by Buzz Kanter, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
I should have known better and not waited. I could kick myself for not jumping on that Harley. It was a great deal on just the year and model I’d been looking for. And now it’s gone! You’d think that after 30 years of actively buying and selling more old motorcycles than I can remember, I’d have known to jump when I found the exact motorcycle I’d been searching for.
Over the past several years, I’ve been competing in a fun event here in New England called Motogiro, which is open to small-displacement (no larger than 305cc), old (pre-1969) motorcycles. I’ve bought and modified a 1966 Ducati 250 similar to one I’d had in college just for these events. The Ducati is a fine old machine, but I’ve been itching to compete on something American. There aren’t many American motorcycles that qualify, but I’d had my eye out for a 1966 or earlier long-stroke Harley 250 Sprint.
After searching for more than a year, I found a 1966 Harley 250 Sprint on craigslist. It sounded exactly like what I’d been looking for at a bargain price of $900. The bike was almost five hours away in northern Vermont, a long drive out and back if it turned out to be a dud. I contacted the seller by e-mail and asked a few basic questions about the mechanical condition, originality, dependability, and history. The seller told me this particular bike ran great and was quite original, but scratched and scuffed a bit (as shown in the photos). He told me he had recently rebuilt the top end. He told me it didn’t smoke or leak oil. The seller also told me that he owns several Harley Sprints and has been competing with them for years. It was time to thin the collection, however, so he was selling this one, as well as a couple of other smaller-displacement Harleys. He was asking $900 for the Sprint, well below the going prices I’d seen in the last year.
When I heard all this, I e-mailed back that I wanted to buy the Sprint and was okay with the asking price. I inquired as to when I could come up with the cash and pick up the bike. He e-mailed me back that he was available only on Sundays.
I checked my calendar and told him I was booked for the next two weekends, and asked if I could come up any other day of the week. I confirmed that I would buy the bike at his price. He politely by firmly said it had to be on a Sunday. I wrote back to confirm that I could be there in three Sundays with cash to make the deal. He was fine with that, and even offered to meet me somewhere in between for gas money. I figured I’d locked in a good deal on exactly the bike I’d been looking for. That was until I contacted him two weeks later to ask for directions. His response was that he’d just sold the bike to someone who showed up during the week. “He was here with the money, so I sold it to him.”
I was dumbfounded. “I thought we had a deal!” I e-mailed him. “And you were the one who told me it had to be on a Sunday.” The seller responded that, in spite of my many e-mails, agreement to do the deal, and offer to give him a deposit, he didn’t know if I was serious, and now “my” bike was sold and gone to a new owner. I should have known better. I knew I shouldn’t have waited. I could kick myself for not jumping on that Harley. If anyone out there has a decent 1966 or earlier Harley 250 Sprint you want to sell for a fair price, let me know. I still have the cash sitting in my pocket.
The New Old RoadBike
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American Iron Magazine, and the occasional newsstand specials (like the recent
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Ride safe, ride smart, have fun.
September 2009 - One That Got Away 
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