to sell or layout ?

[lanman]

i have a 4 year old phatom fu plate and i will be going to the USA for months in june and i dun want to leave my bike here unmaintained.

 

so do you think i should layout the bike or sell it ???

 

i cannot trade in as i will not be in singapore .

 

can anyone suggest what i should do ??

 

thanks

[Strong Eagle]

There are two ways of looking at this. First, you can put the bike up for months with no harm coming to it. Just do some proper maintenance. For example, add a petrol stabilizer to a full tank of petrol and ride/run it until you know the carburators have stabilized petrol in them. Top the tank to prevent mositure build up. Change to fresh oil. Heavily oil the chain... you will need to clean it later. Put the bike up on blocks so the tires do not have to support the bike. Lots of people in the US and Canada do this for months while it is snowing.

 

On the other hand, the Phantom is not exactly a collector's bike. What is the point of keeping it? During the time it is not in use it will continue to depreciate in value. Why not sell it can take the cash? You can always buy another.

 

Of course, you do not say if the bike is on installments. This could make a difference as well. If the sales price of the bike would not cover the payoff, then you need to decide if you can find the cash difference to pay off the loan or whether you would rather keep making payments.

 

I would check what the market is like and if the price is good enough I would sell the bike. If the price is not good enough then store it (I assume you have a covered place to store it that will not cost you money, that is protected from theft and vandalism?).

 

Cheers.