TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY? That is the Question...
By Tony Gray, Member #3905
I
am often asked, as I was at the June service day, about the things to look for when buying a second hand motorcycle and what motorcycle is better/ best. The next very common question is how to maintain that motorcycle after purchase. Let’s deal with the first question. Now the views expressed here are mine alone drawn from quite a few bike purchases (and far fewer sales, just look in my garage) so ‘let the buyer beware’. I will go out on a limb here and say that there are no ‘bad’ motorcycles but there are certainly bikes that have been badly treated. There are undoubtedly ‘lemons’ about but that doesn’t mean you write off the whole production run because of a few bad examples. The products produced by the factories are generally of a high standard and ‘fit for purpose’. Where mistakes are made is when a ‘heart over mind’ decision is made to purchase a bike that is not fit for purpose or the buyer gets too excited and purchases in a hurry. Both of these scenarios will likely lead to disappointment. I cite by way of example the purchase made by a long term friend (not a club member) who was returning to motorcycling after an absence of some 25 years. The last (and biggest) motorcycle owned was a 1970s Honda CB400/4. This 4 cylinder Honda was a sweet small to medium motorcycle in its day, relatively light and with good manners.
The intended use of the new bike was a daily commute round trip of 50 km in peak hour traffic with the occasional jaunt up or down the coast from Brisbane. The size & style of bike I suggested was deemed to lack ‘street cred’ so my friend went against the advice and purchased a low mileage
JULY 2022
63
1050cc Triumph Sprint ST. This is a very capable and proficient motorcycle in the right hands but it had over 3 times the power and was 30kgs heavier than the previous Honda. Needless to say the early gloss of ownership quickly wore off after a few very low-speed falls - the bike was sold after about 6 months. An expensive lesson but I am sad to say this happens often. So the first things to get right are to be realistic about what sort of riding you want to do, how experienced and capable you are as a rider and what is your budget? Oh don’t forget about your size and the desired model – are you physically compatible?
Gaston Rahier didn’t have a height problem – but would you? Now you can start looking. If you are mechanically bereft then enlist the aid of an experienced colleague who is prepared to help you out. Do not rely on the mandatory ‘Safety Certificate’ as a true indicator of a bike’s condition. I once had a Safety Certificate issued prior to registration where the tester did not hear the bike running and obviously did not undertake a test ride. The horn, indicators, brake & headlight worked and it had new tyres so I received my safety certificate. The tester had no way of knowing if that engine even had any internals! The next element in the scale of importance is a service record. If I am looking at a bike with quite a few miles on the clock but with zero maintenance record then I would generally walk away unless I had other accurate knowledge of the bikes history. I would take a higher mileage bike with service records over a lower mileage example with a very poor or unknown service record. I will cite another example here of a
