Buying a second hand bike

I know there are companies such as the AA who will do a vehicle inspection on a second hand car but does anyone know of anything similar for bikes.

;)

Mate I dont know of any companies that do vehicle checks like the AA car ones :-?

But you can use the my text check number as I did before buying my 1000 fazer to check for accident, outstanding finance etc [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

What a great post and a great question!

If there isn't there should be - RAC are supposed to be bike orientated - maybe they can get it going!

Searched the web and came up with nothing.
Anyone find anything?

:(

Are you talking about a mechanical inspection or one that checks the bike's history for outstanding finance or insurance activity?
Bikes are basically fairly simple things, pretty much everything's visible on one (depending on how much bodywork it has on it - on things like CBR600 Steelies, many were raced so you'd need to look out for tell-tale signs like wheel rims that have seen plenty of tyre lever action being somewhat at odds with low mileage and immaculate bodywork - lockwire on sump plug and other fasteners is a big giveaway for ex-race bikes). Another tell-tale of damage unseen is if the body panels don't align properly, which is normally a good indication of something being misaligned beneath them, normally as the result of a crash.
If you're unsure of what to look for on a potential second-hand buy, take along a mate who knows what he or she is looking at and knows the right questions to ask, and importantly isn't getting blinded by wood at the prospect of taking ownership of the shiny bike in front of them... There are plenty of people on here who know their way around a bike and although there's never any comeback from these services offered for cars if something unseen makes itself apparent after the purchase, you'll have more peace of mind if someone knowledgeable has given it the once-over for you first [smiley=thumbsup.gif] If you want to have a look at something, ask on here if you're not confident about it yourself. Who looked at your old ZZ-R?

I bought my ZZR from new from a Kawasaki dealer in Yorkshire. Had it delivered. I never actually saw the bike before i bought it.

I was loooking at bikes on Auto trader all around the country. Problem is now I may be going for a ZZR1400 thus cant aford a new one. I also dont fancy traveling up to say Scotland to have a look. Most of these dealers do free delivery or delivery at quite a low rate. If I saw a bike I liked then if say the AA had a look at it then I would be fairly confident it was OK, but unfortunately they dont do bikes.

Don't forget to try the local BMW dealers - they may have a few ZZR's they want to move that got traded in against the S1000RR's. BMW dealers don't like carrying other manufacturers bikes over the winter so you may get a great deal. :)