You've seen it before. That sad face, just looking at you from the other side of the computer screen. Maybe he's sitting in a puddle of his own fluids, looking sad and dejected and like he's not sure who to trust. His forks might be leaking; his fairings might be scratched to hell; and his headlight might be busted.
Oh, and turn signals? What even are those?
In particularly sad cases of moto neglect, the specimen in question might even have a seat cover that looks like it was last serviced by Freddy Krueger. And that tangled, sad rat's nest you call a wiring harness might just be enough to elicit a Wilhelm scream as you're scrolling through the photo carousel on the listing you're perusing. I'm not shuddering; you're shuddering!
The good: The guys at BigTime managed to score a pretty sweet deal on a Yamaha YZF-R1M, getting what would've been a US $30K bike when new for around a third of the price by picking it up via a Copart auction.
The bad: Bikes don't usually end up on Copart because they're in pristine condition. This one, unsurprisingly, had clearly been crashed. And beyond that, it showed evidence of having been stolen in the past. Whoever had it last also appears to have spent a small amount of money on go-fast parts to trick it out, which seemed like they came from Alibaba or maybe Temu instead of reputable places. The exhaust canister might say it's an Akrapovič, but it appears to be a bootleg sticker on a fake system that isn't really worthy of the bike that it's been installed on.
But you can fix him, right? Right. And that's exactly what the BigTime boys do, wasting no time in setting up appointments with their buddies over at Graves Motorsports to treat this bike to the kind of care (and parts) that it truly deserves. Honestly, you love to see it. Good-quality, well-considered parts going on this machine after it gets a thorough cleanup (both inside and out) is its own kind of life-affirming content, you know?
Since they're based in SoCal, these guys haven't had to take a break from riding because there's ice on the ground. But if you have (as I have, though there've been definite reprieves here and there), then take about 20+ minutes to live vicariously through them and plan your next moves with your own bike. Or plan for your next project bike; whatever works!
