Last night I went with my mate Jonnie to look at a 24 model Fantic XEF Trail for him with supposedly low hrs. The Facebook pics were good, it showed a bike in great nick. Jonnie confirmed with the seller on his asking price (2500) and miles (760/32hrs). In theory its worth at the top 4000 - This model is only 5k new, but they lose their value fast. So if you are in the deep valleys with no buyers you can see how you might drop the price to sell. The one thing Jonnie did not get from the seller was the number plate, plus seller didn't want BACS, cash only. How stupid is that, soo easy to get palmed off with fake notes, if I sell I want bank transfer only. This had Jonnies spidey sense tingling, I was trying to be more charitable. After 2.5 hrs driving into the valleys we arrived to find a wreck of a bike, the only low miles bit was a very shiny speedo unit. The rest of it was faded and cracked plastics, corrosion, scratched fork outers and a ripped seat. And it had not been cleaned for at least a year. Within 30 seconds we questioned the miles/use and then he said "I'll be honest, I've had an offer for 2900, and I'd be a fool to sell for 2500 as advertised." This was an obvs ploy to make us think 2500 was a bargain, when in fact the bike was next to worthless. I don't think I would have let Jonnie buy it no matter what price. So we said oh thanks for wasting our time and money and got in the van to go. Then as expected, he 'relented' and said we could have it for 2500 as advertised. Now I don't really object to BS attempts at Jedi mind tricks as I am no fool, so the crap about a 2900 offer etc as an attempt to stop us under offering is all fair play. But fundamentally the bike looks nothing like the advert pictures, it was probably worth 1000 at most, if you wanted to take it on. It was actually quite a good example of how to take a nearly new bike and make its value plummet as hard and fast as possible without actually setting it on fire or crashing it into a pillar in a tunnel. And it pissed us off to spend 5hrs return trip and £100 in fuel to be presented with an all out lie. So we just left. We had seen and remembered the number plate and checking on the gov website for MOT checker etc shows the number does not even exist, so I imagine the promised V5 would suddenly be lost. In a way it was a good lesson to remind you not to get sucked in to 'too good to be true', it was very cheap for the supposed miles and condition. Plus, trust your gut, Jonnie said it didn't feel quite right.
So I have revised my buying rules:
Recent pictures. Number plate. Image of V5, redacted. Bank transfer only. Engine must be cold on arrival. Let the seller know that you tend to walk away when things don't feel right. This is hard to achieve as you need to stay friendly, but it needs to come across somehow...
I would like to know what your rules are? What gets your spidey sense tingling?
-- Edited by wlm on Thursday 24th of September 2026 04:13:12 PM
