Why I prefer cash & carry sale ?

I am a person of strong conviction and I want the people who buy ATV from me to be 100 % satisfied getting value for their money and not 95 %. That can happen only with pre delivery inspection and one to one talk. My hearing problem prevents long telephonic discussion. That is one of the main reason I want people to take delivery from my farm.

I am not a businessman. For two full years and till my faithful Blue ATV clocked more than 250 hours – I was not willing to sell the spare ATV to anybody as I wanted to be certain about the quality. Only after that I was ready to sell but by then initial euphoria had died down. I am not making too much effort to sell.

I keep getting mail from interested people in distant places. Negotiating the packing and forwarding ATVs is too much of burden for me right now. So I am giving this explanation here instead of individual replies.

Sending to a faraway person involves numerous tasks. First I have to get packing material and fabricate a box. Then have to pay VAT, maybe Rupees 5000 @ 12.5 % of 40 K at commercial tax office and get the receipt to facilitate smooth transport. Then I have to take it to lorry office for booking. All this will cost some money. With my rock-bottom price, I don't want to add expenses. Being partially handicapped, I cannot move around easily. All these work as well as expenses will be absent while giving on cash and carry basis.

Right now I have three surplus pieces and some visitors are expected soon to have a look. If there is a sale, it will certainly be mentioned here. The first machine to go out will be cheapest and I expect little more for latter pieces.

My farm location can be seen from following links : http://osm.org/go/yyYtmAM-- openstreet link & http://ow.ly/4LKBs leads to wikimapia

More info on surplus ATVs offered

I am getting numerous mail from faraway states regarding ATV. Some people are keen to have more than one piece. So here are more details on different ATVs.

BLUE – ONE - I have extensively used this both in farm and in seashore- Not for sale.

BLUE - TWO - only unpacked. Never poured fuel into fuel tank.

RED- Started once but have not used.  SOLD

GREEN - only unpacked. Never poured fuel into fuel tank

YELLOW - have removed carburetor and connecting hose. Can be made ready by getting components from market. Fuel never poured into the tank.

They will need 12 V 9 Ah battery worth 1200 INR. Otherwise should be ok. Any herohonda mechanic should be able to get it ready. Electric components like plug, CD units are same as herohonda.

I have so far not agreed to the offers that require packing and dispatch as I prefer cash and carry deal. They are CHEAP and good value for money.

Surplus ATV for SALE

I have three unused ATVs in my godown. I had to get five as my Chinese manufacturer, supplier at last moment said, minimum order quantity was five and I wanted one very urgently. The available colours are red, blue and green.

Right now I am not using ATV much due to further downturn in farm activities. My anti global warming beliefs also plays a role in this.

I am now moving around in a electric assist tricycle. My trike is unique that can accept energy inputs both from pedals and battery. You can see more on this in my blog. http://e-triking-india.blogspot.com/

So the ATVs are available for sale at my COST PRICE, on as is where is basis. Sorry  All SOLD   My place is 45 km from Mangalore which is in West Coast of India. http://ow.ly/4LKBs

ATVs are designed for offroad use with no differential. So they are not suitable for tarmac and are not registered by RTO.

This is very unique opportunity. Rush before they are sold out.

Importing goods into India.

Every week   I get letters   either  asking how much  I paid for ATV in China or  how much import duty was charged by Indian customs.

Many of these enquiries happens to be just for creating nuisance and nothing is going to be achieved by those people. Still I politely used to reply every one of them.

The total amount I paid as cost to ATV manufacturer in China and to Indian customs do not give whole picture. About sixty five percent have been spent under above two headings whereas one third money have been spent to facilitate the transfer. In earlier posting have made a list where you have to spend money.

Here is an example. As I mentioned earlier procedure involved for customs clearance of very small consignment and very big are basically same, the charges may appear to be expensive for small consignment. The agency charges for me was INR 6500 which will be same even for a small consignment.

So importing small consignment hoping to get it bit cheaper is very foolish thinking. We have to import the things if and only if the goods are not available locally or monopoly dealers quote exorbitant prices for that.

Second part of our Seashore trip

Our first seashore expedition was cut short by heavy rainfall and impending darkness. The incomplete part as I saw in wikimaps was very spectacular and on the same day I made up my mind to come back to complete the remaining distance.

Since the remaining portion was very small that can be covered in one hour or a little more, we started from Padubidri coast. We planned to start at three in the evening and visited relatives in the afternoon.

Rohit arrived at rendezvous point in time, accompanied by a TV team from Namma TV. It was bit unexpected by me and immediately we started unloading and got the ATV ready. Anil accompanied by Abhinav was the first team this time also. They were able to make it to Kaup quite fast as they were in familiar terrain.

There is a small stream amidst rocks near Kaup light house and we had to come bit inland to cross that stream. TV team captured some footage near Kaup lighthouse while I was impatient to continue so as to reach Malpe while there was still some light.

Sunil started riding after a while and he applied brakes while taking a turn and result was loose chain jumped the sprocket. I had not tightened the chain very much as sand getting settled on the interior of chain may make result in chain breakage. He was able to correct the problem and resume the journey. We were in mobile phone contact and was taking it easy.

The narrow strip of land between pangala river and sea makes the area very scenic. There is road and few coconut trees plus a house between the river and sea in this area. The famous mattu brinjal grows in place called Mattu around here. The sandy soil gives unique flavour to this brinjal and the rain in late November that cut short our trip did spoil the brinjal crop also.

We reached the endpoint around Six and had ample time to enjoy ATV rides in wide beach. Meanwhile Video team spoke with all of us and little Abhinav and Sunil did speak nicely in front of TV camera.

ATVs in Dakar Rally 2010

I was working on vacation ATV trips for this summer when I came across Dakar Rally story which was in concluding stage. The Dakar requires not only top-notch riding skills, but also endurance, determination, and a lot of preparation. This could be only Rally with so many different varieties of vehicles. Participants on Cars and Bikes get most exposure and media treats the competitors in ATVs, Buggies and Trucks as stepchildren.

The second edition of the Dakar in Latin America ended on 16th January 2010. Only 14 of 25 ATV riders finished the competition. It shows how difficult and demanding the race was. The ATV category was won by Argentine’s Marcos Patronelli. Surprisingly, the second place was taken by his older brother, Alejandro. This year the route in the ATV category was 8,937 kilometers long and divided into 14 stages. Of this 4717 km came under special timed stage and 4220 km under transport / connection stages. Marcos Patronelli was the leader almost all the rally and won 4 of the 14 stages. It took him 64h 17m 44s to go through dunes, camel grass, mud and rocks averaging more than 73 km per hour.

This years winner Marcos Patronelli has this to say - :

One thing is sure: I would never have imagined this, not even in my wildest dreams. It’s incredible that two brothers finish first and second of the same raid! This Dakar was very hard. I cannot say more than that, except that I must thank my team. We are a family pushing hard, doing what it takes. I am also happy for my brother: it’s his first Dakar and he finishes second! Who wouldn’t be proud? The toughest part in this edition is really the stages in Northern Chile: Antofagasta – Copiapo, Iquique – Antofagasta. They were endless and very complicated. Navigation was hard there. We had to be really focused with all the way points. I am thrilled and I think that the fact that two brothers finish first and second is just making history. We will celebrate that!

This video on Marco was made while the Rally was progressing.

Life in the Dakar is tough enough on a bike or in a car, but you have to be an absolute lunatic to endure the pain of doing it on quad. Watch this video and get a behind the scenes look at what they have to endure on a daily basis

This is another good video that gives some ideas about preparing a Yamaha ATV for Dakar Rally. They can carry 47 litres of fuel and the top speed of this ATV is 140 km – these figures gives some more insights about the preparation.

This Rally passed through the very remote areas that can be called middle of nowhere. Here you simply make the tracks as you go. There are no signposts. Apart from the road book that gives instructions on the route, GPS was also extensively used.

A T V Prices need not be so expensive

A month back, on 7th  December 2009 -  kannada daily Vijay karnataka carried a news story on ATVs.  Like most stories in this newspaper, this has attractive sensational packaging but hollow inside when it comes to hard facts. There is considerable misinformation in the story.

ATV is unfortunately having  a bad start in India. This is a versatile machine that can be put to use in numerous ways but this continues to be plaything   limited to rich and famous here. The very small market coupled with fat margins are hindering the market growth.  

I made a honest effort to popularize this. Unfortunately reaching people from remote location is difficult thing. The above story mentions the cost as INR 120 K but it should be never more than 90 to 100K for this machine. Having imported & using past two years, I know what I am talking about. I am sure this can be made available @ 60 percent of the mentioned cost as I mentioned in a earlier blog post and  I have two surplus pieces in stock now. 

There are  committed  dealers in different parts of India who do import and sell the similar machines below or at INR 100 K but rich continue to patronize the dealers who wants to keep the prices HIGH.