Motorcycle Buying & Selling Tips

 

When I began riding, I think I bought three or four bikes in my first couple of years. I bought used and kept on trading in. I never really understood my skill level and started with a 250cc bike that was way under my even novice class. It had no power, and I got very little enjoyment out of it. I went up to a used 500cc Triumph with a kick start. It was ok, loved the kick start, but still not where I wanted to go. I traded that in and moved to a used Harley Sportster. I found my sweet spot. To this very day, I only ride 1200cc Sportsters.

Although I never lost money on the trades and had the money to upgrade, I could have saved myself aggravation by researching and knowing where I wanted to go from the start. My early bikes were purchased pre-internet, so I had to rely on magazines and friends knowledge to figure out exactly what I wanted.
 

Today, with literally thousands of places to find motorcycle information, you should be able to avoid the hopscotch game playing I did early on.

Let’s look at some techniques for both buying and selling motorcycles.
 

BUYING

Stay within your budget, owning a motorcycle should be a joy. If you dread looking in the mailbox once a month for a payment statement that is much higher than you wanted, you are defeating the whole reason you wanted to become a biker.

Make sure the financing terms meet your expectation. A base payment of $99 per month sounds great but are there any hidden charges on top of that?

As I mentioned, finding the right bike to buy is your choice whether it is new or used. Just make sure you try to make the right decision from the start and not go through a few bikes before you feel comfortable.

I started with a 250cc. I would recommend starting with 500cc. They are not much harder to handle than a 250, but the power increase is substantial. However, if you feel safer in a 250 due to your skills, there’s no shame in that. It is likely, that you’ll want to upgrade as soon as you feel more comfortable on your bike though.

 

For a standard riding position, which is the most comfortable, a cruiser is a good choice. For a more aggressive riding position and harder lean angles, a sport bike would be your choice.

 

 

Don’t get stuck to a sport bike, if the lean over seating position and the zippy handling are not comfortable for you. One the other hand, if you are an adrenaline junkie, stay away from a cruiser. They are, as the name states, for enjoyable “cruising.”

 

 

If you go to a dealership, trust the knowledge of the sales force. Pound for pound, they have a much greater knowledge of their products then a car salesperson does.

 

While you can trust a dealer’s knowledge, their sole purpose in being at work is to sell bikes to make a living. They will naturally try to “upsell” you to a more costly bike. Watch out for the temptation if the up sale is a bike you can’t afford or too difficult to handle.

 

Bring your helmet along and take a test drive. This is an option that many potential buyers ignore or not aware they can do. Riding believes! What if you don’t like the way it rides? What if you can’t fully touch the ground at a light? You won’t know these things unless you test ride the bike before you buy it. 

SELLING

Whether you sell your bike through a private sale or trade it in at a dealer, there are some pretty simple rules of thumb.

Make sure from the first day you owned your bike that you keep all the paperwork in a safe place. This includes the title, maintenance service reports, receipts for aftermarket customization and the original sales receipt.

Clean and polish your bike to give it the best possible sales appeal. You should do this on a regular basis anyway, but especially when you’re trying to sell your bike.

 

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If your bike is heavily customized, it may not appeal to everyone else’s taste. You may want to remove some accessories and resell those separately on Ebay, Amazon, or a motorcycle parts exchange site. A lot of bikers are looking for “stock” bikes because they want to be able to customize it to their own liking and removing everything you’ve customized will get you closer to stock.

 

 

Make sure your bike is mechanically sound with fresh oil, filters and a fully charged battery. You’d be surprised how many times I went to check out a bike I was interested in buying but it wouldn’t start because the battery was dead, I left and never went back. You don’t want that to happen to anyone who’s interested in buying your bike.

 

Look online at valuation sites to see what your bike is worth. Don’t fool yourself! If you bike is not mint and in just good condition, so be it. Well-informed buyers also look for condition and value before they make a purchase and they already have that in mind before meeting you. Dealers give less than private sales, but there’s a lot fewer hassles involved if you are selling yourself, like having strangers come to your house, and waiting forever until a final check is produced.

 

So what are your thoughts? Any tips you have for those buying or selling their bikes? I learned some of these things the hard way, what have you learned?