2003 Harley-Davidson Sportster

   By now you know I am a Harley-Davidson fan... I have owned more than a half dozen of them over the years. I discovered this one in Dallas and thought I might turn it for a quick profit...but naturally there was a bit of a problem that had to be overcome.

    This is the way it looked the day I bought it. Nice purple paint job and almost new tires. I went over all the chrome with some commercial cleaner and it shined up like a new penny. The seats, back pad, and bra were all good and I used a leather treatment on them to give them a soft, supple feel. This was an 883 engine Sportster but it had a set of Screamin' Eagles pipes and really sounded good.

     I did some small things to the bike to keep my investment fairly low.. I put new gripes and chrome control boxes over the switches, but left the switches black for a little contrast. The bike ran well and really looked good,...BUT now let me show you the only drawback..

  
  The previous owner had a porpoise (dolphin) airbrushed on the tank. When I first saw the bike I figured I would go home and remove the fish with some rubbing compound. Nope, would not come off with anything less than a sander. I even considered having an airbrush buddy re-do the artwork with something else. Finally I decided to just see what the bike would bring, so I placed an ad on Craig's List and waited. The first day a guy came by and looked at it for all of thirty seconds and was on his way. That night a guy from Waxahachie, Texas called me and said he was looking for a bike for his wife. I described it in detail and told him about the 'jumping fish' on the tank. He said that was one of the things his wife liked about the photos on Craig's List....and to think, I almost had it removed.

  
  The next day they showed up with a trailer behind a new Chevy one-ton pick-up truck. After I showed her the bike's controls, I fired it up and she was all smiles hearing those pipes thumpin' up a storm. I had the white Softail at the time and we went for a ride to see how she liked the way it ran. Just in the neighborhood until she got comfortable and then out on the highway to show how it ran up around 65-70 mph. We got back to the house and dynamite would not remove the grin from her face. I knew their trailer would not be going back to Waxahachie empty.

 
  Here her hubby makes sure she is comfortable with the pegs and handlebars. He also took a turn on the bike and was back in less than a minute. It was a good riding bike and had low mileage, so I was firm when he asked about the price of the bike. The wife was adamant that this was the bike she wanted so he counted out some bills and I helped them load the bike on the trailer. While the hubby was gone on the test ride, she told me she had porpoises all over her house in statues, pillows, and photos. I figured the Lord Almighty had delivered me the right customer at the right time. She got a good bike and I made about nine hundred dollars on the deal.