Yeah, I mean, flaky people are gonna be flaky.

Personally I would be very leery of buying anything from a private seller that still has a loan on it, exactly because of hassles like this. When it comes to motorcycles in particular, I prefer to do straight cash deals for bikes that are paid for and have a clean title. Most likely the OPs seller was selling at a lower than market price because he knew the hassle of paying off the loan would dissuade some potential buyers (like me.)

Think about this: If there had been no loan on the bike and you'd gone over there with cash in hand, you would have made the deal, gotten the title signed over to you and ridden off - no chance of "seller's remorse" or changed minds. To me that is the essence of a good CL deal: Discussion, agreement, money changes hands, DONE.