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It happens with every used motorcycle purchase I make - buyer’s remorse.  This time, I am diagnosing my 2006 YZ450F purchase.  For me, its usualy about money.  I got the bike for about $4k and have about $1300 of goodies waiting to be installed.  Doing the math, and considerring future purchases (heh - tomorrow), I’ll have $5500 into her.

There are two bike that are haunting me for very different reasons:

The first was a 2006 that was desert raced at the expert level for half of a season.  The bike was owned by a motorcycle shop owner and well maintained.  It had every goodie that I wanted (I think) except for the suspension.  He was a little heavier than me, but running at expert level probably meant that the valving would be too stiff for a weekend warrior like me.  I saw two negatives - “raced” & possible suspension rebuild.  His price was $4900.

The second was a 2006 yellow special edition version.  It had a claimed fifteen hours on the bike and had “never even been down”.  The other claim was that it was way too much bike for the new owner.  Anyway, it had brush guards and an aftermarket kickstand.  It also had black powder coated rims which looked cool, but were no real value to me.  The kicker was that it had an extended warranty and was still covered.  His price was “first $4500″.

I have no idea what either was wiling to take, but by the time I called on the second bike…it was sold.  The first bike was available, but that whole ‘raced’ thing killed it.  So here I am with my machine that will be completed within one week.  I should be riding next weekend on a totally revamped machine.  I am very happy with my purchase, but I always gotta wonder…did I make the right choice?

I chose this bike because the price was the best and it seemed to be clean.  The only surprise so far has been with the front forks.  The fork springs were .48 - stiffer than the .43 (I think) - and I didn’t get the stock parts with the purchase.  Directionally, this was the wrong way to go for susension settings.  I don’t necessarily like the fact that someone ‘else’ was in there, but everything looked good otherwise.

I think I am still thinking about other bikes because the maiden voyage wasn’t all that fun.  Hopefully, things change with a transformed machine.  Heh - life’s a bitch sometimes…