My lucky day!

[Tom S]

A friend who thinks he's getting too old to ride MC's (he's only 68) called me up a few weeks ago and told me to come and get his 1998 WR400 Yamaha.  Like most things he owns, he put a ton of money in it and hardly rode it.  I bet it's only got 400 miles on it.  This engine is one cylinder of the famous first generation R1 with 5 valves and revs to the moon!  He put a Baja Designs dual sport kit on it, Bark Busters, a Recluse clutch, an oversize front rotor, MT21 dual sport tires, had the add-on battery replaced with a lithium one, and a larger gas tank.  For a dual sport bike, the Bark Busters were over-kill, so I had David Beaman (never do anything yourself if you can afford to have someone do it for you) put flag style hand guards on it.  The over-size gas tank was ugly, so he put the stock tank back on it, which is fine for my local purposes for it.  When I got it back it felt like it needed to shift one more time to reach the 6th gear that it didn't have, so I bought a one tooth larger, 15 tooth counter sprocket for it.  I haven't put it on yet, but I don't think it will make first gear too high for my intended purpose for it of just getting me to and from where we maintain local trails.

If I like the bike as much as I think I will I'll probably send him a grand or so to keep me from feeling guilty, even though he said he just wanted it to go to a good home.  If I don't like it I'll sell it and send him the money.  Stay tuned.

[stevegrab]

I need better friends  

Sounds great Tom, enjoy it. 

[HawkGTRider]

Definitely one sweet machine!

[STLTHMSTA]

I like my friends too but I need better ones also. LOL  It was indeed your lucky day. I admire your honesty and integrity on sending him money for the bike or giving him the sale money.  Nice to see that in the greedy world we live in. But then again, this IS the MSTA, Good folks. And good on ya. Have fun, Tom M