For a motorcycle owner, seller’s remorse is one of the worst emotions you can experience. It’s much worse than buyer’s remorse, which can always be remedied by selling whatever it is that you regret buying (you might lose some cash, but at least you won’t have to keep staring at that annoying hunk of metal that you bought on impulse, or that turned out to be a piece of crap, oryou get the picture). But seller’s remorsethe only way to remedy that is to somehow get back whatever you regret selling. And how often does that happen, right?
Well, my friends, that’s the theme of our storya good old-fashioned case of seller’s remorse. You see, within mere days of Steve Goushian selling the Triumph chopper you’re looking at right now (it looked different then, but we’ll get to that in a minute), that familiar gut-wrenching feeling that all seller’s remorse sufferers are all too familiar with began to take hold. Then came that thoughtthat terrible, horrible thought:
Man, I should have never gotten rid of that bike!
But, wait, you’re saying to yourself. He got the bike back, right? I mean, there it is! So this story must have a happy ending!
True that. But let’s start at the beginning. Otherwise, the story won’t be nearly as cooltrust me.
Once upon a time, Steve’s buddy Larry wanted a Triumph chopper, andluckily for LarrySteve likes to build bikes.
I’ve been doing it for about 15 years. I love to tinker; it keeps me sane, Steve chuckled.
So Steve took a trip down to his local Brit bike specialty shop, Morrisville Cycle, where the owner, Herb Roberts, sold him a ’63 650 Triumph motor to mate up with the ’66 loop, frontend, bolt-on hardtail, and other assorted goodies Steve had laying around his garage among his many finds. During the build, he also fabbed up some custom parts and painted the tank and rear fender. Pretty soon, it was all ready for Larry to ride home.
The bike turned out nice, Steve explained, but all the handmade thingsthe pipes, the sissy bar, the T-barsnever made it to chrome. I also wasn’t that happy with the copper color I’d chosen for it, but it was still a really cool bike.
So the bike was ready to go, but there was one minor problem. Larry had hit a stretch of bad luck, and he didn’t have the cash to take it off Steve’s hands.
Rather than selling the bike to his friendor keeping it, for that matterSteve put an ad on Craigslist.
I sold it to a kid who kept it for a while, then sold it to another guy, Steve explained. At that point, I figured I’d never see that bike again.
Goodbye bike, hello seller’s remorse.
But wait, here comes the cool part.
It turns out Steve was wrong about never seeing that bike again. Because one day while browsing eBay looking for parts, what should happen to turn up but the tank, rear fender, bolt-on hardtail, sissy bar, exhaust, and T-bars of that bike he’d wished he’d never sold.
It turns out the guy the kid had sold the bike to blew the motor. At that point he decided to get the engine rebuilt and turn the bike into a bobber, so the chopper parts were useless to him. Luckily, I was able to buy about 80 percent of the bike back from him, Steve said happily.
Now, let’s face itthat’s an opportunity that comes along once in a blue moon! Being the bright young man that he is, Steve decided to make the most of it.
I had always regretted selling that bike, so when I got the parts back, I decided to take it to the next level, Steve explained. I had the frame powdercoated, and everything that needed chrome got it. All the other pieces were either polished or painted.
As for that copper color Steve wasn’t so jazzed with?
This time around, I promised myself I was going to paint it right. The metallic black with silver flake panels turned out great; I couldn’t be happier with the end result.
Like so many builders out there who, when they get the jones, sell their latest creation to finance the next one, will Steve be parting with his Trump in the near future, or has his brush with seller’s remorse taught him a lesson?
I think that when I’m ready for my next project, I’m gonna scrape my pennies together so I can hold onto her, Steve laughed. Now that I have her back, I don’t think I’ll be letting her go again. SC