I know that many of the people who visit this site also use eBay and I wanted to pass along a cautionary tale. Sorry if this is a little long, but some explanation is necessary.

As you may realize from looking around this site, many of the modifications I made to my YZF were either unique (paintwork) or difficult to reproduce (custom parts made in Japan and not imported in the US and no longer manufactured) or parts that I made myself. All of these modifications made this bike rather unique. However, when I sold it in August 2000 to buy an R1 nobody was interested in paying what I wanted for the bike with all the modifications, so I removed many of the custom parts and sold them off separately to individuals around the world. Many of the people that I sold these parts to still own their bikes, and the parts I sold them. The bike was then sold off, basically stock.

So, with the stage set, let's jump to October 2002. In late October, a friend from the Thunderace listserv e-mailed me to ask if I had seen a particular eBay auction, for a YZF1000R that looked a lot like my old one. I took a look and was amazed to find that someone had used the pictures from this site as part of their auction -- not new pictures of my old bike, but the pictures I took in 1999 with all the modifications in place. Worse yet, they listed all the modifications from this site as the description in the auction. I wouldn't say it would be impossible to re-create my old bike, but it would be very, very difficult.

I won't say that this seller is trying to defraud anyone with this auction, but there are a few 'issues' I'll point out.

First, the pictures used in this auction (mine) were of a very specific motorcycle in 1999. As I mentioned, all the custom goodies they talk about in the auction were removed from my bike in 2000 and sold. As far as I know nobody has re-assembled the same collection of parts. Then there's the interesting fact that this auction is for a "2000 Yamaha YZF1000R" when Yamaha only imported YZF1000Rs into the U.S. in 1997 -- they started with R1s in '98 and never looked back. Also the seller is claiming to be the original owner while I was the second owner of this YZF. I am good friends with the original owner and he has nothing to do with this auction either. The serial number listed as part of the auction is not the same as the serial number on the Thunderace I owned and sold in 2000. A friend looked up the VIN specified in the auction and it is for a 1997 YZF1000, but he couldn't find any more information. Oh, and the seller is apparently in Hong Kong while the bike is listed for sale in Missouri.

I'm not saying this is a fraudulent auction, I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

This auction has been listed at least three times. The last time was as a private auction, with bidder's identities 'protected' so they can't be warned of potential problems with this auction. So now I'm forced to file a copyright infringement complaint with eBay. I will file similar copyright infringement complaints with eBay against any seller that uses images from this site as part of their auction.

So why am I telling you all this? Just as a cautionary tale. I've used eBay for a while now and have had generally good experiences as both a buyer and seller, and I'll probably continue to use the service, but this experience really casts a troubling shadow over the whole process. I would warn anyone interested in buying a big ticket item that it may not be what it seems and to contact the seller and verify the item as much as possible.

As always, caveat emptor.

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I no longer have a Thunderace, so these pages are updated as I have time.  They are an ongoing work in progress and reflect my own personal thoughts.  If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a line.

This page last updated: November 2, 2002