Due to circumstances well beyond my control I might be wanting to sell my Harley and sidecar. The GF's MS starting to get worst and is now feeling that maybe she needs to move to be closer to her family. AND I'm in a situation where I can't move because of my elderly mother. Not going to go into the feelings about the whole thing right now.
That being said I want to go to school you, the groups experiences, since mine are so limited in selling a motorcycle/sidecar rig. Do you think it's better to sell as a package deal or to separate and sell just the sidecar. ?? The rig is ALL SET-UP for my bike and don't know what it would involve moving to another Ultra. If I can sell as a compete package I'm going to get another Ultra but if not am just going to ride the wheels on the one I have. I have a ton in my Ultra but being around the motorcycle industry I know that's cash in the wind.
Thoughts would be greatly appreciated..!!!
o~o
You mention that the rig is all set up. I suspect this means you've got the steering damper in place or some other alternative (raked trees, leading link forks)that has converted the bike to a sidecar tug. In any case you'll probably need to pull your front end apart to remove any of these items. So my suggestion would be to leave it set up and sell it as a rig. You'll save yourself the time and or expense of reconverting it to solo.
I have no experience on resale value so I can't help you there. However, whenever an outfit shows up at the local dealer on a trade in it doesn't last long at all.
Full rigs are somewhat hard to sell unless you are willing to be very patient. When I was working on buying mine I was lucky to find a really patient seller but I checked on several others in that period of time including one similar to mine. It took about 6 months for me to get the cash to buy the bike and with the exception of one bike they were all still for sale 7 months later.
The one that sold was sold as car and bike seperately and went for less than a third of its value and way less than it cost to build. If you're happy with your Ultra then it might be better to just sell the car and keep the bike.
I'd leave 'em married.....gas going to $4.00 a gallon, some analysts say $5.00 by mid summer.
For arguments sake I'll consider my own vehicle: A 2006 Chebby 2500HD 4 door, a very popular truck. I purchased it after someone slipped me some LSD I think.....anyway at 11.5 mpg (according to the on-board computer). It sits in the driveway most days...and I'll round it up to 12 mpg to be fair.
Gas Guzzler: 1000 miles per month @ 12 mpg = 83 gallons of gas purchased per month X $4.00 per gallon amounts to an estimated fuel budget of $333.33 per month.
Sidecar Rig: 1000 miles per month @ 35 mpg = 28 gallons of gas purchased per month X $4.00 per gallon amounts to an estimated fuel budget of $115.00 per month.
That's a savings of $218.00 per month or an annual savings of about $2600.00 per year.
So if you've gotten this far you know the above is a bit of an exaggeration because you can't ride everyday, all year (although I have cut my own fuel budget in half using the rig more).......but it is the argument you use to justify the purchase to your wife.
Dismantled its not fish not meat and you get only peanuts for the sidecar.
Better keep them together and have something hastlefree that you can pull out at any moment.
my 2 cent
Sven
