On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 05:10:24 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 20:21:23 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

On Friday, March 28, 2014 7:47:49 PM UTC-7, wrote:

We had a 45 chopper for a while. It was a death trap.

(kicked out springer, suicide clutch and no front brake).



We ended up parting it out and saving someone's life. ;-)

Especially your own. Piecing it was a wiser choice.

It was pretty but more of a show bike than a riding bike. My buddy
bought it simply because he thought it looked good and we got a
helluva deal on it. A quick trip around the block showed us why.
I rode it a couple of times to show it but, as soon as the buyer tried
it, the deal was off. We were afraid it would get wrecked before we
could sell it.
By parting it out, we actually made more than we hoped to make by
flipping it.

The basic bike itself was a WWII vintage dispatch bike with what
turned out to be $1500 worth of custom parts on it. (what we paid for
the whole thing)
The guy who bought the engine/tranny was restoring one. That engine
had been completely rebuilt with a bunch of the parts chromed or
polished. It was actually a pretty fast 45.

This is what the commercial version would look like if it was
restored.
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Harley%2045.jpg

This is one we saw in Sturgis

I once bought three Moto Guzzi's, one with a sidecar. Sold the sidecar rig for what I paid for all
three bikes, then parted out the other two - keeping a few parts for my bike. Made out like a fat
rat, much more than doubling my money. Of course, I had free advertising in the Moto Guzzi club
newsletter, so that helped.