Tips for Buying Your First Motorcycle
- In This Quick Guide:
- Dealing with Dealerships
- Critical: Condition
- Completeness
Like your first lover, you will remember your first bike as long as you live. Although you will always enjoy the freedom motorcycling brings you, nothing quite compares to the heady exhilaration of those first rides. At this point, the best way to ensure that those rides are as pleasurable as possible is to get a good, dependable motorcycle.
Dealing with Dealerships
If you’re buying a new bike, you’ll have no choice but to buy from a dealer. But even if you’re buying used, buying from a reputable shop can be the best way to get your first bike. Still, there are a few things that will help ensure the best possible experience:
- Learn as much about the motorcycle as possible. Go to the library and read back issues of motorcycle magazines that have tested the bike.
- Make sure your salesperson knows motorcycles. Ask good questions. By the answers, you can tell whether the person is uninformed, unscrupulous, or both.
- Check the mileage on the odometer against the mileage on the title, and check the model year on the title against the date of manufacture on the frame, usually located on a plate riveted to either the steering head or the lower frame tube or beam. If something’s not kosher, chances are, neither is the shop selling the bike.
Critical: Condition
You need to ascertain the mechanical and cosmetic condition of a motorcycle before you make an offer.
Judging a bike’s cosmetic condition is easy: just ask yourself how it looks. By looking at the bodywork and such items as mirrors, turn signals, and mufflers, and examining those items for scratches, dents, and other deformities, you can usually tell whether a bike is in good shape. Pay particular attention to the outside edges of those items, the edges likely to contact pavement in even the most minor tip-over.
With any kind of accident damage on a motorcycle, it’s essential to check the frame alignment. First, make sure the front wheel is steered dead ahead; then, kneeling on the floor directly behind the bike, look at how the front and back wheels align. Do the same thing kneeling in front of the bike, too. If they don’t appear to be straight in relation to each other, it’s easier to go on to the next bike.
When purchasing European or American motorcycles, there are a few other things to watch for. Cosmetically, Harleys will more often than not be immaculate, but you need to check things such as the belt-drive system. Fraying or missing belt teeth indicate future problems that are expensive to correct.
The level of finish on older European bikes tends to be lower than that of Japanese motorcycles, and corrosion can be a problem. This is especially true of Italian bikes, but it can be a problem even on BMWs. For example, BMW didn’t apply a clear finish to exposed aluminum on items such as the fork legs. While this finish tends to yellow with exposure to sunlight, giving the forks on older Japanese motorcycles a dingy appearance, it protects the metal from corrosion. This corrosion becomes more pronounced in coastal areas because of the salt in sea air. It’s also a problem for machines used during the winter because of the salt placed on roads in snowy climes.
The outside condition of a bike can help give clues to the condition of internal parts. If a bike looks good and runs well (if it starts easily when both cold and hot, if it idles smoothly without making horrible noises, and if it accelerates adequately for a bike of its size), odds are it’s okay inside.
Completeness
Along with the condition of a bike, make certain that all the pieces are there. Items such as missing side covers or other body panels can cost as much as a cheap motor-cycle.
Check a motorcycle to make certain it has the following items:
- Side covers, the plastic covers that cover components located behind the engine, under the seat, can often break and come off the motorcycle. They are very expensive (and, in some cases, impossible) to replace.
- Emblems and insignias are often glued or screwed to the tank or side cover. They are also difficult to find for older motorcycles.
- If a bike has an aftermarket fairing, make certain that all the original lighting and turn-signal brackets and components come with the bike. If you decide to restore the motorcycle to its original condition, you’ll need these pieces; on some bikes, they can cost as much as the motorcycle itself.
- Fenders will probably be an issue only if someone has tried to build a chopper out of a motorcycle. Generally, such bikes make poor candidates for restoration and should be avoided.
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycles, Fifth Edition, by Motorcyclist magazine with John L. Stein
