I got an email back from the dealer today, specifically from Joe P, who advised it was indeed a Police issued bike, he's still working on putting together the rest of the history for me.

I haven't had a chance to chat with him direct yet, I'm about 2.5 hrs away so I'll have to try to navigate the negotiation process from a distance, which I hate to do.

 

That is a really nice looking machine, Like other have mentioned, many items have been modified for the better. Looks like LED lighting all around.

Good luck with the negotiations.

 

Don’t be too worried about it being in police service. There is a chance it was ridden hard but there’s a better chance that it wasn’t, and you can probably assume that it was very well maintained.

 

Our town had a police bike several years ago and based on what I saw that bike go through I would never even consider buying an actual police service bike. They would come to a scene and leave the bike idling in neutral for long periods of time, stop and go traffic all day long every day, racing the motor and speeding through traffic.
I am sure the department maintained it properly but it just seemed like it took a lot of abuse in its day to day life. BTW it was a Dyna Defender model. I love those bikes but as mentioned would never buy one that had seen actual police service.

 

I think it's a fallacy that police vehicles are well maintained, at least around here.

My squad loses parts every time I go above 100 mph (which is multiple times a shift), the brakes are 5k miles overdue, the oil is 2k miles overdue, the A/C only works part of the time, the suspension bushings all should have been replaced 5k miles ago, and this is in a squad that has 28k miles on it!

I'm waiting to hear back to see how long this thing was in service, and ultimately it will depend on how willing they are to be flexible on the price before I make the drive down to see it in person.

 

Like I said before Joe is a good guy, looking forward to how you make out.

 

How can a 6 year old police bike only have 6500 miles on it?

 

It's your money and your *** on the seat. If you like it, get the best deal you can, usually $500.00 less then asking. Bring tooth picks to pick the bugs out of your teeth as you smile driving away.

 

This is just a guess, but I'm hoping to hear that it didn't spend long as a department bike, or it was a backup bike, etc.. Our detective squads only put on a couple thousand miles a year vs 30k like our patrol squads.

Is $500 the unwritten rule of negotiating on bikes? I've purchased at least 15 bikes since I was 16, but I don't recall negotiating on most of them, and I've only ever bought one from a dealer.

 

Always negotiate. You have nothing to lose. $500.00 is about all most will come down.