Buying An SX200

After the Dot Bomb hit the SF Bay Area there were a lot of people moving out and a lot of deals to be had on CraigsList. I was doing my daily search for scooters and found an SX200 on Craiglist. A rare day indeed!





I emailed the seller and we agreed on a time and place to see the bike. When I first saw the bike the expression "driven hard and put away wet" came to mind. The bike was worn, faded, missing the front grill, leg shield had taken a hit at some point and were poorly welded, the footboards were split, but the parts were all there and looked like they had spent a lot of time together which was a good sign. I checked the engine and frame number and confirmed they were SX200 parts. As I looked around the bike I realized this was a legitimate SX200 that was just worn out and needed some love. The seller told me he had the bike imported from EU (Germany) in a non-running condition when he was flush with .com cash and had a local shop get it running (had the receipts) when he got laid off. He told me him and his girlfriend were selling everything and moving to Canada! The next day I paid the seller $2800 for the bike and drove home on my new SX200!



After a few months of riding my SX200 around SF the clutch finally went out. Instead of fixing the clutch and continuing to have fun I decided to strip the bike down for a restoration. I told myself it wouldn't be very hard and would take less than a year. Yea..I'm stupid.

Next: Disassembly