Can You Make Money Buying And Selling Motorcycles?

a few days ago I found a super deal on something I thought would make a really nice project the trouble is I already have too many really nice projects but still I wanted to make a play on this thing so I was trying to figure out in my mind how do I justify it and then it came to me it's an investment if I buy this thing it's not just me wasting a bunch of time and money it's a business decision to purchase an asset repair it and sell at a profit taking steps toward a brighter and more secure financial future haha how's that for a distortion of reality look what I got 2002 Yamaha WR 250 F dirt bike sale price four hundred and fifty dollars this was a theft recovery so you know they treated it right but it has a few issues the kick starter shaft is broken the radiators are bent the registration is expired and cosmetically it looks terrible but my goal for this bike is not to make it pristine rather I just want to focus on a few critical areas so it'll be fast reliable and somebody wouldn't be embarrassed to ride it first things first let's give it a bath we she's all washed up looks exactly the same what this thing needs most urgently is a Kickstarter so I'll remove this broken shaft and replace it with a good one so I'll move a few things out of the way disconnect the coolant and oil lines take off the clutch cover and the clutch now we have access to the kick starter shaft so here's a close-up view of the broken part it's a shame I couldn't figure out a way to salvage this thing but I feel pretty lucky because when I bought the main attraction over here I also got a parts bike with the deal and the parts bike had a kick starter shaft intact so let's see how it fits in here looks pretty good now I better try to put all this stuff back together while I still remember how it goes there we go the motors put back together with a spiffy new Kickstarter shaft but I still need a Kickstarter there's a motorcycle dismantler pretty close to my house I call them up and they said they didn't have the proper Kickstarter for a WR 250f but they did have a bin full of orphan kick pedals that I could help myself to so I drove down with the kick starter shaft and matched it up to one of the kick starters in the box they only charged me $20 for it which I was happy about because the proper kick starter for this bike goes for about a hundred dollars on eBay I was smiling all the way home however by the time I got back and tried to do a test fit that smile had disappeared even though the kick starter fit the shaft because of the curve of the pedal it wouldn't clear the frame so that was last week's $20 lesson in kick starter compatibility I went ahead and just ordered what I think is the correct part from eBay along with a bunch of other stuff and now I'm just waiting for the mailman look at this special delivery I have received items one of which is a kick starter come on let's see if it fits yeah I think that'll work yeah top notch when I got this bike the worst thing about it to me was the broken kick starter and that's why I repaired that first but another example of flagrant neglect is the smooshed radiators especially this right hand side so I'll take off the seat the shrouds and the gas tank now I can get a better look at what's going on here this side took a major hit and it's looking pretty droopy over here is no bargain either so I'll remove both of these and replace them with a couple of fairly straight used radiators that I picked up much better now I need to install these louvers these were really deformed from being smashed in the radiator so I used a heat gun to soften up the plastic and bend them back into a more usable shape so let's see how they fit mmm come on now there it is count it time to put back the gas tank it was a tough call to make but I've decided to remove these Henson stickers the heat gun is great for softening these up but working so close to gasoline I just can't shake that old familiar feeling that I'm about to blow myself up I think that looks presentable since I'm in the mood for stickers I'll go ahead and remove the now.t the jig's the Bamm the rock star the sleepy kitty and this I like it better without all that hodgepodge the motorcycle is ready for the radiator shroud but before I put them on I'll use a heat gun to minimize the appearance of these stress marks well they're not perfect but neither am i so there it is with the shroud to put back on I also tried to spruce up the front fender and headlight enclosure but I don't think it did much good this right side panel looks really rough so I picked up a set of replacements that don't look the greatest but at least they don't have holes in this seat looks pretty ratty so I should probably do something about it besides that bunch of turkeys around here I bought this used seat cover that's in quite a bit better condition than the original hopefully I can get it on there and make it look okay so I'll remove some staples and get the old cover off that's probably the easy part now I'll just squeeze this new cover on here like the old high school pants then stretch it tight and staple it down here on the underside of the pan I think that came out nice even if it is just an old retread haha before I put the seat back I want to clean the air filter it seems like whenever I buy a motorcycle if the seller voluntarily mentions that they change the oil and clean the air filter after every ride the air filter always looks like this always be closing that's what they tell you put out your cigarette when you're pouring that gas son knows that air filter cleaned up oiled still looks like it will just hide you under here next I can put on the seat whoa I think we're getting somewhere now I've only got a few things left to do the chain is extremely stretched it sounds like a tambourine too but I have another chain on the parts bike out back that looks like it's in a little bit better condition than this one so I'll put it on here instead this factory chain is a master link less design so this is how we take it off oh I should have checked to see if these are even the same length I think this is within the realm of acceptability the carburetor leaks whenever I turn on the gas my initial suspicion was that there was some dirt stuck between the needle and seat so I took it apart clean the offending area then I put it back together however the symptoms persist but I think I know what's wrong now I'll just pull this thing off real quick okay now we can take off the float ball and I'll show you something right here is the needle valve and that's what I cleaned before but there's another piece of this puzzle it's the needle valve seat and it's inserted into the carb body and sealed with an o-ring if the o-ring is deteriorated even if the needle valve seals properly gas can still leak by through this crack and I think that's what's happening to me so I'll pull this out right there I think that's the source of my trouble I'll try to get this off now oh yeah that is brittle baby usually I have an o-ring for every occasion I found one here that I think will work it has to be just right you know not too thin not too fat try it out now I think that's good or that try anyway the carburetor is back on so is the gas valve and no leaks yet there's only two things left to do I want to put on a set of new grips and despite the ingenuity behind this tubing and tape clutch lever repair I think I ought to replace it too I got that fresh hardware installed I also grabbed the front brake lever from the parts bike out back because the original one has that classic handlebar in the dirt curve so I think we can stick a fork in there it's done my objectives for the project where to buy the motorcycle fix it up and sell the motivation was strictly financial so we'll step into the business office and crunch a few numbers and a little wild but you know there's nothing to say we can't go on a little test ride right or the product still running it's still running and then it dies first crash that's a lot of fun that's a lot of fun I only crashed once and you know it's important to remember that no matter how much I sell this motorcycle for in the end it's not going to offset a hospital bill how do you like these boots my brother gave them to me he's a size 12 and I'm not I'll see you back at the garage that was really great I haven't written around a motocross track in probably 10 years lots of fun so let's get down to brass tacks here since I purchased this motorcycle about a month ago I've been keeping track of all the expenses I've incurred on this spreadsheet just so I'd have an accurate picture of my total investment on the left-hand side you'll see the item in question no we're here the corresponding cost the first thing I bought was the motorcycle itself I paid 450 dollars for it this is where the money is made or lost it's all about the purchase price if you take too much here you're sunk on the other side if you get it cheap enough you could probably just flip it the same day and make a few bucks which I may have been able to do with this project I was thinking back and without all the trouble of refurbishing the motorcycle I probably could have sold it for $600 on the same weekend that I bought it but I also like to think that I've kind of converted it from a disgrace to something that somebody might be proud to own so I've got that a little bit of pride moving down the line of diesel to go get the motorcycle as $30.00 this is something I really should have investigated further the DMV cost I live in a wonderful socially engineered communist utopia of a state where everything is expensive I think I paid more in registration to bring this motorcycle current than people in other states pay for their car registration but anyway that's what it is it was a few years behind and bring it up to date was 178 dollars the diesel to go get the tags were $20 the first Kickstarter I bought down at the motorcycle wrecking yard was $20 and the diesel to go get it was another 30 so $50 wasted there the radiators I bought from eBay they were $69 Grips nine dollars and 55 cents new clutch lever 5.71 cents that nice seat cover that I'm really happy with was 27 85 the correct Kickstarter I got a deal on $50 for that those side number plates were $20 I didn't go over it in the video because I didn't know I needed it at the time but I replaced the rubber manifold that connects carburetor to the head because the original one was cracked and I was having some vacuum leaks that caused the low rpm operation to be kind of hit and miss so I replaced that at 21 dollars and 37 cents I kept track of the diesel and gas to go on my little maiden voyage there and even though now this is curious if you look up here I paid a hundred and seventy eight dollars for registration that's supposed to cover public riding areas but when I go to a public riding area they charge me another five dollars I don't understand it but anyway all said and done the total expense for this project was nine hundred and sixty nine dollars and 46 cents now this is the million dollar question sale price and I wasn't feedback from you guys what do you think it's worth because I am going to sell it I don't know if I'm going to sell it before this video is posted but I am going to sell it because I need to clear out the garage a little bit I've done some research on Craigslist I'm thinking 1,500 real money I'm not going to say that's what people are asking for these motorcycles I think it can probably sell for that amount tell me if you think that's high or low and tell me what you would actually pay for it not what you would ask for one or what you've seen them advertised for because that's just fluff that's frosting on a cake that might not even exist if I sold it for $1,500 net profit 530 dollars and fifty four cents which is not a bad payday for a hobby you were supposed to be buying pants so is it possible to make money buying and selling motorcycles sure if you buy them cheap enough and you watch the expenses keep in mind less than half of the total investment for this project was the cost of the motorcycle that nickel and dime stuff will eat you alive so who wants to buy a 2002 WR 250f only crashed once as far as I know thanks for watching

Channel: Jennies Garage

Views: 859,046

Rating: 4.8621774 out of 5

Keywords: dirt bike, dirtbike, repair, profit, business, profitable, motorcycle, motorcycle repair, yamaha, wr250f, yz250f, yz450f, wr450f, yz426f, wr426f

Id: KjOsT50Bp-g

Length: 17min 17sec (1037 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 15 2016