How to buy a trike?

[Sammybeany]

Here's the story . . .

I live pretty far out in the woods. With the way our house is positioned, you can barely see our next door neighbor's house from our front yard. The next neighbor down is totally out of sight. This particular neighbor has a garage in front of his house that happens to be overflowing with junk. Now normally this would be a bad thing for us, but being that you can't see it at all from where we live, it doesn't affect our property value, so it's actually kind of funny.

His house is down the road in the opposite direction of the main road, so I rarely drive by it. Yesterday, however, I was going to my one friend's house, who happens to live in that direction. Out of curiosity I slowed down and scanned over my neighbor's fine assortment of old crap, and wouldn't you know it, I see the distinct single, fat front tire of a trike sticking out of the mess. I didn't get a good look at it because I didn't want to stop and block traffic, but I saw a red front fender and rack on it, which makes me assume it's a Big Red.

In most cases it would probably be as simple as walking over there and asking if it's for sale, but we have a bit of history with these fine people. You see, our dog got out of the house once and decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood. He's a friendly dog, and didn't mean any harm, but he happened to wander into their yard. They have a crazy dog that likes to bite people and fight with other dogs, and much fighting did ensue. Luckily our stupid mutt managed to hold his own, and we found them in time to break up the fight without any blood shed. Our friendly neighbor, however, was not a happy man. He threatened to shoot our dog if it ever came into his yard again.

Apparently it was a difficult time in this guy's life. He was noticeably drunk during at least one of our confrontations with him, and he's actually gone as far as trying to start a fist fight with my step dad. Quite an interesting fellow, this guy is. We apologized to the guy profusely for our dog and told him we didn't want to be enemies. Eventually it worked, and he ended up apologizing to us as well. So we're on "good terms" with their family now.

So, back to the trike . . .

I'm definitely interested in going over there and trying to buy it off of him, but I'm naturally reluctant to start making cash transactions with him. How would you guys handle this situation? What sort of procedures would I have to go through to make everything official and have proof that I bought it off of him, so he can't turn around and say "THIS GUY STOLE MY VEHICLE"?

And please withhold replies like "GO OVAR THER AND THROW A ROCK AT HSI HED AND STEAL TEH TRIKES!1!!!1" I'm seriously not sure what the best route to take in a situation like this is, and I don't want this to come back in bite me in the ass.

Thanks in advance! :-D

(Also . . . what do you think the trike would be worth, and is there anything specific I should look for? I have a fresh NGK DR8ES-L plug on hand . . . do all Big Reds use this plug? I have a feeling it hasn't been started in a good while, so I'd like to be prepared to do whatever necessary to get it running when I go see it. Is there anything else I should take, aside from gas, oil, starting fluid, and a new plug?)

[Jeb]

..."GO OVAR THER AND THROW A ROCK AT HSI HED AND STEAL TEH TRIKES!1!!!1" ..


:shock: :D


i can see you've seen some of the rather "good" advice & spelling that has been posted here in the past! :D


Make out a "Bill of Sale" and have him sign it before you give him the cash.

[Crash104936221]

ya i agree that a "Bill of Sale" would be a good idea
as i doubt that he would have the ownership on hand if its in a pile of junk :)

Be sure to take note of all parts that will need fixing or replacement with him there thats how i got almost 300 bucks off my trike when i bought it in 2000
when you write it all down it looks like alot os stuff needs work :D

if you have a compresstion gauge i would take it give that a look aswell.

anyways
it would be great if the mods could put all this info into a FAQ about buying a trike and all the formalitys that should been done to prevent and future problems along with a list of stuff to look at for wear and abuse

Joe

[timex69]

write out a hand writeen recipt make sure it says AS IS on it along with the amount and the buy and sellers name. Pay cash not cheque or paypal or anything so he cant say i never got the payment or the cheque didnt clear. Take a whitness with u..yer mum or dad or step dad or step mom. Everyone has a neighbourhood prick....too bad its 1 with a trike

[atcmatt]

If your scared of going to ask him, get one of your mates to go to his house and say that they saw the trike in the shed and ask if they can buy it. When they buy it (your money) they will give it to you.

Matt

[trikerider2oo7]

Do you talk to your neighbor? If you do just kind of bring it up in a conversation

[J.D.]

My advice....GO OVAR THER AND THROW A ROCK AT HSI HED AND STEAL TEH TRIKES!1!!!1

LOL!

The way I would go about it is nicely and politely go up there and ask if it's for sale. Seeing as how you have "history", make sure to use lot's of "sirs". If/when an agreeable amount is established for the trike, write out a bill of sale with a witness there. A good bill of sale has owners and buyers social security #, D/L #(if applicable), the VIN#(a 100% must) of the bike on the Bill of sale, date transaction occured, and all three people sign it.

[Yamahammer490]

I would do all the things mentioned already (except throwing rocks ;) )

I've got a buy/sell agreement in the form of a Word document that I'd be happy to send to you. I'm not a lawyer or anything but a friend of mine that buys and sells a lot of vehicles gave it to me. I've used it several times and haven't had any problems.

PM me if you want the Word doc. Good luck!

[JoeSuzuki]

As far as chequing the bike before buying,,, well i have worked on plenty of BigReds,,,,make sure there is no oil leeking outta the motors heads and especially the rear gear case if its an 84 or newwer. Other than that you can always take a good ride with it.....but dont be suprised-----most Bigreds backfire when decompressing(especialy after sitting for a couple of years) A good running BigRed can go up to 1000$ (if almost mint) but a beattin up one can go very low ( I paid 20$ for mine===was horible though), they are easy to get to run ,even if all the goodies are not functionning the most important is that it runs!!!!!! Ill be happy to help you out with gettin it togother after youve bought it.