Superbike - free to anyone honest

One of the tribulations of the recent upheavals in my life is the nigh-impossibility of selling my motorbike. I was elated to get it six years ago, but I haven't used it much and now I don't want to. I tried to sell it in January and had two near-takers who both changed their minds. 

I tried again in March and learnt a lot about scams. (Basically, people claim to be desperate to have the bike, unseen, and offer to transfer the money to me and get someone to collect the bike on their behalf. The scam is that the money is 'transferred' through a fake PayPal account that tells me the money is in my account when it isn't. The clue that it's a scam is that the initial contact is almost immediately after the ad goes live and it says 'I am interested in your item. Is it still available?' Note 'item', not 'bike'.) I checked online and didn't fall for it.

In May I offered it free to a key worker and got no response.

I advertised it again yesterday. After March's experience I regard all contacts with deep suspicion. The twist this time is that yesterday's 'interested in your item' responder actually wanted to come and see it. From London. We arranged a time and he deferred and deferred, saying the trains were delayed. I checked live train times. No trains into Oxford from London were delayed. 

I was sure that this was the March scam with an unknown twist but four hours later than promised he turned up (almost certainly not from London) with a battered bike helmet as a prop. I showed him how easily the bike started and he asked if he could sit on it. I agreed, as two allies and I stood in front of him. After telling me how much he liked the bike, he decided the engine did not run smoothly. Any slight hiccup there might have been was because a cold engine was running on low revs, but actually it is a very responsive and reliable runner. He wanted half an hour to think about it. 40 minutes later he texted me very politely to say he couldn't buy it because of the engine but thanks for my time. 

I fully expect that having 'won my trust', he will contact me tomorrow, say he's changed his mind, that he'll transfer the money by PayPal and that a friend will collect it. Oh no they won't! 

Meanwhile, Case no. 2 has asked for my phone number to 'talk about the bike' rather than use the chat facility on the site where I have advertised it.

In much happier news, Son and I worked out how pulleys work in order to make the washing line load feel lighter and then installed the new double pulley I got today. And we made the frame for a spice rack that I have designed out of wood offcuts. Shelves will be added tomorrow. Manufacturing over commerce any day.