Serious project bike. Marketplace listing. Pretty wild!

Wasn't there a gopro video of a guy sliding off a cliff on a ktm and into the water a couple years ago? Not sure if the time line adds up

"In some ways it's actually been preserved!" 

Whatever you say buddy!

Tires look good, $50!

I can’t see much of anything that would be salvageable on that thing.  Wow!

The tires aren't roached, so there is that.

Honestly other then time I bet it wouldn’t cost a ton to get that going again. 

To be fair, it is a better buy than half the rubbish I see on marketplace...

Best I could do is three fiddy

I guess there is less than 1k in parts to change to make it almost brand new ; so for someone knowing how to go through the whole bike correctly, it is a great value, especially for an enduro.

I think the same Soggy. 

Break the thing to pieces and dress everything and you will have a pretty good bike in the end.

All the expensive shit would be sitting in oil and coated with grease so.......a diassemble, good cleanup and put her back together...a little time and a little money will give you a great bike.

Exactly. I'm a mechanic and I'd jump on that if I was closeby. 

 Hey Boomslang : 

 Are you aware of the 'PZ490' Project by Team Matjien?

SA made open class 2 stroke engine project. 

You can find videos about it on YT, under Team Matjien and RIDEFAST - DIRT & TRAIL.

Nope Bear and thank you for the heads up. I've heard about Team Matjien and I'll go check out the links. Thanks bud, always nice to see what folk dabble with..

If it was closer to me, I'd be all over it. I own a sandblaster, vapor blaster and a Cerakote setup. Of course, I would frame the bike but hopefully it would be just bearings and an engine gasket set. My guess is you could get it running and looking good for half the cost of what you could sell it for. 

Hey bud, I'm convinced that most, if not all bearings will be ok. It was fresh water...even with the natural chems found in fresh water the bearings, if they were maintained correctly would only require a cleanup and re-grease.

Someone close to the unit can double their investment. Without a doubt.

My concern is why was it left in there so long...was it stolen and dumped? How was it found?

Or did the tool who dropped it in there to damn lethargic to get it out...that it took him a year?

I'm with you, I think most of it would be clean and inspect. My guess on why it was left so long is that it was down a big ravine and was tough to get equipment or manpower to. Of course, you can't rule out if it was hot without running the VIN through the local popo. I actually messaged the guy; he says the side covers are missing in the ad and my concern is did they destroy the actual engine cases while freeing it. Cases are $1600 which makes it tougher to make work. If it's a couple timeserts to fix screw holes that wouldn't be a problem but cases may be tougher. 

To be fair he does say in the listing it was a proper mission to get it out... Guessing it would have to be somewhere absolutely wild to leave it there for that long though, makes you wonder?

If you can't even get a utv or a 4x4 in there to pull it out, I'd love to see pics of where it was haha.

Looks like it's very close to me.

I am just curious about the situation. So someone got their bike stuck in the mud, hiked out and was like, meh, I will get around to retrieving this relatively new bike sometime in the near future. Then over a year goes by before you get around to it. That is nuts.

It is, without a doubt, a very bloody strange story. 

We have guys bring stuff like that in and want me to "get it running"...lol. Then seem shocked when I give them the bad news. You can for sure bet some idiot is going to buy that. 

I wonder if it was a stolen bike dumped in a creek and then the seller found it.

No, I have enough projects. 

I'll be out of town until next week, but if it's still around I might go have a look and maybe do a little investigating. 

Arlington is known for its unforgiving terrain lol

My guess is they were on a riding trip, the bike got dumped into a ravine, and they had to plan a trip back to retrieve it with people and implements. Hopefully there wasn't a human attached when it went over the edge.

Yeah, can't think of any place around here. 

I don’t think the story is to crazy. I’ve ridden places where your bike falls in you may never get it back. We’ve used helicopters to get bikes out but some people don’t have a few thousand dollars for a helicopter ride laying around 

My guess would be sellers friend got it stuck, put in a claim, bike was unsalvagable due to its location. He got the tip and pulled it out after the dust settled. Something along those lines.

Just like a fossil!