I want to have a motorcycle salvage

My dream retirement business would be to have a motorcycle salvage. I have read up on it, but it sure isnt as easy as it sounds.money and location.always the 2 obstacles. land prices are only affordable in remote rural areas. I live in the dfw metroplex.home to 7 million people. On my research i found out
1.the land you buy has to be zoned ok for salvage.It cant just be at your farmhouse
2.there is liability of someone getting injured on the property if you allow them in the yard,You pretty much have to have your inventory on computer and go pull and bring it to the office for their purchase.All auto salvage lots i have been to a person can wasde through the wrecks and pull their own
3.Your parts have liability.You sell a swingarm and somehow it is related to a later crash your part can be blamed.
4.you have to worry about thieves
5.if you have employees what will be their pay
6.you need to have a great mechanic working for you.They need to understnad engines and mc parts in general to talk to customers, or when someone brings a salvage bike in wanting to sell it
7.you need to know about auctions ,how to be an insider on really good deals.On first name basis with insurance companies.I had a honda shadow with only 400 miles on it because an idiot crashed into me.If i had connections i could have bought it back for $50.

Thats what i have learned so far.It looks like ebay is the best way except for a website and customer inquiry on parts availability.It seems that a salvage would be a potential huge business.There is one such place in garland texas.I would like to ask them questions but they would think I am a competitor.

 

I saw a post last yr here in Wisconsin for a turn key MC salvage yard. There is one now in Montgomery AL for $250K to $500K. The two I saw were turn key, everything in place you just pay for it and take it over.

Best of luck on your research and best of luck on what ever you plan on doing.

 

thanks tim

 

Look for an existing ware house keep everyhing in doors . Hire the homeless to strip down and catalog what you have. Hire some young kid to put parts with pictures on line. Advertise everywhere and a clean part sells alot better than a dirty part. Good luck in your endevor

 

maybe a conversation with chacal would help you out he sells new and USED parts.
the ability to repair parts like blinkers with cut wires would help. also be willing and able to test parts.
I dislike the ebay ads "came off a running bike "
for what used parts sell for you can not put to much labor into the removal and testing.
the more people you have to hire the less you will make.
a good way to go would be fixing bikes to sell and using parts bike to fix them then sell the extra parts.
heat you garage with a used motor oil furnace.
get some 55 gallon drums to throw all the nuts and bolts in that you do not want to sell to to sell as scrap metal

search out parts data bases to see what prices are for things and what parts are not available.

have the photo booth aside of your disassembly area. photo catalog and bin store parts as you remove them then post your ads.

big thing would be the salvage yard network there are people out there who just find the parts from other yards arrange the sale for a share of the money.

 

this site is ok for parts, costly and is in a network for sales
http://www.drumhillcycle.com/Used_Yamaha_Parts/fuseaction/ListProducts/classid/121610

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
get some 55 gallon drums to throw all the nuts and bolts in that you do not want to sell to to sell as scrap metal
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
when I was restoring an old cx500 a lot of years ago, "it came in 4 boxes", the hardest parts to find were the bolts, to put it all together.
because they had all been thrown away, and so had all the breakers ones.
put the bolts back into the parts.
stu

 

I want to have a motorcycle salvage
specialize, like Chacal and this guy https://www.beemerboneyard.com/ they know the bikes and parts inside and out. once someone knows that you know more than they do he keeps coming back

 

Great ideas.really good ideas.

 

these are great ideas and web links. You guys may have never heard of Yambits. But these guys make parts that are usually trivial and require hours of searching in a salvage yard.Their reproduction parts are identical to the originals. They are amazing craftsmen and engineers.

 

the comment about including the bolts with the part is huge.This bike I am working on was in pieces, plastic tubs,etc. I didn't know about these bikes then or i would have stopped before i bought anything.He left out the acorn nuts, washers, exhaust stud nuts, the carb holders and bolts and no telling what else i haven't noticed yet.I have bought all the needed parts from chacal. Much of it was unnecessary expense If i had known more about what I was doing. It is also harder reconstructing something that you did not personally disassemble.