No sooner than the dust had settled a fellow in Portland mentioned he had a Sherpa he was "thinking about selling". Intending to just put out a feeler I pm'ed him and we started a discussion about the bike that revealed he did want to sell it, and I did want to buy it, but having spent the money on the KLR 250 project bike, I was a bit short of funds.
Dede countered "you have the money earned already to make up the difference, you just don't have it in your account, and I would be willing to loan you the small amount to make up the difference". Okay.
Sometimes its actually rather a scary feeling to see a long term goal being achieved...
The negotiations started in earnest. Mark had commented he would like $2100 for it, but added, "but that is with room to negotiate a few hundred off". "Few" to me seems to imply "about five", but $1600 would have been a screaming good deal, and likely an insulting counter-offer to even propose, so I offered $1700. We settled on $1900. A bit more than I would have liked, but considering the bike had nearly ALL the modifications I would have done, or variations of the mods I would have done, I felt pretty good about the deal.
On March 23rd Kenneth and I drove to Portland. I really enjoyed meeting Mark, it felt like we had known each other a long time, and had VERY similar outlooks and attitudes towards motorcycling, and to a degree, how we each approach life as well. I felt more like I had reconnected with a long lost friend than I was just buying a bike.
The bike purchase went though, and Kenneth was able to play with Mark's son Adam. Here's a picture of Mark saying goodbye to his Sherpa - don't worry Mark, its going to a good home and will get a lot of love and attention!
I drove over to Carl Forgey's home in S. Portland and he helped me better secure the bike in the back of the Baja, and Kenneth and I drove home. It made for a long, but satisfying day!
Edit - and since I am tracking the counties I ride in, by technicality of the test ride east of Milwaukie, Oregon, I picked up Clackamas County.
Please note the link to the county mapping program in an earlier blog entry no longer seems to work.
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