I’m getting ready to purchase my first bike and I was curious to see what experiences people had when purchasing theirs. I’d like to buy one privately but I worry about not having a warranty as I know didly squat about motorbikes, can’t even ride one ‘yet’, lol. I feel with buying from a dealer, yes you pay a little bit more but you get some sense of security.
What do you think?
The thing about dealers is that just like private sellers there are good and bad ones. A dealer needs to clear stock so they need to sell you a bike - if you can haggle the price down then all well and good. You’ll no doubt hear lots of horror stories about private and trade sales but at the end of the day if you are comfy with the deal and its the bike you want at the price you want then go ahead.
Whether you go private or trade take someone along who at least has done it before. Are you going to the sellers house? Does the history make sense? Does the address and name on the V5 match the house where you’re seeing the bike (private sales…)
Look at how the bike is presented - you need to look beyond the shiny bodywork - get your fingers in the gaps and nooks - is it fairly clean? All this indicates whether a bike has been looked after. How does it sound? Lots of smoke? Take anything along the lines of ‘yeah they all smoke a bit…’ with a pinch of salt - unless you’ve done your research on forums for the bike you’re interested in.
I’m sure others could advise on so sit back and enjoy all the tips come flooding in…
Thanks Macp
Out of interest which bike are you looking to buy?
I’d love an R6 but don’t want to spend more than £2,500 on a first bike so that makes a Yamaha Thundercat seem like a good idea. Basically I want a 600 sports bike. Am open to suggestions!
Look at a few different ones and go from there - Try to keep an open mind until you’ve got hands on to the bikes you’re interested in. Looking at a dealer bike is a good way of having a close look without wasting a private sellers time - once you know what you want and what to look for (look at bike specific forums) then everything else is easy (or so I’ve heard…)
Thundercat or cbr600f are probably the best two to start on 600sports - the honda is more reliable and easy to resell when you want bigger and better things. For a decent bike dealers are normally good (yes i work for one) but the bikes they buy in are either worth the money - or they are sold trade to breakers - so there stock is good enough to sell.
Private can be good but as you say - no warranty, no checks (make sure road legal/pdi) before delivery! If you go private make sure to get a check done on the bike (dealers do this before they buy/sell so costs you nothing) to make sure their is no finance, thefts, declared total loss/accidents being claimed on it, etc…
Good luck whatever you decide…
ps. we have about 10 cbr600’s throughout our stores.
Sean 077410 - Where do you work? What kind of CBR will my £2,500 get me? What’s your website address so I can check out your stock? 20 questions huh,
www.colincollins.co.uk i work at our watford branch, but if you go into the group site you can see all of our used stock.
CBR’s are great but I am biased. Worth a look are SV650’s either naked or the S (faired version) as they have a lower insurance group and are a great bike to cut your teeth on or stay with forever. They can also a bit cheaper than a CBR and are almost as reliable.
Seconded!
I was really impressed with the SV…
But I’m biased towards twins.
only go for yamaha and suzuki, …honda and kawasaki’s cannot compare.
I’d say look at both private and dealer.
There is no doubt that privately u have the potential to get more bike for your money simply because there is less of a profit margin. Look for obvious things when inspecting the bike like chain condition, oil levels, rust, service history tyres etc and you will get a good idea whether the rider looks after his/her bike.
With a decent dealer though you obviously have some what more of a gurantee but that is in the extra money u pay. If u are a bit clueless what to look for and cant get som1 in the know to inspect a bike you see privatly maybe this is the route to choose. This is not saying that dealers wont have a good deal on a recent part ex or stock they havent been able to shift but there is still a chance of buying a dud, all be it less than private.
I have not bought one bike privatley so far and have paid a little over the odds in certain cases from dealer but they did provide good after care and a 1 year warranty that covered alot of parts…
Thanks for all the advice. I see there are definate benefits to buying privately and from a reputable dealer. I’ll keep an eye on both!!
