What do you guys do? Let them test ride? If so, how do you know they’re not gonna run off? I’m not listing expensive bikes, but I still don’t want to lose a $150-200 bike. Seems cheesy to ask to hold onto ID or something.
bring 2 bikes and ride with?
meet em at a parking lot or something. otherwise, ask for a phone/wallet/etc.
really if the dude seems sketchy, act accordingly.
If they drive you can wait by their car. If not just ask for an ID or ride with them.
Ride with always works because then you can keep answering thier stupid questions. But if not, I suggest the taking keys, wallet or ID.
bike stores often take IDs and a credit card before a test ride.
I always take the car keys.
this is beginning to sound like a great way to get a new car…
Get some i.d. it is not cheesy and in fact, if I am not offered something by the person, my woman’s intuition tells me that they are sketchy.
+1
The world is not made of puppies, rainbows and other assorted happy shit.
Get an ID or a baby or something. You can’t trust everyone.
WHAT!?
word, I generally ask for a wallet, just to be safe. generally a line like “I dont let people ride my bikes with wallets in their pockets” gets the message across clearly.
For me this message is, “I’m jacking you.”
I’ve never sold a bike on CL, but I have bought two.
The first one, I left my bag with my camera in it and the second time I left my ID and debit card.
Both guys had me meet them at their house.
A buddy of mine was selling a motorcycle in Sacramento a few years back. Possible buyer met him at his house when he got home from work. Showed him the bike, and the dude left him the keys to his car that was parked at the end of the driveway, to start his test ride. As he was pulling off my buddy noticed that the guys wallet was falling out of his pocket. When he told him, the dude asked him to hold it during the test ride. Test-drive dude rides off and my buddy heads inside with the mail. When he gets inside he realizes the the keys are just house keys, looks back out and test-drive dudes car is gone. The wallet was one of those nylon/velcro jobs and was empty. Super tint windows kept my friend from seeing dude #2 waiting in the car… Got the bike back in really bad shape 2 weeks later and the guy got arrested… still a pain! Be careful!
i tend to trust people. sometimes it bites you in the ass, but hell, there are times when i want people to trust me and i’d like to believe in karma. never had an issue w/ bikes i’ve sold on CL and i sell/buy often.
All Karma aside. I knew this guy back in the day, who used to look through the Motorcycle trader and hunt bikes down. He would show up having a buddy drop him off at the house. 1 block before the house he would stash a helmet behind some bushes. He would test drive the bike with no helmet, this would put the owner at ease a bit. Thinking he wouldn’t go far without a helmet for the fear of getting pulled over. He would return grab his helmet and fuck off back to his house and start tearing it down. I guess the morale to the story is get some form of ID. There are some bastards out there that’s for sure.
Strange. When I buy or sell bikes in th classifieds here in Stockholm, I only once came across a non-truster who wanted to hold my bag. (He didn’t know, but it was packed with money that I had withdrawn for some reason).
Also, it seems to be a looked on as rude if you count the wad of cash. I never do, and no-one has when I have bought something. I guess the idea is that you shouldn’t do business at all with people you don’t trust. I don’t know how this applies outside of bicycling.