Just collected it and it's, er, even better than expected. It is indeed amazingly clean for a 15 year-old bike. The dealer, incidentally, was Sondel in Sidcup. The old Garozzo place. The bike, as the auction said, has a scuff on the right-hand panel and on the exhaust heat shield. There's a tiny crack in the main fairing: so small it's hard to spot. Again, as described, there's a very minor ding in the tank which has been touched in. They were, as I suspected, flogging it because it can't really go on the showroom floor like that. They've put it through the workshop, so it came with new front pads, an oil change, a lubed and adjusted chain, and a brand new MoT. Back tyre looks nearly new. It sounds exactly like a good XT should. Donk-donk-donk-donk-blaaAATT! Downside: the front tyre is legal, no more, and it was backfiring on the over-run. That was traced to an exhaust manifold gasket leak. I said I really wasn't bothered, handed over the cash, and strapped it onto my trailer. I've just dropped it into my local dealer for the gasket and front tyre, as I've two other bikes to fettle and can't be arsed. He ran an eye over it, and said: "You've done really well there..." Which is nice. A mate of his is going to polish out the scratches on the exhaust heat shield, as he has the kit at work, 'for a drink'. and I'll keep an eye open for a decent right-hand panel on eBay, but I'll not be fitting it until *after* the Elefant. In short, I'm bloody pleased. I've got myself a 660 Tenere[1] for the price of a 10-year old Honda CG125[2]. [1] Spreads fingers and thumb of right hand wide in Sign Of Holy Five Valves. [2] Makes Sign of Holy Pushrods.
