Quite recently I decided that it had been many years since my last bike and that I would like to get another one. The obvious choice for me was to see if I could get a Maico 490 but they are hard to find in a resonable price range. The Maico is usually sold in mint condition completely rebuilt and depending on the year and quality can go for about $2,500 to $5,000 and up. I didn't want to get a completely junked bike since that would cost me more in shipping than the bike is worth and I would have to take time to rebuild. I also didn't want to get a mint condition bike since I would feel bad when I would go to ride it and scratch it all up. I was looking for a decent riding bike and not a fixer-upper or a show pony.

I noticed a bike on Ebay that was rebuilt but not in mint condition and was reasonably priced for such a bike. The seller claimed that the bike had over $2,000 invested with a completely rebuilt motor. I will actually let the ad and description speak for itself and I have placed a picture of the ad below.

Click the image for large view.

I bid on the bike and at first I just had one question about the 'Yahama Rod and Piston'. I was wondering what kind of kit this was and what was the bore in relation to stock. The seller didn't know and gave the answer that it was some type of upgrade. I don't know whether that's true or not however after some debate I kept bidding anyway. I figured since MAICO parts are hard to find it didn't seem unreasonable to change the bore out to something that was cheaper and easily found. I eventually won the auction for $1,850 and I sent a check of $300 for the deposit. I found a shipping company that appeared to be used by other ebay users to ship bikes and sent Brian this information.

Brian eventually responded with the amount the shipping company was charging $747 so I sent a check with the rest of the money which was $2,297 ($2,597 total). I waited several weeks and Brian would not respond to emails. I gave some leeway though as I figured it is Christmas afterall he could be quite busy. Though as busy as he may be he was not too busy as to cash the check I sent a few days after I sent it.

I eventually got a hold of him a few weeks later and he was finializing the shipping and said that they should be picking it up within a few weeks. Those few weeks past without a word so I decided to ping him to see what was going on. Brian said that the shipping company was at fault and had not contacted him yet for pick up. He was thinking about going with another shipping company and would let me know the following week. Brian also mentioned something a bit strange. He said that the bike didn't have any spark! I thought, the bike is rebuilt with a bran new magneto but there's no spark? Brian said his buddy had put the bike together and didn't worry about the spark since he never rides anyway. He also mentioned that the only part that wasn't new would be the coil.

The ad didn't mention this however I would let this slide I thought. I've had coils tested before thats no big deal and getting electrical to work on a two stroke isn't that complicated. One time I took a magneto and CDI unit from a 1981 CR250, drilled holes into it and mounted it successfully on a 1976 CR250 that originally used points. This should be no big deal however the scary part was that if someone can't get electrical to work they probably don't know what they are doing. This was the first sign of trouble and I knew I should inspect the bike was put together correctly when I recieve it.

The following week I was contacted by the shipping company who said that the bike would be shipped to me within 21 days. Finally I thought, the first bike I would not have to tear apart and rebuild in anyway. I've owned over ten dirt bikes and I've never once not had to tear it apart and fix something after I've bought it.

Those 21 days past and I eventually got the Maico 490 however there was something strange about the bike. The truck driver who delivered the bike kept wanting to talk to me about the old bikes from the 80s it however my mind was elsewhere. I put my hand on the kick starter to feel the compression and two things struck me. The first was the lack of compression the bike had along with a noise in the cylinder. I knew I had to get the bike in the garage to check it out as fast as possible. The truck driver couldn't fit into my neighborhood so I had to push the bike for two blocks to my garage.

I got the bike into my garage and I thought of two possiblities. The first is that the bike has no compression perhaps because the compression release is stuck open. The cable to the compression release was broken after all and the bike is supposed to have been rebuilt. The next thing I thought was the noise in the cylinder is kind of a scrapping sound. I better not move the kicker too much because maybe they didn't put any 2-cycle into the cylinder when they put the bike together. That would be an amture mistake but quite possible. However, the guy who 'supposedly' put this bike together was Brian's friend who is "Chief Petty Officer in the Navy and Figher Jet Mechanic" is the one who put it together.

I took a look down into the cylinder through the spark plug hole. The top of the piston was shiney so perhaps it was rebuilt and the problems I described above are really only what's wrong. I thought about taking the head off the cylinder and I gave my friend Mark a call. Mark suggested the same thing, its no big deal and would be a quick check of the bike without taking the whole cylinder off. I took the cylinder off and the pictures below are what I found. The pictures are links you can click for a larger image.

The head is full of carbon build up. Who rebuilds a dirt bike and doesn't clean the head?

The scores on the cylinder are easily seen by the naked eye, this is the rear.

The scores on the cylinder are easily seen by the naked eye, this is the front.

The light reflected on top of the piston shows scratch marks which are obviously from cleaning the carbon off to make it appear new.

I used just my finger and felt around the clyinder after I took the head off. The clyindar is completely screwed and needs either another bore or resleeve. The head shows a lot of carbon build up and the piston was obviously just cleaned off to appear new. I put my finger on top of the piston and I could slap it around in the cylindar so either this piston was too small for the bike or the clyindar is oval now and needs the bore/resleeve. I thought that if this is how 'Navy Man' rebuilds fighter jets we're pretty much screwed in the war on terror!

This is basically when it was confirmed... I HAD BEEN SCAMMED ON EBAY BY BRIAN EGGENBERG!

I immediately took the photos and sent him an email detailing what I had found. I wasn't sure what to expect, perhaps there is some magical way that he didn't know the bike was blown up. There's a chance he still believed in Santa Clause and pranced around in a pink leotard. I would know for sure if he ever contacted me back or attempted to ignore me. I decided to go further so I took off the cylinder and peered at the piston and crank.

The piston looks pretty burnt up to me. The rings are even stuck inside the piston.

Definately burnt up piston, scratch marks look like they match the clyinder.

The crank looks like it has some kind of sand in it.

The piston is definately blown and has burn marks on the sides. The lines and grooves on the side of the piston look like the match the clyinder and the rings are locked into the piston. Yup, this bike is blown. The cause looks like someone was dumb enough to run without enough 2 cycle oil. This goes against the ad as it states the bike never had gas in the tank since rebuild. The bike was blown up since the rebuild! My friend and I joked that the guy is so dumb that he just bought new stickers for a blown bike and the ad should have read "Bike Blown up, so bought new stickers. No gas in tank since new stickers". It is quite obvious that the owner of the bike knew pretty much zero about bikes and taking care of them.

The stuff that is in the bottom of the crank? This appears to be sand of some sort and it is in the crank bearings. This is what the noise I had heard actually was. The sand could be from when they probably cleaned the piston head off and all the junk fell into the crank or it could be from sand blasting. The picture of the bike in the ad shows a lot of cars in that garage, its possible sand from sand blasting got into the motor. The connecting rod also has a lot of side to side play, which basically means the entire crank needs a rebuild as well as the top end.

There was one thing actually turned out to be true. The connecting rod does say "Yamaha" on the side. Of course at this point since it needs new everything doesn't really matter. He could have just put a big terd in the clyinder and would have had the same effect and been just as useful.

There was another piece I hadn't mentioned yet. The fact that when you move the kick starter it would sometimes catch and lock up. You've have to move the crank around to get it working again. This is accompanied by a noise in the trannie and though I haven't taken it apart yet there's obviously more easter eggs inside.

I sent Ebay this information and I sent this information to Brian. I called Brian and left messages and he would not call back. I eventually just had to keep calling non stop until he actually answered to tell me to stop "f**" calling here! Obviously, the guy knew the bike was destroyed and had no intention of discussing it with me. Perhaps he thought that someone would buy the bike, not know anything and attempt to actually just ride it. He should have realized that anyone who would buy a Maico would most likely know what they were doing and realize it was junk. He should have just sold a Yamaha or a Honda if he wanted someone to be oblivious.

The real kicker comes in when he expects that you should not be mad that he ripped you off. He actually said even though the motor is blown up, which he eventually admitted, that I got the bike at a good deal. There are new springs and new plastic on it over $2000 worth. $2000 worth of plastic? You got to be kidding me! The plastic is old and used and the front forks sag as well as the monoshock. Outside of the motor what possibliy could be on that bike that is $2000 worth of parts? He mentioned new air cleaer, but the air cleaning box is old as well. I said good deal? The bike is only worth about $300 in its current state! I said show me the reciepts!

The ad for the dirt bike specified that it was a 1982 Maico MC 490 Alpha 1 and this is actually incorrect. The truth is that the frame does say "MC 490" however the motor is actually a Maico 490 GS Alpha E and you can tell this by reading the first few digits of the serial number.

Well, to make a long story short there are several lessons to be learned here and I will outline them. First of all, a lot of my suggestions here are my opinion with some facts and remember I did get ripped off so perhaps I may not be the best person to take advice from! Based on my experiences I will provide the following list of things to remember.

• Do not buy off Ebay

The safest option is to buy locally if possible such as looking through Craig's List. This way you can personally go to the bike and assess the risk of buying it yourself. Buying any used motorcycle even if it runs can have many problems lurking inside the motor. The seller may not even be aware of all the problems even if they were honest unless they tore apart the motor just before selling it to you. The only time this comes into play in that you should have no risk is if they claim the bike was rebuilt. I would verify the bike looks clean, has compression and shifts easy. This doesn't mean there aren't problems and perhaps you should ask to see the receipts or evidence of the rebuild. Remember, if the bike you purchase on EBay turns out to be junk the shipping alone may cost more than the bike is worth depending on how its shipped. It is hard to tell a scam from a geniune auction as even scammers can have high % ratings. They can sell a bunch of small stuff then sell you garbage. Your little ding that you give them will not bring down their rating and you can only write 20 characters about what happened!!
• Do not buy into Ebay's VPP

Ebay will not protect you and if you are buying only a motor there are no protection policies. Vehicles do have a protection policy but you must read the fine print in order to even be covered. The main thing to be aware is if you do have the VPP, YOU MUST REPORT IT WITHIN 30 DAYS OF SALE. This is extremely important as it is going to be tough to get the vechile in this time period as it requires three seperate components. The first is the seller must immediately contact a shipping company and work out the details of when he's available to ship it and anything he needs to do speical. The second is that some shipping companies may not even pick up the bike for a few weeks such was the case in my situation, that it took them 21 days to deliver. In my case as well though, Brian probably waited over a month before contacting them. The last peice is that you then need to be available to get and inspect the vechile on delivery because by this time, depending on how long the first part took you may be running out of time!
• Use approved and safer payment methods

This means that you should use things like PayPal and Credit Cards however do not expect to get a full refund. PayPal has its own problems in that it is not a bank and false accusations have frozen people's accounts for example and not to mention they are nto FDIC insured. So while you should use it as the payment method just be aware that its not a bank and do not keep any more money in there than you can expect to lose. I do not have any personal experience with this and don't use pay pal much however there are also paypal alternatives.
• Do not expect help from Ebay

Ebay will be fast to delete any posts that discuss being ripped off by a seller on their message boards. They have a lot more protection in place for sellers than buyers because they want to make sure sellers get their money and Ebay gets its cut. Ebay will also not want to refund your money because "they don't have it" however they are sure counting their cut of the scam auction and will not even offer to refund that.
• Ask lots of questions to the seller

The first thing you should do is ask as many questions as you can think to ask. Ask about the compression, the rebuild, any and all details. Suspcious activity may include that "a friend" rebuilt it and they can get you in contact with them for example. If the seller does not know what they are selling do not deal with them. The ad I had said a "Yamaha" conversion kit and crap which I looked up and found no other references to however I continued even though that was suspcious. The other part was in the question I asked he said "I didn't mention this in the first auction since I didn't know how well it would be recieved". Obviously, he was looking to decieve from the start, along with many other clues that I had ignored.
• Lawsuits

You can take the seller to court however this is a difficult road. The seller cannot be forced to come to your state you must go to theirs and you can only recover expenses if you win. I have also heard that you should not take the item apart however how else would you verify that a vechile is blown up without doing so?
• Oh ya, and never buy from Brian Eggenberg!

Yes, never buy from this fucking asshole. He is also a Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Indian and head of the effort for them to be recognized by the federal goverment. Obviously I would think twice before donating to such a cause in which head members are scam artists.

This is a small list of what the bike needs and what you get when you buy "$2,000 worth of extras and rebuilt motor". This isn't even everything but just the jist of what you get when you buy rebuilt parts from Brian.

• Bore, Piston & Rings
  The bike was blown up and needs a bore with new piston and rings.

• Connecting Rod
  The connecting rod has a slight scrape and needs replaced. The connecting rod does say "Yahama" on it however the piston is Maico Mahle. This was not any type of "performance" upgrade it seems as I mentioned before, just using cheap parts. The piston wasn't even Yahama.

• Gaskets
  Since you're taking the bike apart, it needs new gaskets not to mention that the gaskets appear to be home made out of carboard.

• New Motor Bearings and Seals
  The crank bearings are junk and so are most of the inner bearings.

• Gear chipped
  There is a small chip on one of the transmission gears which should be replaced to prevent further chipping and metal shavings getting into the bottom end.

• Primary Chain
  The primary chain seems stretched or it could be that way because the gears are wrong!

• Clutch and Crank Gear
  The crank gear and cluth are both incorrect for the bike.

• Magneto
  The magneto wasn't even bolted onto the bike, needs to be determined if it is even correct.

• Plastic
  New plastic? Yea right, this plastic is old and still has mud on it from riding! The plastic is in OK shape its not oxidized or anything but its not brand new either.

• Kick Quadrant Gear
  The kick quadrant gear has a tooth broken off and needs to be replaced.

• Air Cleaner
  Brian claimed the air cleaner was new and its definately old. The filter is sticky and covered with feathers or fur or something and the air box itself is also covered in gunk.

This is his contact information so that you do not get scammed like I did.
mopars@hughes.net
Ebay Scammer's Profile: green-go-71
Brian & Tiffany Eggenberg
15585 Dakota Ave
Prior Lake, MN 55372
United States
(952) 226-4084 (Home)
(612) 386-6276 (Cell)