August 9, 2011 Update

It's been a while since I gave you all an update on the work going on with Steve Wadha's Excellent CB919 Honda Hornet. It's been determined that the bike was in a major crash on the right side and a less serious one on the left side. Here's a list of the Damage and what we did about it:

1. Damaged Fuel tank. Crunched on both sides and right rear. Ordered new one!
2. Scuffed Front Fender. Installed new one. 
3. Broken and damaged tail cowl. Installed new one. 
4. Both Rear View mirrors scuffed badly. Installed new ones.
5. Instrument holder is deeply scuffed/gouged. We'll try to grind down, smooth out and paint it. A new one is $68.00 so we'll try to repair this one.   
6. Handlebar end weights missing. Installed new ones. 
7. Stock stainless steel exhaust system heavily rusted and discolored. Removed it and used electric drill with wire brush to clean it up. Re-installed with new gaskets. Very difficult to do as some of the exhaust header studs are bent from crash damage. 
8. In the process of removing the exhaust we had to remove the radiator. Discovered that it is not the stock unit ( What a surprise! ) and that its top mounting point was attached with the striker plate from a door (like in your house) and a nut an bolt. Pictures are posted but you had to see this to believe it. I'll get a proper mount fabbed up in no time. What a hack job. Thank God for JB Weld! 
9. In the eBay ad Steve goes to great length to tell you that he had "New Disc Brakes Installed!" . Right........He had new pads installed up front and the fluid replaced. Terrific. Forgot the back brakes which he obviously used a lot as most amateurs do. The pads were almost down to the metal backing plate so we replaced them. 
10. Signals and rear lights not working. Wires were just dangling under the bike. The after market signal had a huge screw stuck in it to hold the lense on. Trashed those and part of the fender eliminator. 
11. Replaced the clutch cover. Too badly damaged to repair. Will sand down and paint the alternator cover. 
12. Bike has aftermarket footpegs on it because the stock ones were undoubtedly ruined in one of the two crashes that this bike was involved in. The aftermarket footpegs are the boy racer style which is ok until it gets wet out but they had not installed the return springs to make them go back down if they folded up. Installed new springs and will be keeping an eye out for a set of original footpegs. 

Been a bit more work and a lot more expense than I planned but as soon as the new tank arrives we'll be ready to ride. That's assuming the JB Weld holds the radiator mounting tab on . 

The purpose of this blog is two fold. First, to show everyone what a reprehensible person Steven Wadha is and more importantly to serve as an example to my friends and anyone who reads this blog of what can go wrong with buying a bike seen on eBay. I made my call to Steven Wadha after the bike no saled on eBay and made my deal directly with him. 

BIG WRONG AND MISTAKE #1-If I had bought the bike on eBay as it was presented I would have had the recourse to make him take the bike back and get a refund because of all the misrepresentations he made. Lesson: Buy it thru eBay! 

Mistake #2-Never take a persons word. Make them send you pictures. Lots of pictures. I made the mistake of taking a man's word and it cost me a lot of money to correct all the things that he said were excellent on the bike. I should have asked for more pictures and if I had seen what the bike really looked like I would have either negotiated the price down or bought something else.