markets. From what I have experienced and after reading your story it seems that this has found itself to be very true. I have wanted a bike for quite some time but because of death threats from parents I have decided to wait. When buying a vehicle whether it is a car, truck, or bike the buyer is always going to be very actively involved because of this high price associated with the purchase. I don't consider myself a big spender but when it comes to something like a mode of transportation that I know is going to be heavily relied on I will always be willing to throw in a few extra bucks. Considering that you have a bad case of buyers remorse I can assume that you wish you just would have paid $2800 for a bike in the first place. But hey, what can you do, live and learn right? ha
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