Used Bike Guide – V5 and Test Ride

Filed under: Buyers Guide |
  • Make sure that the VIN number on the bike matches the VIN on the title. To do this, you’ll need to make sure that the seller has the title on hand when you go to see the bike. If (s)he doesn’t, make sure you check this before you hand over the money. The VIN is usually marked near the steering head of the bike, one one of the frame spars, or on the steering head itself. If the VIN is damaged or appears to have been altered, the bike might be stolen — write down the VIN, and see if the DMV or the police can verify that the bike has not been reported stolen and is registered to the same person trying to sell it.
  • Make sure the bike has a good, clean title. Make sure that the owner signs the title over to you (on the back). Make sure that the owner is the seller … check the name on the title. Make sure there are no liens on the bike, or if there were, that they’ve been released (look for release signatures on the front.) Do not buy a bike with un-released liens. Bikes with invalid odometer readings are worth significantly less than the blue book value — look for a “999,999 miles – odometer discrepency” (or something similar) on the title. Same goes for a “salvage” title (it’ll be clearly marked as a “salvage” or “total loss” title.) For a tip-off that the bike has been painted (possibly to hide damage — see HAS IT BEEN CRASHED?, above), check the bike’s color as listed on the title vs what it looks like now.
  • Sometimes (not always?!) the DMV will want a “bill of sale” from the seller to you, indicating the price paid for the bike, the VIN, the date, the buyer’s and seller’s names, and the seller’s signature. It’s far easier to get this when you’re exchanging money than to have to track the seller down later, so bring some blank paper and write something up. Make sure it says “bill of sale” and has the date and the seller’s signature.
  • Sometimes, you’ll be tempted to have the bill of sale written up for a small amount of money (£100?) so the state won’t assess you as much sales tax. Nifty trick, eh? Not so fast… there are two problems with this. Well, two problems aside from the fact that it’s considered fraud. (In other words, illegal.) Problem #1 — if the bike is stolen or totalled, your insurance company may only have to reimburse you for what you paid for the bike. If you claim that you bought the bike for £100, and your stolen bike was worth £5000, guess who’s out £4900? (Hint: not your insurance company.) Problem #2 — sometimes the state will ignore the stated sale price if it seems too low, and they’ll just go off the blue book value. So you potentially screw yourself if the bike gets stolen AND you have to pay the full sales tax anyway. Don’t waste your time with this. Be honest.

Test Ride

  •  Most sellers probably won’t give you a test ride for liability reasons, but bring riding gear just in case. You can learn a lot about a bike from a quick test ride, things you’d never notice by even the most thorough inspection. Sometimes sellers that won’t give you a test ride will let you ride the bike once you’ve purchased it, with a money-back guarantee if you don’t like it. In Massachusetts, riding a bike that you just purchased is illegal (unless somehow you already have insurance & plates for the thing), but if you’re willing to break the law, you can learn a lot from a quick, clandestine spin around the block.
  • Different areas will have different laws. For example, it may be possible to get single-day insurance and plates for a bike for the purposes of test-riding it. Ask your insurance agent and/or local government motor vehicle department to find out whether or not something like this is possible.
  • It’s a good idea to do the test ride last, after you’ve had a chance to go over the whole bike, since you won’t want to ride a bike with safety problems. Don’t ride the bike until you’re satisfied that it’s safe to ride.
  • Plus, if you look the bike over, like what you see, the price is right, and you plan to buy the bike, you might be able to convince the seller that you plan to purchase the bike if you can test ride it, and that (s)he may lose a sale if you aren’t allowed to. Unless you’re really serious about not buying the bike unless you can go on a test ride, don’t give the seller an ultimatum, since many sellers won’t be flexible on the issue of test rides. If you’ve spent a long time going over the bike and the seller thinks you’re serious, you stand a better chance of the seller letting you test ride the bike. In short, the time to ask for a test ride is after you’ve looked it over.

But just because you’ve looked it over, that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Give it another check, this time from the mindset of checking something that you’re about to ride. Any screws loose? How’s the chain? Are the tyres • inflated properly? There are many more things to check than can possibly be listed here — the point is, do a thorough pre-ride inspection on this vehicle and make sure it’s safe to ride before you trust it with your life.

  • Ok, so you’ve done a pre-ride inspection. But you’re still going to be riding an unfamiliar bike, so take it easy and don’t do anything stupid. The brakes, for example, might be poorly adjusted and extremely abrupt. (And crashing a test bike is a virtual guarantee that you’re going to buy the thing.) This guide cannot possibly warn you about all the dangers that you might face riding someone else’s motorcycle. Be extremely careful, and don’t test ride a bike if you aren’t comfortable with its mechanical condition or behavior. Test rides are done at your own risk.

What you’re looking for on a test ride:

  • Engine/Clutch/Brake Operation: see how it revs, how the clutch feels, how well the brakes work, etc. It’s very difficult to detect warped brake rotors unless you can get the bike up to speed, so here’s your chance: Find a place where it’s safe and legal to get the bike to highway speeds (55-65 mph) and and do a gradual (but firm) stop using the front brake only. If you felt a pulsing at the brake lever when you tried this, the rotors are probably warped. Repeat the test using only the rear brake. Be extremely careful not to lock it up — allow for a much longer stopping distance, and stop much more gradually.
  • Strangeness… strange wobbles or thumping, having to hold the bars a little bit to one side to get the bike to go straight (a sign of crash damage!), etc… Some shaking is to be expected, but look for shaking that goes up and down with road speed (problems with tires/wheels?), rather than shaking that goes up or down with engine speed. It’s usually very hard to detect this stuff without very smooth pavement, so go find some.
  • Do you want it? It can take a while to get comfortable with a bike. Nevertheless, to the extent possible in the short time that you’re getting to ride this machine, try to answer some very important questions: “Is this the bike that I want to buy?” “Do I feel comfortable with this bike?”
  • Another thing you can test is transmission operation…
  • When testing the transmission, realize that problems often manifest themselves as an inability to shift or as “false neutrals,” where power delivery through the transmission will be cut, just like the transmission doesn’t output power when it’s in the real neutral that usually lies between first and second. False neutrals can be dangerous, because the transmission can re-engage without warning, possibly locking the rear wheel and sending you flying off the bike. Forewarned is forearmed. Be careful.
  • Does the bike shift well through the gears? Make sure you go up and down through all of them to make sure they all work. The hardest gear change is 1->2, since the change in gear ratio is the largest. If the bike won’t shift well from first to second, the transmission could need some work, and that’s pretty major. (Tip: don’t be accelerating really hard when you try the 1->2 shift, since that’s how it gets damaged in the first place.)
  • Does the bike pop out of gear under moderate to hard acceleration? Don’t accelerate abruptly on a test ride until you’re very comfortable with the bike’s power delivery — you don’t want to crash the thing. If possible, take the bike somewhere where you can go highway speeds, and try accelerating with medium throttle in each gear. If the bike slips out of gear (into neutral or a “false neutral”) on hard acceleration, the transmission’s dogs or shift forks are badly worn and the engine will need to be disassembled to fix the problem. In the vast majority of cases, transmission repair is a very expensive and time-consuming fix. Unless you have a very good reason to need this bike, go find another one.
  • Does the bike pop out of gear under engine braking? Pay particular attention to second and third gears, but start in the bike’s top gear. While travelling in a straight line, and at approximately half-redline in top gear (but not in excess of local speed limits) close the throttle quickly (but smoothly) and see if the bike pops into neutral. Downshift quickly (but smoothly) and try in the next gear down. Repeat in each gear until you’re just putting along in first gear.

If the owner won’t let you test ride the bike but it has a centerstand, you can get the rear wheel off the ground with the centerstand, start the bike, get it into second gear, rev it up to half redline, lightly apply the rear brake to load the engine a bit, give it enough gas to maintain half-redline engine RPM, o release the throttle, and firmly apply the rear brake to stop the rear wheel and stall the engine. If, in addition to stalling, it pops into neutral, BAD SIGN — the gear dogs are badly worn. (Major transmission work.) Feel free to repeat this test with a little more rear brake if you went a little too light on the rear brake the first time.

Side note one: this test relies on a functional rear brake, and is going to get said rear brake HOT. Don’t touch any exposed brake parts after you try this.
Side note two: two-strokes have essentially no engine braking due to the way their engines are designed. Don’t expect any.

  • Is it easy to find neutral when coming to a stop? If not, you could have a frustrating time approaching stop lights, and the problem might cost a lot to fix.