Buying a used motorcycle involves some risks. It will be necessary to carry out numerous checks to avoid a questionable purchase and possibly to lower the selling price.
To know before any purchase: the salesman is responsible for the good sold, it must not conceal any vice/problem (accident, mileage, stolen parts). If, after purchase, a doubt remains, do not hesitate to have your bike checked quickly.
The second thing to remember: buying is as delicate as selling. Your distrust is justified, but that of the seller too.
In between, a solution is to buy from someone you know or can find. For that, the ideal is to register on a forum dedicated to the motorcycle concerned and to buy a used motorbike from the forum. You can more easily trace the history, get an idea of how the person has driven and maintained. And most importantly, you can easily find the person, or even complain about the machine then if there is a problem. www.nextride.com offers the best security for buying a used motorcycle.
Things To Check Out For:
- The Wheels: Check the sides of the tires, the depth of the sculptures. Check the rims: general condition, spoke tension (in case of spoke wheels, of course).
- The Brakes: To watch, the wear of the pads or the drum, the condition of the discs (absence of deep scratches and fogging), the hardness of the front and rear brake controls.
- Suspensions: No scratched fork tube.
Checking The Damping: If you feel the compression or the relaxation too soft, check the used settings. If they are already positioned at maximum, the dampers are HS.
Check for any leaks in the fork tubes and the rear combination(s), as well as the absence of play in the steering column.
- Commodities: Check all front and rear electrical equipment (sidelights, dipped beam, main beam, turn signal, horn, circuit breaker, brake lights with front and rear brake, headlamp, plate lighting, indicator and dashboard lighting).
- Controls: Check fluid level (right motorcycle) and no leaks. Check the clutch guards, the front and rear brake and the throttle grip (about 5mm each).
No frayed cables, no spongy brake controls (= leak or hose HS or an air bubble).
- The Engine: Of course, make sure there are no leaks on the engine and the radiator.
Check the engine oil level, the water level, the 2-stroke oil level (if 2T engine).
- Transmission: If the card, check that it does not emit excessive slamming (to see according to the mileage, it is normal that it makes noise after 100,000 km) and check the oil level of the bridge.
- The Exhaust: Check its good general condition (no leak, no excessive rust, no greasy deposit at the outlet of the exhaust).
- Under Saddle: Look at battery condition, toolkit, fuses.
- Electricity: With the engine stopped, move quickly from low beam to high beam, the reaction must be immediate. Otherwise, the battery starts to get tired.
- Miscellaneous: Condition of the front and rear footrests, straight exhaust, bottom condition of the center stand, front wheel axle, lower ends of the fork tubes, handlebar ends, levers, brake pedal, selector, underneath bottom fairing, scratches on the side of the front rim, etc.