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No longer use my overlanding bike - what to do with it? No longer use my overlanding bike - what to do with it?
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Old 11 Sep 2019
apapadop's Avatar
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Location: London, UK
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Question No longer use my overlanding bike - what to do with it?
Hi everyone.

10 years ago, I had no kids/mortgage, so I could go traveling. I used my trusty Suzuki V-Strom 650 to ride all around Europe until I built up the courage to take it to India. As most of us, I invested a lot of time and money in preparing for the trip, and as a result of the trip, I also invested a lot of emotional capital in this bike.

Time passed and I got married and then had kids and I haven't really ridden the bike at all for the last 6 years. I don't massively miss it; my priorities have changed and I'm comfortable with the fact that right now I'm in a phase of my life that is not ripe for overlanding. I am more concerned with other pursuits at this point.

Which brings us to the dilemma: what to do with such a bike? It's fully equipped for overlanding (top case, aluminium Zega panniers, tank bag, expensive Ohlins rear shock, engine protector) but has been unused for a while and is getting old (it's a 2006 ABS model). Also, I never managed to get it registered in the UK, it still has the Greek number plate. This was okay back then as I would take it in and out of the country reasonably frequently and I have a EU insurance green card, but if I try to sell it in the UK now it needs time (that I don't have) and money to make "legal" (speedometer showing miles, new front light, number plate, UK insurance). It would cost more to make it road-legal in the UK, than the money I could ever hope to get by selling it. Things came to a head now as I tried to use it for a wee ride and realised the fuel pump is broken, which is another significant expense.

So I'm kinda stuck. It's not worth fixing and legalising to sell it. But I'm also emotionally invested in this bike and I think it's a massive shame to just give it to the scrap yard. I'm time-poor (due to job and family duties) so I'm not going to spend time to dismantle it and sell its parts one by one on eBay or anything like that. But it's a shame to scrap such an amazing bike, which is (minus the fuel pump) ready to go RTW once more!

I would be grateful for any ideas HUBBers may have.

Thanks,

Alex
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