How To Buy A Used Motorcycle at RevZilla.com

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howdy let me have your Zilla here to talk to you today at how to buy a used motorcycle look there's a million different ways to sell up and you're buying a used motorcycle hopefully at the end of this video though you feel confident you're not buying a total bucket of bolts it's going to leave you stranded on the side of the road now we've structured this video specifically for those of you purchasing a motorcycle private party so regardless whether you found your used bike on Craigslist or on eBay or maybe even in the classified section of your local paper this video is for you now that's not the only way of course to obtain a used motorcycle you can always wander down your local motorcycle shop and buy a pre-loved bike from those folks that process is a little bit different though those bikes are almost certain to be Road worthy and you're probably gonna be paying a little bit more for that privilege now that whole process really looks a lot like buying a new motorcycle so I would direct you to spur G's video here it teaches you how to buy a new motorcycle now that video is just one in a miniseries we have helping new riders navigate the process of obtaining their first motorcycle so be sure you subscribe to us so you can catch all the videos in that series let's get back to the used bike thing though you've got some work to do before you ever even leave the house evaluate the seller and evaluate the buyer now when I talk about evaluating the seller I mean examine the ad of the motorcycle you're interested in fairly carefully we want to see at a minimum clear pictures cogent text about the bike a good contact number or email address for the seller and you also want to see a bike that's within your economic range regardless of what a bike is actually worth you don't want to spend your time arguing price with an unrealistic seller it winds up just being a total waste of time for each of you now I also mentioned evaluating the buyer and that means kind of looking inside yourself and what you expect and what you're going to give up and what you're going to get in return remember motorcycle takes time they take money and they also take effort so perhaps you're one of those folks who has more time than money you can sit there and wait for the perfect cherry motorcycle to come along you can scoop up for a great price then again if you tend to have a couple extra bucks per and a hole in your wallet you may want to actually tick them in employ them so you get exactly the bike you want that's in great shape all you lose a few dollars in the bargain now of course effort comes into play as well you can pick up a bike if you're willing to put some sweat equity into it especially if it's something that needs a little bit of TLC mechanically you can throw a little bit of labor at it and have yourself a motorcycle that's really worth riding around on but again if you're all thumbs when it comes to mechanicals you might want to avoid that plan now it's time to get in contact with the seller in addition to the when and where you'll be meeting the seller you also need to cover some finer points as well the first one you want to go over is a professional inspection anybody buying used motorcycle should have a pro check out their bike regardless of whether or not it's mandatory in your state or region the reason for this is a professional mechanic is likely to find some safety issues that you may miss during your own cursory inspection of the motorcycle the next thing you want to go through with the seller too is requesting that they leave the bike cold the reason is that a bike that starts easily and runs well with cold is likely in a very good state of tune hearing that bike fire up easily when it's cold should be excellent reassurance the bikes probably in very good shape if you ask a seller to leave a bike holding you get there and you touch the motor and the bike has been warmed up you might want to proceed with caution that could indicate a seller it's trying to hide something from you the final thing and arguably the most important is to make sure the bike has a title you don't want to buy a stolen bike that's a big problem for everybody but most especially you now we found a great specimen let's go take a ride and check this bike out yep I drove my truck because we might be buying a new motorcycle and you can't load a new motorcycle into the bed of another motorcycle now if you look around we're here in suburbia because most used bike inspections you're going to take place somewhere like a driveway now I'm not buying a motorcycle I have plenty of motorcycles however my colleague Chris has been looking for his first bike and he's been getting lots and lots of advice from Spurs and I Chris it's time to get in the game hey Pat hey Chris how's it going pretty good Mike looks really good yeah it'll be a shame to see her go is that the title you mind if I take a look absolutely should be up to snuff whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo this is actually a really important part of the process notice that Chris image is verifying the title exist but instead he's actually going to check to make sure the numbers on the title exactly match the numbers on the headstock of the motorcycle I don't really care if the seller is the Pope the Pope better have clean paper when you consider how easy it is to come by beginner motorcycles it doesn't make sense to saddle yourself with somebody else's titling let's return to this high-stakes drop looks like everything checks out let me take in this bike yeah knock yourself out can you fire it up for me absolutely you might want to cover your ears she's loud one yeah get out yeah yeah yeah turn this noisemaker off I got a little surprise for all you out there in video land we mechanical types we're great with wrenches but not so much with crystal balls we can't really take apart the entire motorcycle to determine how the internals are so a lot of times we're using external clues to figure out how the bike may have been taken care of generally speaking fluids should be inside the motorcycle if you see any type of drips or pooling fluid that's usually not a very good thing you may also see seeps too seeps aren't as aggressive as leaks but you'll typically see them manifested by oil or grease kind of mixed in with Road dirt it turns into a brownish goop that's no good now when you're underneath the motorcycle checking things out you also want to pay attention for the exact opposite a motorcycle that's too clean underneath that may be indicative of a seller who's trying to cover something up and while we're on the topic of fluids make sure you check out quantity and quality as well low engine oil that's a really big problem dark brake fluid that may indicate an owner who is stingy on the service dollars proceed with caution now the next big item you want to cover is crash damage there can be telltale signs all over a bike that it's been down before there's all sorts of things you can look for I'm talking about things like curled brake levers bent shift levers different color parts you want to examine the motorcycle for rash on places that you wouldn't expect to see it mirrors are perhaps side plastics and that shouldn't necessarily preclude you from buying the motorcycle but still you should know that if you're uncomfortable assessing crash damage buying a bike that's been heavily crashed can be a really expensive proposition now having said this you also want to talk to the owner about the crash if they're forthright about the fact that bike has been down and they're honest about the repairs they made or didn't make that's usually not too big a deal however if they try to cover up the fact the bike has been down before they may be being untruthful about other items on the motorcycle once you've got the big stuff vetted out on the bike it's time to check out some of the smaller detail items stick your nose into the gas tank see if it's all rusty in there similarly you can look at the paint on the motorcycle if you see deep glossy paint that's been well waxed that's usually a good sign you can also check out the seat covers well if that's in good shape odds are excellent the owner did their best to keep the bike protected from the elements another item you might want to check out as well is the tires tires can give you a lot of information about the bike if you see a match set on there odds are pretty good that the seller didn't mind spending bucks on the motorcycle similarly also examine the tread life and condition on there it turns out the tires cost a couple of bucks if you're buying your first bike and you have to immediately slam a set of skins on it you may be spending more than you initially planned on generally speaking if you're paying careful attention outside of the bike you'll get a good idea for what's going on on the inside what voice sounds and looks great when was the last time you had it serviced quite recently I actually keep all the receipts in this folder and there's a shop manual - everybody's bike Oh excellent why are you selling the bike I recently bought a new one congratulations oh no was the last time you took this one out I actually wrote it into work last week hey sorry about that so it might seem like Kris is just being Chatty Cathy right now really pestering Pat about his bike what he's actually doing politely interrogating him he's trying to find out a little bit more about the bike by keeping Pat talking about it you should be doing the same thing as the seller why they're getting rid of the bike or why they bought it in the first place and maybe talked into but some of the trips they took long or particularly memorable rides anything to get them going about the motorcycle so you can tease a little bit of information out about the motorcycle you can also use non-verbal clues too does the place look like a motorcycle junkyard that's probably not a good thing if you remember Pat mentioned that he had picked up a new motorcycle it would seem reasonable then that he'd probably be selling a learner bike thereafter now this is also a great time when you should probably be asking about service records service manuals or my favorite OAM or aftermarket parts remember Pat's not going to need them anymore he's probably willing to let them go for a song now in a bit of terrible foreshadowing I bet we have a test drive coming hey I really like this bike you mind if I take it for a spin I don't know what if you drop it or what if you run off I'd rather you didn't FairPoint I've got 2,500 bucks if I wreck it consider the bike bought seems fair give a helmet sure do [Music] all right while Chris is pulling that lid onto his melon let's talk test drive for just a second now if you have a license and you're comfortable jumping onto somebody else's motorcycle there's absolutely no reason you can't see the test-drive yourself however if you're uncomfortable mechanically an apt or perhaps unlicensed you may want to strongly consider bringing along a more experienced motorcyclist with you to stand in your place for the test drive now one of the other things to talk about too is the fact that as you just saw some sellers are a little bit reticent to let their pride and joy go rolling down the road with a complete stranger on top so one good way to encourage the seller to give you a test drive is to negotiate the price of the motorcycle and then put the cash into their hand then you can take your test ride and you know it can be contingent upon the test ride as to whether or not you're to buy the motorcycle of course tradition dictates that if you put the bike down you're buying the bike whether you like it or not at this point it's time for a safety check now this isn't going to be the same type of check you've been doing to make sure the bike is in mechanically good shape what you're doing instead now is making sure the bike is actually safe to ride so some of these things you may have actually covered now in your MSF class you may have heard something like the acronym he clocks this stands for tires controls lighting oil chassis and stands these are the basic things that you want to check before you get onto a strange bike you should make a habit of doing this too because this isn't just when you're buying a bike this is really when you jump on any unfamiliar motorcycle and I probably shouldn't have to say it but I will anyway you want to pay as little as you can for your motorcycle you're likely to want to upgrade your bike or perhaps replace something after you drop it once or twice and having a couple bucks in the bank can make that an easy process I love it let's do some paperwork great pleasure doing business with you I'm gonna grab some tie-down now once the deal is done you want to cross some T's and dot some eyes and that begins with making sure you get the paperwork knocked out in just about all cases the seller is going to need to sign the title over and in many places you're going to need a bill of sale as well now there are some states that require some other stuff too like a notary signature perhaps you want to familiarize yourself with your state's requirements before you ever head out to check out a used motorcycle now the final piece of the puzzle here is going to be getting this motorcycle home now in a lot of places it's not legal to just jump on a bike you just purchased and even if it is legal might not want to do it especially if you are unlicensed you may want to list the help of a friend who happens to have a truck alternatively - you can also see if the seller is willing to work with you and how is the motorcycle for a while until both you and the bike are legal don't forget to again - leave some money in reserve for what I would call unforeseen expenses a lot of people forget that motorcycle typically have sales tax when they're transferred even when they're used and again you may wind up needing parts or fluid changes and don't forget about that all-important professional mechanics inspections just in case it wasn't obvious to me absolutely awful acting that transaction was staged be assured that the real deal will look very very similar now if you're wanting a little bit more education head on over to common trip got a couple articles it should be pretty helpful including some tips on haggling as well as an article on how to make sure the bike you're buying isn't stolen they don't forget to this video is just one in a miniseries talking about how to buy your first motorcycle so check out those other videos and subscribe to us at RevZilla coms can catch all our content as we're rolling it out I'm living I'm out of here [Music] you
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Channel: RevZilla
Views: 874,971
Rating: 4.8969584 out of 5
Keywords: How to Buy a Used Motorcycle, Used Motorcycles, Used Motorcycle Checklist, review, revzilla, motorcycle, Used Motorcycle Tips and Tricks, How to Buy Used Motorcycles, Buying Used Motorcycles, How to Buy a Craigslist Motorcycle, Tips For Buying A Used Motorcycle, Used Motorcycle Buying Guide, revzillatv, Lemmy
Id: ea2VK1jwdsg
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)
Published: Sat Jun 24 2017
Reddit Comments

Lol why downvote? This is literally asked all the time. does Reddit just hate revzilla?

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/TacticoolCanadian 📅︎︎ Nov 20 2017 🗫︎ replies

this happens to me too... I post OC and get downvoted to hell... some salty people or something...

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/williamiswhite 📅︎︎ Nov 21 2017 🗫︎ replies
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