Gone

My bike eventually hit the reserve and sold for £500. I had hoped for more, but I think £500 was fair. It's gone to a good home and the buyer is happy - seemed perfect for what he wanted.
So now, as someone helpfully pointed out, I have a full licence and no bike! I've been tracking a few on ebay but so far nothing has been right.
This would seem like a good time to end this weblog. I've achieved what I set out to - pass my bike test so I'm happy.
Thanks for the advice and encouragement, it honestly helped.
cheers!

£360 - 10 bids - 71 watchers - 1007 page views

Ok, I think the auction is finally starting to move! I added to the description last night, telling everyone the reserve price - I never really know the best way to play ebay, either buying or selling.
I just hope that if people are interested in bidding, they don't leave it too late. I still think it'll make the reserve.

£310 - 7 bids - 63 watchers - 819 page views

1 day 9 hours left on ebay. The bidding seems to have stalled a bit, but there are loads of people watching so I'm still hopeful the XL will at least meet the reserve of £500.
I'm watching quite a few bikes too. There is currently a Yamaha XJ550 for £499 that is really nice. Unfortunately it ends before mine, so I really should wait and see what happens.
Getting quite exciting though.

ebay

I've finally got my bike up on ebay. It took me a while as I wanted to get photos that showed the good and bad points - trying not to give a false impression, but still make people want to buy it.
I also added a page of extras photos here.
It seems to be going pretty well so far. I started the auction last night at 9pm and by this morning there were 4 bids and 19 people 'watching' it. 6 days and 7 hours to go.
I took it for a ride last night, to make sure everything was going as expected and had a nice ride out into the country. The journey back reminded me why I need a bigger bike though - it struggled on the big hills leading back into town. It's really a great bike for buzzing around town, not really for the steep hills around my way.
I'll miss it though, it makes me happy just to look at it - its a cool bike.

Orange Clean Machine

The problem with spending a day cleaning up my bike to take pictures for ebay is that now I can hardly bear to ride it and get it grubby again.
Yesterday I ended up bicycling to the station and nearly killed myself trying to ride home up the hills of Hastings later.
I guess I'll either have to get fit or resign myself to further polishing.
Writing up the ebay sales description is quite tricky. Obviously I want to sell the bike the best way I can by describing it in its full glory with photos to match, but I also want to be sure that people know exactly what they're bidding for - it is 30 years old afterall and does show it's age in places. It's a fine balance.

Moving On.

My XL 125 passed it's MOT today without any work needed. It had a service too, but nothing really came up.
It's a great bike but now seems a good time to get it smartened up and put on ebay. I bought it 2 years ago for £700 and it's maybe suffered a bit from not being garaged, but it'll be perfect for someone to restore or to use, as I've done, to prepare to their test.
It'll be interesting to see what response I get on ebay - how much I get for it will largely dictate how much I have to spend on a replacement. Hopefully there will still be a demand for a classic 125.

On The Road

It's been nearly 2 weeks since I passed my bike test. It was a strange time - quite intense. Looking back now I can see that I made it a lot harder for myself than it needed to be. I built it up and made myself nervous. I created extra problems
I really didn't need - If I'd failed again, it would have been my own fault.
My instructor was excellent and the examiner was also great and tried to put me at ease. The test itself I have to admit, wasn't all that hard.
It's really just a matter of riding around sensibly for half and hour, paying attention to the laws of the road.
I'm sure with good training, virtually anyone could pass in a week from scratch.
It was a strange day. I re-took the test on the same day of the week - Wednesday, same time - 1.33pm. Beforehand, I ate the same meal in the same cafe with the same instructor and other learner who had failed straight after me previously. I had the same examiner and rode the same route. I rode pretty much the same and so when I was standing in the room with the examiner, after the test, waiting to hear the result, I couldn't imagine hearing anything else other than, "I'm sorry, you haven't passed...".
I was amazed and relieved to pass. Happy that it was over and I could get on with the real part of learning to ride well - actually doing it, out on the road, on my own, every day.