A ten year old bike is impossible to finance through a bank. Nobody saves up money these days to pay cash. They just want the instant gratification of walk in, sign, make a payment. If someone has 10k to drop on a bike, it's not gonna be a grandpa'd out 05 Road King with almost 60k miles, known issues with cam chain tensioners, and a seller with the no tire kickers attitude. If I'm shopping around for something in that price range, and I can't come check it out without having to commit to buy, then hell with that, keep it. Lots of good advice from these folks, seems you're just too stubborn to listen. The Harley market ain't what it used to be. I bought my 00 FXST 5 yrs ago for $6900 cash, dealer offered me $8500 trade in, a week later, and thought it was a 2 yr newer bike than it was. Bought my 11 Electra Glide last year in July for $13,500. That was below blue book retail at the time, and that's on a 3 year old bike. Like people have said, the market is saturated. Extras mean nothing. If it isn't listed when you pull up the vin# it doesn't add a dime to resale, from a financing point of view, but I already touched on the fact a bank won't touch it.

 

Well put! This guy's obviously just obtuse, but most people don't realize the drastic affect had on the vehicle they're selling when it comes to financing options. If your vehicle is 7+ years old....it is un-financeable. That means you need to sell it for a cash price that someone will realistically have available. Literally no one on the planet with $12k cash (tags, tax, etc) burning a hole in their pocket is going to give a second glance to the worst Gen RK without the fix and 60k miles. Just never gonna happen in life.

I bought my '12 Ultra with 19k miles for $3500 more than you're asking....I'm sure that still doesn't put it in perspective for the OP....he's hopeless.

 

Just sold my 89 flh for 6000 and was asking 6500.

 

Not a fair comparison, yours didn't have all the twinkie issues. Sounds better, too. But I may be prejudiced...

 

I love these threads - What I'm doing isn't working so I'm asking for advice; but when you give me advice I tell you I know what I'm doing and you're wrong.

 

+1

I bought my 5 year old Fatboy with under 3,000 miles and my brother bought his 5 year old Fatboy with under 5,000 miles. There are tons of bikes out there with under 10,000 miles at reasonable prices. Also, you need to remember that when you are looking at other ads you are looking at ASKING price, not GETTIN' price.

 

To be fair, the OP did not solicit advice on the sale but that is where his question led. He was asking about the used market and while the market might be slow, it is not dead and he has a 1 of a kind (Don't we all?) bike he is trying to sell that very few want set up just like that.

I am not saying the options are good or bad or anywhere in between...just that it takes someone looking for that bike with those options to appreciate it for what it is, regardless of mileage and if the cam chain tensioners have been replaced.

Think of it this way, OP...if it were a bone stock bike, in hot pink would you have the same attitude that they can buy it and change the color once it is theirs? That, essentially, is what you are saying. You have to be patient for someone that is looking for a hot pink bike, or in your case a highly customized Road King.

 

As was mentioned in an earlier post, it's definitely a buyers market. I have never owned a new out of the dealership harley because i have never had a lot of money. All my bikes have been between 15 and 20 years old and have never had an issue because i didn't buy crap. Last year when i tried to sell my sporty chop (2002 w/ Baker 6 speed, lots of good mechanics and not a lot of fluff) what i was getting offered wouldn't pay for what i wanted to buy and as i had no extra to kick in i was sunk. I was looking for a late 80's early 90's evo and they were floating in the 5k-6k range which was about 1K more than i could sell my bike for. This march i sold it for $4200 and picked up my 86 FLHT for $3800 with 37,000 original miles from the original owner. Pristine condition and started right up after sitting for 6 months. I looked at 4 other FLHS in exactly the same condition for roughly the same price range (they were all asking 4k - 4500..)
There are so many over priced bikes on CL that I have seen on there for years. At this point no one has to overspend to get a new (used) ride.
That's the way it is now.

 

I think a lot of people have their heads stuck in the 90's and before - when you walked into a dealer and they acted like you were bothering them because you wanted to buy a bike; and you could buy a new bike, ride it for a year and sell it for more than you paid for it.

 

There is some truth to "its only worth what someone is willing to pay" theory. My neighbor is trying to sell his '05 Super Glide, Chopper Blue with chrome add ons, primary cover, and cam chest cover etc. Its a nice bike, but he's asking 10 grand. I told him that Super Glide Customs that year go for that and if he wanted to sell to come down to 8000-8500. He says"naw, I'll keep it". I dunno I guess in his case, its for sale to a person who wants to pay too much.