Motorbike Buyer - Ignorant or dodgy?

I have my motorbike advertised for sale, received a call yesterday from some bloke who seemed really keen, I answered his questions, gave him my details and then he asked if he could test ride the bike - I said as long as he left a cash deposit then yes, otherwise he would have to be a pillion - to which he replied that he was insured to ride other peoples bikes (as far as I know this is usually third party cover not comprehensive) and that he would leave his credit card and drivers license with me.

Now he is either ignorant to think I would hand over my keys to some stranger without taking some cash or a bike thief who is chancing it.

He refused to be a pillion and he refused to leave cash down so I said forget it.

What is the general view on this situation?

No No No & NO
You did the right thing :slight_smile:

Standard practice now is FULL cash in hand or a pillion ride ( although that is dodgy - stop at traffic lights and he shoves you off)

If he doesn’t like it tell him to sling his hook…

ps even cash in hand can be dodgy - I have heard of a test ride - guy says he doesn’t want it - you give him cash back.,

two weeks later you get a couple of brown envelopes through the post…
.

He’s gone throgh a couple of speed cameras - 55 in a 30mph and 75 in a 40mph

Guess who has to take the points / fine?

pps … What bike are you selling?

Another common scam

Scammer A and B drive to your street - scammer A gets out on the corner of your street and walks to your gaff and B parks on the other side of road to you and disappears.

A knocks on your door,

“I’ll just take it for a ride, look here’s the keys to my car - I’ll leave them with you” (points at the car on the other side)

Once he’s gone scammer B returns, gets in car and drives off.

(He’ll try and do this once you have gone inside but if you DO spot him he says “Sorry mate I don’t know what you’re talking about this is MY car”

So you try the keys and they don’t fit the car.

You’ve been had for the price of an old set of keys…

What a wicked world…grr

I’ve also had a very keen and repeated caller ask me to ride the bike over to their gaff where they’ll have the money waiting for the bike. This may not be a lie, but they’ve probably neglected to say theif gaff is in super dodgy street and cohabited by his meat head mates who all have fondness for baseball bats. Fall for that one and expect to lose bike, money and/or some health points.

Full cash in hand or no ride. They drop it and you keep cash. No rides without full details of their driving license. Confirm they are indeed insured or cascading insurance law will fall to you regardless. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If they look and sounds like a duck, they probably are a duck.

I’m bloody paranoid me…

If a buyer wants to sit on it and “test the clutch” I make sure the disc lock is on…

Dead easy for him to pull away and leave you chasing a bike that’s doing 50mph away from you.

Our guard is off when we’re selling - but what an esy way to get a bike as far as the scum shitebags are concerned

As above, would never let a test ride happen unless bike is paid for

Most of the time I think it is people not being aware.
There are proportionally fewer criminals out there than there are riders.
Unfortunately it isn’t possible to know so I would do exactly what you have done.
The price you pay for trusting someone who would screw you over isn’t worth paying.

Cash up front or nothing for me.

Had a right dodgy couple of guys come to view a bike when I lived in Scotland. Did all the tricks you mention… I’ll give you my car-keys (to a ratty old 3-series)(while his mate is standing next to him). Did the old “Just want to test the clutch mate” one… his mate asked me to open my garage door and I said no-can-do as the car’s parked right up against it outside :wink: Wanted to take it for a spin around the block and I said cash up front please and you bend it, you’ve bought it, and if you get stopped by the police for no insurance then you’ve also bought it. Then he said he’d settle for a spin around the cul-de-sac so I said exactly the same. Ended up flogging it on E-Bay for £200 less, but I’d rather be £200 worse off than have a couple of chancers ride off on it for free :cool:

3 Simple Rules:

  1. Cash in hand before you take it for a test ride;

  2. Proof of ID with address on it before you take it for a test ride;

  3. Bend it, you’ve bought it, and police involvement for no insurance then you’ve also bought it.

Anyone with half a brain should know the score these days, particularly around London. Anyone who doesn’t is either stupid or a potential thief :slight_smile:

Cash up front is the usual deal. “No test pilots unless I have the full asking price in my hand.”

When I sold my old bike the buyer didn’t test ride it but we fired it up so he could hear it and then stood out of the way as all the AFC50 burned off. Then we did the deal. To be fair he was a very straight forward buyer.

Another car scam I’ve heard of is where they ask to see both keys, then swap one round on the sly and come back later to steal your car with the genuine key they swindled. People are such ba5tards.

Cash in hand and licence is a must (I normally take a photo of it to keep the details until such time as a nip can not be issued or they buy it) - Also do you know that in the event of a theft most insurance companies will ask if you have advertised your bike for sale recently - probably due to these people getting to see your setup/some being invited in and see where you put your keys… This is why I don’t give them my address before they have got close by and i guide them in and have the bike away from where it is kept before they get there. :wink:

This is one of the biggest reasons for trading a bike in for slightly less and not having to deal with these issues! have you seen what webuyanybike will offer you as it may be close to what you want (not normally, but you never know!)

selling a 2008 FZ6 S2 naked.

Something that got me more paranoid is what happened to a fella on KTM forum… Guy turned up,scoped his house and then came back and stole the bike… A few folk there now only say they will meet them close to house, not at the property… And I will do the same…

Will selling it without your trousers on boost the price you think?

My mum got scammed about 4years ago when she was selling our car! So it was a 2004 chrysler voyager 2.8 diesel. She got a call and on the phone the guy sounded as a very nice guy but with a tendency to use Bruv! So the guys turned up in a cab and we see 6 guys well chavs jump out the cab and look all around the car so as mum said no to them test driving it cause she thought they might be high they still agreed to buy it. The guy that was buying it showed us all his “documents” she took a copy blah blah blah! So about a week goes Friday evening and our door bell rings! Two policeman come in and ask my mother why hasn’t she reported that the car has been stolen?! She explained to them that the car was sold and showed them all their documents and all that. They rang up their office and a person with this name wasn’t even on the system! Then my mother asked them why did they think that the car was stolen, and they explained that it was found burnt in a forest and that there was bits of drugs found near the car! Then my mum spent about half a year constantly on the phone with someone from the legalities and had to attend court 3 times!

That’s true Alex - but on the other side of the coin I would want to view a bike I was buying at the registered address on the V5 - and go inside o make sure it is they buyers address.

There was a soppy sod on the news who bought a cloned car - he did all the checks and said he was always careful - checks came up ok ( well they would do - the HPI check was for the registration of another car that was all legal and sitting on a drive 200 miles away). The car he was checking was stolen with copied plates from the legit one…

Two mistakes he made

a) not checking the vin against the V5 (although there are an estimated 5000 stolen V5s doing the rounds) and

b) meeting the seller at a motorway service station ffs!

Are you looking for the cash or something to replace it with. If you are looking for another bike maybe take it to a dealer and PX. You’ll make less on it than in a private sale but you won’t have any of the hassle or grief.

Looking to get another bike, I might have to bite the bullet and PX.

True, I agree… I’d bring all documents with me and I prob would take him home if he wanted to do the deal… but if he seemed dodgy when we met, I’d say ‘no sale’ unless he flashed the cash.

Ahh too good for “Webuyanybike.CON”

Just remembered to say - don’t give up on Ebay - in my experience the first person to contact you about a bike is always a timewaster / con artist and personally I give them the bum’s rush - I just ain’t got time for some arsehole to tell me that my bike is worth nly 40% of what I’m asking because the tyres are the wrong colour black or “There’s a dealer in Bradford got a better one for £2000 less” !!!

Someone on here had a good idea - make sure you speak to a potential buyer on the phone before you give him your address and if he sounds at all dodgy or chavy tell him that you got conned before and sorry but would mind bringing his passport and proof of address which you will need to check out before seeing the bike


A nice phrase to slip in is " You don’t mind me running a police check do you?"


A genuine buyer won’t mind whereas shitey scrote scum will be put off and won’t show, they might even put the phone down.