Would you buy a ex-despatch riders bike?

Seen a couple on fleabay high miles but cheap money. Granted, they probably have been ridden hard, but at least you know they haven’t been thrashed on trackdays or the like.

Would you touch one or is it best to avoid at all costs?

depends on how cheap!!!

At the moment about £800 for a 3 year old bike with 70k miles.

I’ve got a 05’ Honda CBF500A-4 with 94000 miles on it that belonged to Addison Lee… It still rides like a new bike… Total and utter service history with it… No problems buying an ex despatch bike IF… all the service docs are with it…

How did you find out about the bike? Was it advertised or did you have someone on the “inside”? The ones I saw didn’t have much of a service history, but if I found an example like yours, it sounds ok to me.

i was pretty lucky… We bought them for a charity bike ride… paid £500 for 3 of them… but… I think that they sell them for around £700-800 normally…

I would say… ring the big companies up to see when they get rid of the bikes… I know Addison Lee had a yard full of stuff… We had a choice of 6 CBF’s… they replace them often… They also had around 20 VW sharans… 160000-200000 on the clock. but £2000 for an '55 plate…

so… ring up the companies direct…

94000 miles and counting… I have no doubt that this bike will reach 100000…

£500 FOR 3 BIKES!!!

Why do I never find these deals :wink:

I spoke to one big courier, they don’t have anything at the mo, but they recently sold one which now has a blown engine. That would do me as I want something to waste my time with anyway, they said they will try & track down the owner for me. A new fleet arrives early next year, so all the old bikes will be up for grabs. Grr, I can’t wait that long :smiley:

Snoodys right - a complete service history is the mosty important thing with high mileage, hard ridden bikes like these - I guess it can mean the difference between something that you’ll get many more miles out of without any probs - and something that has been deliberately ridden into the ground and is going to expire at some point soon.

If all the service history is there, then just look out for all the usual stuff when buying a used bike.

Don’t go anywhere near a free lancers machine. Some look after their machines better than the factory service programme but other cut corners and costs to the bare minimum.

As they tend to do the work themselves to save money, how do you tell the good from the bad?

The big companies have service contracts and know it’s in their interest to keep the bikes in good order. If it aint working, it aint earning. And they keep them clean to preserve the company image.

On a modern, well cared for machine, mileage isn’t an issue except when you come to sell.