I'm always telling people that "no amount of personalized add-ons add value to a used Harley except top shelf performance mods". I bought an FXR on Saturday. The bike came with $20,000 in receipts for chrome, polishing, and trim and I paid $7K for essentially a brand new bike. Details in comments.

Warning- wall of text. :)

I spend a LOT of time on here telling people how to save money on a used bike, and to be patient and to not pay for someone's personalized accessories. There's a LOT of overpriced used bikes out there, and there's no reason why people should pay more than they have to for one. I'm no different. I posted in the Wiki about how to save money on a used bike, and there's a sidebar link titled "Buying a used Harley?". Well, I follow my own advice.

I bought a pristine mid-80s FXR on Saturday, and posted pics shortly after. Here's the story of WHY I bought it, how much the seller had invested in the bike, and what I paid.

In the last week, I looked at a couple super low-miles Dynas, including one 2009 with 6K miles on it in West Virginia that I would have had to ship home. The seller wanted $7K for it and I felt this was a fair price for a brand new 6 year old Dyna. I decided that despite the great price, I really wanted an FXR and I wasn't going to go over my $7K budget (shipping would have been almost $1000), so I spent some days on Craigslist and eventually drove out and looked at almost a dozen FXRs within 100 miles of my home, and I liked some enough that I test-rode four of them.

Two of them were set up VERY nicely, including a Twin Cam, 5 speed, 88 inch "special construction" FXR with a motor and tranny out of a 2005 Dyna for $10K. Not a speck of dirt on it, and the Big Bear Titanium FXR frame was gorgeous. Seller wouldn't come down far enough, so I didn't buy it. There were also bone stock, high miles FXRs with asking prices around $5K that I could have purchased for between $4K and $4500 and spent the other $2500-3000 on the things I really want to do with an FXR. Figured I'd keep these as a fall-back plan if I didn't find the bike I wanted. There were well-used, hot-rodded, late mode FXRs with nice mods and older nice paint for around $8000-$8500, but most had 30K or more miles on them, without too much in the way of updates/upgrades done to them. These were the first choices on my list, since I could probably talk sellers down to my $7K budget... but then I'd want to put footboards on them ($500 for everything), a windshield (another $200), and new tires (another $300). Outside of my budget, but I would just do those things as the money came available and ride them in the mean time. They were tastefully done, properly maintained, slightly modified (pipes, carb, ignition, seat and bars) earlier model FXRs with asking prices between $6K and $7500. Anything before 1990 would need a transmission upgrade to a splined shaft, and that would cost between $1000 and $1500. Maybe within budget, depending on sale price.

Only one bike I rode felt PERFECT underneath me, but it needed fork seals, had a $3000 paint job on it (told the guy "I want to buy a bike, not a paint job), and came with lots of extras- wheels, sheet metal, etc.- but he wouldn't go below $7500.

The bike I bought was the last bike I looked at and it wasn't listed on Craigslist. I found it on eBay, but it was 30 miles from my home, so I emailed the guy and arranged to drive out and look at the bike on Friday night. It was brand fucking new, or at least looked that way from what I could tell, without a speck of dirt on it anywhere, and every bit of chrome looked brand new. It had everything chrome or polished and an expensive paint job, but the guy couldn't get it to stop spitting when taking off from a stop sign. He told me it sat for a year, and I knew it was likely an intake manifold seal, since these allow leaks if a bike sits for too long, or if they're just too damned old they will crack and let in air. This is a $20 fix and I have the tools and the knowledge to do it in a weekend. He also suspected this was the case, so I wasn't taking advantage of anything. If only it didn't have this hideous 1990s paint job on it... Oh well, a can of black paint isn't expensive, and will make do until I can paint it properly.

He said he wanted $7500 and had turned down an offer for $6800 that morning. I bought the bike for $7K, but not before I looked at the folder filled with TWENTY FUCKING THOUSAND DOLLARS OF RECEIPTS, many of them from Arlen Ness, for everything that had been done to the bike since it was brand new. These three or four receipts alone come to $15,000 more or less!!!. Not counting labor or paint, it was upwards of $18K in parts alone, "show" chrome plating and polishing of aluminum parts. Almost all of this stuff was done 20 years ago, so the cost of parts today would probably be close to double that. It's older stuff and there's more than a bit of billet aluminum (1990s all over again).... but the bike was put together then stored in a climate controlled storage garage with a cover on it, only taken out a couple times each year for a weekend ride to the mountains with friends. It only had about 1500 miles on it since all the work was done to it, so that explained why there wasn't any dirt anywhere. The chrome, although it's 20 years old, looks brand fucking new, with that "blue" glow that new chrome has and older, frequently washed chrome loses in a year or three of washing it.

The only bike I looked at in near this condition was a really fucking nice 96" S&S motor 1993 FXR that was listed for $11,000. That bike was a nicely done hot rod, but I didn't want to spend more than $7K, as I'd decided that was my budget. I tell people "be patient! It pays off!"

The bike came with the original owner's manual, the factory service manual, the original receipt for the bike from Bob Dron Harley Davidson in Oakland California from July 1985, and every single receipt for every single part that's been replaced, chrome plated, polished, shaved, or updated, so there's NO question marks about what's been done or when. It's got 21,000 miles on the clock, but I can't find a speck of dirt on it, it runs perfectly (once you account for the intake leak) and it looks like a brand new bike from front to back. Oh yeah, it's only had 6 oil changes in its entire life! The thing is meticulous.

• Parts- It's got an S&S Super E, Thunderheader with the heat shields intact, footboards, an updated post-1990 transmission with polished trap door and chrome throwout cover, Rivera clutch, FXRP crash bars, tachometer with fuel gauge, new starter, new battery, short 12" apes with chrome controls, switches and housings, a nice Corbin 2-up seat, Arlen Ness side covers, polished 9 spoke mags, electronic ignition, a freshly flushed and sealed fuel tank, dual-disc forks with brand new drilled rotors, chrome lower legs, "shaved" and chromed brake calipers on the front and back, the factory smoked plexiglass windshield, a chrome swingarm, chrome primary cover (inner and outer), chrome starter motor, chrome 5 speed tranny cover, new chrome pushrod tubes, chrome lifter blocks, chrome derby cover, triple-plated rocker boxes, brand new Metzeler tires front and back, and just about every single fastener on the bike was exchanged for chrome Allen bolts.

It needs exactly two things- because it sat for a year or more, the intake manifold seal on the front cylinder head has shrunk and caused an intake leak ($20 from Harley on Sunday for new ones). A squirt of carburetor cleaner on the intake joint caused a change in idle, so this was clearly the issue and an easy fix. The other issue is that the oil pump check ball allows a bit of oil to sump into the motor when it sits for a while (common on older Harleys, from Knuckles to Evos), so I'll need to replace the check ball and spring ($4 from Harley on Sunday also). I will also need to either find someone to trade me a nice set of stock tins for the nicely painted "faux marble with purple zig zag pinstripe" late 90s paint job (that's perfect and without a scratch on it) or I'll need to paint the tins.

The seller was wealthy, but he didn't get that way by selling things for less than they're worth. But NO ONE had offered him more than $6800 for this bike before I got there. No one. The extra $200 is less than I would have paid for tires and about what I would have paid for the windshield that came with the bike.

The point of ALL of this is to support the things I say all the time- don't pay more than you absolutely have to for a used bike. And if you're selling, NO BIKE is worth more just because someone put a couple thousand dollars of accessories on it. It's worth what a stock bike would be worth in similar condition, with the single exception of top-shelf performance mods, which CAN add some value to a bike, but you'll never get your money out of even those. The prices people ask for bikes on ebay and Craigslist are pretty fucking ridiculous, but if you follow the stuff in the Wiki/Buying a used Harley? link, you'll get the bike you want for no more money than you have to spend.

If you've applied these methods and found a great bike for fewer $$ than you or your friends thought was possible, I'd love to hear about it in comments!

Good luck. Not I gotta go finish the intake seal and put the gas tank back on and go riding tomorrow. :) Ride safe folks.