Biketrader.co.uk and motorcyclenews.com

Hi all,I am currently looking to get myself a nice bike - something in the region of a 1k Fireblade or R1. Should be from after 2004.

Now, on biketrader or motorcyclenews are some advertised which seem pretty cheap.

Are these websites honorable? Are there many idiots who just want my money?

Clearly I am not an idiot … I wont send anybody money until i see the bike and him. And i dont buy without checking the background. It would just be a waste of time to travel across the country to view some bikes and they are not there.

In general - can I buy a bike from the sites above?

Thanks!

biketrader is usually ok, as people have to pay for the ad it tends to put off people just trying to make a quick buck. as with any place though there will be good and bad sellers, just give the bike a good look-over and make sure you’re content with it before the sale. if you’re not 100% on what to look for just put a thread up on here and im sure someone wont mind popping along with you to give it a quick check :slight_smile:

Thanks mo, much appreciated.I thought that it might be ok to buy there … I am pretty confident that I know what to look for at a bike. But you guys in this forum are very helpful in case I’d like someone to come along.

Where or how can i check the history of a bike? I think of accidents, stolen …

An HPI check is the only effective method of checking anything of a bike’s history. This should tell you if the bike has ever been officially written off whether it still has any credit owed. But of course it won’t tell you whether it has ever been in an accident, and sometimes can be out of date. (You can get HPI checks from about £15-£20, often best value can be had if you are a member of the RAC/AA/CSMA etc)

Other than that you need to work on intuition, instinct, and any knowledge of how things should look or function. Plus of course any service history, maintenance history, invoices, receipts, the state of the sellers garage etc.

You can check validity of MoT certificates on line, which is handy and can give various clues sometimes if the bike has a bit of a dodgy history.

It helps if you can get a friend who knows bikes and what to look for better than you might, particularly if they are familiar with the model you are looking at, or if you can tap other owners for advice, maybe seek out the appropriate model specific forum for owners advice.

I’ve bought and sold through Bike trader and Motorcyclenews without issue in the past. But at the end of the day it’s just another advertising medium.