"jminer" (jminer)
09/08/2020 at 14:17 • Filed to: None
2
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"jminer" (jminer)
09/08/2020 at 14:17 • Filed to: None | 2
| 27 |
So I have been clearing out my garage and property of projects and sold a parts R6 last week. It wasn’t much more than an engine that needed rebuilding plus a frame and swingarm but there was more interest than I was expecting.
At any rate the guy that showed up to buy it pulled into my drive with a 2 door coupe cobalt. I asked him ‘You’re planning on putting this in that?’ and he replies ‘I’ve do ne it before’.
Okay - color me befuddled as that car is a two door with a tiny trunk opening.
The bike is already on the dolly so I wheel it over to the car. He slides both seats all the way up and then looks at the bike and the opening it leaves and there isn’t enough room to put it in the back. I walk around to the back of the car and confirm the trunk opening is comically small.
His partner has the idea to put it in the passenger seat, so he slides the seat back and lays it all the way back and it looks like there i s enough room.
This guy was large, 6' and 300# and he picks up this thing (which weighs close to 200#) and puts it in the passenger seat. The damn thing fit.
His passenger climbs into the back (where there is no seat) and he gets in and they drive off in this tiny cobalt he managed to put a bike in.
I was befuddled - it has taken me more time to but a bike in the back of a pickup (I hate doing this btw for a myriad of reasons) than it did to get this in his cobalt!
There were no pictures taken as I was just struck by the whole thing.
Here’s a pic of a similar ‘use what you got’ mentality dude I sold another bike too.
He drove down from Wisconsin to St Louis in snow to drag home a 74 GT 380 parts bike. That CRV was squatted bad with that 400# bike hanging off the back like that. He had to drive 55 the whole way home, but made it.
This bike is pretty uncommon and cool being a 3 cylinder 2 stroke street bike. I bought it hoping to find another and rebuild them. He was doing the same and this was his parts bike to finish a nicer one. He still drove 700 miles in one day to get this guy.
At any rate both of these interactions help to remind me that sometimes instead of getting the new shiny thing you want, you can make do with what you have plus a little ingenuity.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:23 |
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I had that exact CRV, I got a queen mattress taco’ d into it to take to the recycling center, I couldn’t believe it. The door closed too.
For Sweden
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/08/2020 at 14:24 |
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CR-V, a certified taco truck
Longtime Lurker
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:27 |
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I had a coworker that had a 2door Cobalt, but he towed is bike on a little trailer.
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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> For Sweden
09/08/2020 at 14:30 |
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I actually really liked that vehicle but the road noise was so bad, my wife and I couldn’t really talk normally on the highway. I loved the driving position and the captains chairs with the fold away center console and the quirky passenger handle/E brake. It could have used a more powerful 4 cyl/turbo but it is reliable and cheap to fix, it was a better Civic for what I used it for.
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jminer
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/08/2020 at 14:35 |
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Excellent!
His was packed full of tools too as he wasn’t sure how much of the bike he’d have to take apart to fit.
subexpression
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:36 |
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A few years ago I saw somebody in a BMW Z4 convertible with the top down pulling out of Menards with a load of lumber . Tied together in a bundle , o ne end down in the passenger-side footwell, the other sticking way up in the air.
Of course, for both this and your motorcycle there i s one key point: you have to be strong enough to maneuver whatever you’re loading easily if you want to stuff it in to a small space .
VincentMalamute-Kim
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:44 |
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I have enough trouble picking up 40lb bags of salt. I’m amazed at how strong people can be.
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jminer
> Longtime Lurker
09/08/2020 at 14:44 |
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That would be better
TheRealBicycleBuck
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:48 |
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As they say, run what you brung.
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:51 |
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The guys that bought my Cabriolet pulled it home with a RAV4 and a borrowed car dolly.
When I bought my Tomos I put it in the trunk of my e90. For some reason I can’t find a picture.
Point is don’t let not having a truck stop you from having projects. Now that I have a hitch on the e90 I plan on getting a 8x4 utility trailer Then I definitely won’t need a truck.
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HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> VincentMalamute-Kim
09/08/2020 at 14:52 |
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It’s all about technique.
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jminer
> subexpression
09/08/2020 at 14:56 |
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That’s ingenuity!
I worked at Circuit City once and had someone pull up in a VW Bug convertible and wanted a 32" CRT put in the back seat.
I wouldn’t do it for them , but they got it in there and drove off.
RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 14:57 |
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sold a set of wheels and tires to someone who’d driven from 100 miles away in a Miata with a friend . 3 were strapped to the trunk, passenger carried the 4th in his lap.
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VincentMalamute-Kim
> HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
09/08/2020 at 14:58 |
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More strength training, I’d think. And still not going to be picking up 200# bikes. W
hich is 150% of my body weight.
.
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jminer
> VincentMalamute-Kim
09/08/2020 at 15:00 |
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I grew up on a farm so I used to be scrawny and strong but have worked at a desk too long to still be strong.
Where possible I use things like a dolly to help me.
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jminer
> TheRealBicycleBuck
09/08/2020 at 15:00 |
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Excellent!
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jminer
> RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire
09/08/2020 at 15:17 |
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That’s dedication
XJDano
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 16:51 |
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Boo, this doesn’t not help me when I’m considering buying a RHD mail XJ from the east coast.
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jminer
> XJDano
09/08/2020 at 17:48 |
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That sounds like the good kind of crazy. Not likely that expensive either.
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XJDano
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 18:39 |
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$1900, then $100 flight (+another hundred of my wife)
Then drive it home...
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jminer
> XJDano
09/08/2020 at 20:22 |
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That sounds like a reasonable purchase and adventure
shop-teacher
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 21:45 |
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Adjacent, but related, is the insane way the buyer of the last scooter I sold loaded it into his Equinox.
The one ratchet strap is hooked to the lift gate struts ... The pop-on ball and socket end, nothing really holding them on lift gate struts.
He did actually make it home. He sent me some very happy follow-up texts about it.
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shop-teacher
> subexpression
09/08/2020 at 21:50 |
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I worked at a lumber yard in high school. I once saw somebody load a 12' long 2x12 through the sunroof of their fairly new S-class, resting the one end on the package shelf, with a hole lot of heavy board pressing on the edge of the su nroof’s frame.
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jminer
> shop-teacher
09/08/2020 at 22:00 |
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Wow is that jank!
I’ve definitely driven home with some less than secured things...
but wow...
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shop-teacher
> jminer
09/08/2020 at 22:58 |
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Oh that door is way better and more stabily loaded.
I sold another scooter to a guy who stopped onto one of those hitch carriers. But not the kind made for a bike. The generic basket kind. Which it didn’t really fit in.
Both of those guys I had to provide a ratchet strap to them. The Equinox guy didn’t have one, so I sold him on e for an extra $5. The hitch carrier guy couldn’t find one in his hoarder Explorer, and it was already after midnight, so I be gave him the ratchet strap just to get him the hell out of here.
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jminer
> shop-teacher
09/08/2020 at 23:33 |
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Yeah the door is only hanging like 6" out of the back of the wagon. I only can blame myself for that as I poorly measured the room in the sportwagen and relied on the homedepot website f or door dimensions. I only had 5 miles of surface roads to make it home.
I did that with a dolly and a Goldwing once.
A guy drove from 250 miles to buy a full dress GL1000 plus a GL1000 engine in a frame. He had a 90's F150 long bed, but that’s a big bike.
He showed up at like 8pm with no ramps and was a 65 year old guy. I was pissed, I was only charging him only $250 for everything as it was October/November and noone wanted this thing.
I hate loading bikes into the back of a pickup and I had to dig up boards and we used a hill in my yard to load the full bike into his bed. I looked at the room left and asked him if he really wanted to take the engine with him.
He replied ‘ of course’ but had no idea how to get it in there. I moved boards around some more and jostled some free room into the bed and the GL1000 engine got strapped to a dolly and dragged it into the truck but then there was no way to get the dolly out from under it.
I told him to give me another $20 and keep the dolly as I’d spend 2 hours loading everything with little help from him and was exhausted . I’d rather have given it away than deal with all of that.
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shop-teacher
> jminer
09/09/2020 at 07:24 |
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Wow. That is way worse!
I load scooters in the back of my truck regularly, but:
A) they weigh 250ish pounds
B) I HAVE RAMPS!
I'm sure he had lots of "fun" unloading that bike and engine when he got home.