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Hi Everyone,
Motorcycling has been a big part of my life and mental health for the last 10 years or so. I've enjoyed street riding, track days and some racing and all have been a vital part of maintaining my mental health in a very stressful and generally unhappy universe in which I live. I own a company which has been struggling badly for the past few years. I sold all my bikes, my 900ss, my 916 and my sv race bike last fall out of desperation to keep the doors open. I also sold my race car, guns and all the other things that enabled me to enjoy my hobbies and facilitated some sort of social life. While the business has survived and in many ways has improved, I'm profoundly unhappy, miserable even. While the company is doing better, I'm not and I still am financially crippled after sinking all my earnings, savings etc back in to keep it alive. This isn't a boo-hoo my toys are gone thing, this is a serious depression which is compounded by the fact that the things that I used to do to escape the stress and make me feel like me are gone. I'm reaching my limit in that I have a hard time finding reasons to get up in the morning. In addition, the stress and depression have effected my physical health and I'm now having some very real issues on that front.
This week while stuck at home recovering from surgery, I realized that I've become far to detached from the things in life that I enjoy. In short, I need to get another bike. I have a loving wife and family along with a terrific dog, but I don't have an outlet anymore.
I have two problems. After losing and selling everything, my financial resources are limited. Secondly, I'm not 100% sure what I want. Thirdly, I'm hoping through this forum, what few items I have left of value might be sold or traded to help with the purchase. I'm limited to 2.5k or under (I know, not much) and on top of this, I'm picky
I'm open to some suggestions, but I'm almost thinking of moving from a straight sport bike to a very sporty end of the spectrum sport tourer. Something that I can drag a knee on occasionally but not be crippled after riding for a few hours.
I'm thinking potentially:
4th gen VFR 750
Maybe an earlier 750 if someone with experience on those bikes feels they would be enjoyable enough to ride performance wise.
Honda Superhawk
600 or 750 SRAD
CBR F2 or F3 (don't think I have the budget for a newer one)
Carb'd 900ss (that was my favorite bike I ever owned and I miss it a lot)
748 (probably unreasonably out of price range
Daytona 955I (late 90s-2000)
Other 600s (probably out of price range)
The only things I have left to trade (sold all the good stuff) is:
A very nicely, professionally built up Hoyt unlimited compound target archery setup with carbon + limbs, I forget what cams are on it. It's complete with X7 arrows, bommar stabilizer, caliper release aid and a copper john scope mount with an 8x magnification scope. Setup is probably worth $700.00
I have a nice little .22 bolt action single shot Marlin (sold through sears roebuck) rifle. I also have a crappy little 32 cal purse type pistol. I sold all my good guns to make a payroll. The combination is probably only worth $150.00
I do have two bricks of match grade standard velocity ammo, 1 eley, 1 ecci.
I have some decent hi-fi stuff left. I have a DIY paradise air core inductor amp built up with a DIY Raindrop Hui Dac that is also built up. I sold the rest of the gear that went with these so they are just sitting around. Worth around $250. I have an M2 tech hi-face spdif interface that works well with the above worth around $150.00.
I have a pair of AR228 loundspeakers (Ken Kantor designed) acoustic suspension two way bookshelf speakers. They are minty and sound awesome. I also have the matching center channel and a DSPA1000 integrated yamaha amp that works nicely with them. Value for all of that stuff is about $600.00. I also have a couple mediocre small powered subs I could throw in (definitive technologies).
I have an ASUS X99-a motherboard never used. Retails for $300, used work $150ish and a sapphire radeon 6950 video card (which was top of the line a couple of years ago) that's worth $75.00.
The only other things I can offer are services. My shop has a lot of capabilities, we make displays and retail fixtures, so we have 5 large machining centers (think CNC routers on steriods) and a large format print shop. We can produce vehicle wraps out of the shop for race bikes and helmets etc. That's not what we use it for at work, but there's no reason I couldn't go in on a weekend and crank some out. If you have some big wood or plastic stuff to be machined I can do that on a weekend two.
The last things I have to trade are some tools that we don't use at work. I have a super industrial HILTI hammer drill SDS MAX that we never use. I think it was over a grand when we bought it. I also have a 9hp Invicta shaper. I bought it used for $4k a few years ago, and it is a beast. I have a ton of collets and adapters for it. I also have a little 30 gallon compressor we used to use on job sites when we still did installs.
I have two Wacom Intuos 2 digital drawing tablets, though I'm missing 1 of the pens. They are both 12"x12". I have a few PS3 games and a controller and a takamine acoustic guitar. I'm at everything must go mentality!
I do also have a used (semi thrashed) set of black Alpine Stars leathers size 48 I think. They are black, they were whatever the cheapest leathers they sold a few years ago were. I bought Vanson's a couple years later which I'm not selling
All of the above items and what little cash I can scrape together are available to go toward a bike. I hope someone on these forums will be intrigued and maybe be able to work something out. I don't want this to be a sob story, but I need to make a change in my life and find something that can block out the rest of the world. Nothing has ever come close to doing that like riding.
Thanks,
-Ed
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I have an HP 5000 designjet 60" large format printer. It needs a PSU which I have replaced a couple of times in the past and can do so if someone wants it as part of a bike trade. This is an aqueous printer that is capable of true art prints. It is currently setup with UV pigmented inks but can be switched to dye based inks. I still have some media for it as well. We have a lot of other printers and this one just doesn't get used.
The last thing I have on offer which would need to be serviced and would have to be traded straight up for a bike worth around $4k is a Mimaki JV3 160s. This is a solvent printer that we used to do all our wrap and sign printing on back in the day. It needs 2 print heads and a flush along with a capping station upgrade. Rob Earle in NH can do all the work for around 2K. This machine tuned up hangs with some heavy duty stuff that is much newer and is super cheap to operate as you can print on uncoated media like vinyl, banner, paper etc. Make stickers, vehicle wraps, banners and more. I built my business in my most successful years on the back of this machines output. Low overhead, high markup. just trade me an appropriately cool bike!.
You could combine the two printers and start a nice small or part time business. Add a cheap vinyl plotter and you've got a full sign shop. I can even throw in older legit copies of illustrator and Photoshop.