09/12/2025
There’s a lot of lessons learned behind this picture.
Throw back to 2016 when I bought a 2006 Suzuki M109R off Craigslist for $3000. My intent was to flip it considering I already had a blue M109R. I used essentially all the money I had to get this bike with not much room for error. I really looked at this as a quick turn around. Owner mentioned no issues and the bike had low mileage around 4000 miles so everything checked out. My uncle and I drove over 2 hours so I wasn’t coming home without something!
The owner pulled up on the bike and asked if I wanted to test ride it. I declined because I figured, hey, I have one at home so no need. I know what to expect, right? Plus, I talked the owner down from $4000 so I figured I was getting a deal and wanted to close before the owner switched the price.
Smiling like a kid on Christmas, I rode away knowing I was gonna flip this thing. An easy $1k at least!
Riding the bike for a bit, all seemed good. Then.. I got to the light, hit it hard from 1st and felt the transmission drop from second back to neutral. Nothing I couldn’t control and I thought nothing else of it beyond a false neutral.
Fueled up, got on the highway. Hit it hard on the entry ramp.. revs go up again and back to neutral it went.
At this point, I realize something ain’t right. Getting the bike home, I confirmed my suspicion and of course it’s the dreaded 2nd gear failure of early model M109Rs. Under hard acceleration in 1st gear, the shift forks don’t fully engage 2nd and it drops back to neutral. The only fix… breaking the engine down and replacing the worn transmission components. These engines have the transmission inside the crankcase so it’s crazy labor intensive. Shop quote?… $3000
At this point, I realized why this bike was so cheap. I got.. got. And of course, this was my own fault. Imagine if I paid the original $4000. 😬
I didn’t have the skills at the time to open this engine up so.. I cut my loss and sold it for.. $3000. However, I was open about the issue this bike had which made it difficult to sell. I could have ventured in fixing it myself or paying the shop, but I factored in how much I would’ve had to sell the bike to breakeven… which would’ve been $6000 at least for a bike that was going on 10 years old. A hard sell.. Eventually, I found a guy and drove over 3 hours to deliver it. A guy that could fix the issue I couldn’t. I lost well over $3000 on this bike but at least it went to someone that could get it right.
All that to say, research… skill up. Also, if possible, ride it before ya buy it. That is the only way to reveal what isn’t being told. Of course, having the skills to know what to look for and the resources to get anything done. Maybe I’d offer $2000 after test riding that bike but I wouldn’t realize the issue until driving over 2 hours to get it. I wasn’t leaving without something! In this case, maybe I should have.
Who knows. Clearly.. I was happy to be in it either way.
