Sometimes you get lucky. Sell one bike at a nice profit one day, the next pick up a real peach of a deal. Sometimes it takes ages, both to sell an old dog and then find a replacement. It helps to continuously monitor all the likely places where good buys are going to turn up, keep pestering friends of friends and knocking on the doors of complete strangers just because they have an old bike abandoned in their front gardens - often they are happy just to have the eyesore removed free of charge. As long as there's some oil in the engine, the rest of the decay's usually superficial. Even if it isn't a bit of tactical surgery with the welding gun suffices.
It's useful to have a spare bike. Just a hack or some old dog, that has enough life left in it to get you around whilst waiting for the deal of a lifetime to turn up. They are out there if you have the time and patience to hunt them down. As the whole motorcycle scene winds down over the late Autumn, early winter, this is by far the best time to go bike hunting. Even if it means half freezing to death in some unlikely corner of our great land.
Always have some cash on you ready to grab the bargain at the first opportunity. Chances are if you don't someone else will. It may sound trite in these days of even small companies giving out credit cards to their customers, but cash rules in the used bike market. Even dealers love it as there's no need to pay VAT or income tax on their secondhand stuff, which in turn means lower prices. Of course, if they really screw you on a deal you can always threaten to report them to the relevant authorities, though it's not impossible that you'll get a good kicking for your pains - there are some very dubious characters in the motorcycle game.
Cash works miracles. A few hundred quid fluttered in the face of the dealer or vendor at the right moment, causes the asking price to plummet faster than the beer levels at a stag night. Dealers more than private vendors put their asking prices way high. Partly in the hope that an idiot will come along, more usually so they can offer large trade-in deals when someone wants to change their motorcycle.
I've brought bikes from dealers at half their advertised prices. A helpful hint's to turn up with a well thumbed copy of the Used Motorcycle Guide, useful for putting the fear of god into salesmen. Not just for the prices, also quoting a likely fault on the machine goes down well (I don't think). One of the reasons why the trade refuse to advertise in it.
Couple the above with a little research, even if it's only reading the UMG in the bath! Forearmed is forewarned! However, the way the used market works means you have to be willing to consider any motorcycle if the price is right. Even if it means turning over a couple of bikes every year until the real motorcycle of your dreams is found. It's better than trying to commit suicide on a push-bike or lolling around in front of the television (all together now, it's better to catch VD than watch TV...), even if dark glasses are needed to disguise ownership of a complete dog.
So, it's important to be open-minded. I know it's hard to take something like a Honda Superslug seriously but there are still examples of this, and many other awful devices, that have been used only moderately and are offered for small money. Faded they may be, but they make useful wheels until something better turns up, don't cost much to run and can be sold on at a useful profit. If the whole heap doesn't suddenly disintegrate when the built in obsolescence suddenly hits it...one very serious reason why it'd be foolish to pay top money for such things, however much other magazines or dealers might wail about them being a useful bit of tackle.
There's a whole subculture that exists on the back of cheap bikes, likely to become even more predominant as the gap between the rich and poor becomes even greater. Of course, the police will have a field day because a lot of them, out of necessity, will be run on ruined consumables. Dealers will often do a quick make-over of such devices, flog them sold as seen for two to three times what the private market will bear.
When buying from dealers make sure they don't rip you off on the finance rates or extended warranties. Indeed, make sure you check whatever you're supposed to sign - quoted finance rates are often different to what's written down. Sometimes the monthly outgoing's the same but an extra year of repayments is tacked on! The salesman will just laugh if you query it some time down the line, the only remedy violence! Finance rates, just like the sticker price, are negotiable, though few dealers will combine a deep discount with low HP rates - they gotta make their money somewhere, somehow!
The only time when a dealer won't negotiate is if new prices have already been slashed. Old models or bikes that aren't selling well, will often be shifted by their manufactures by giving a deep discount on the RRP and by cutting dealers margins to the bone. But these new bikes, with as much as 30% off their listed price, offer great bargains even if you can't screw an extra discount out of the dealer. In fact, they are offered cheaper than secondhand stuff. Find them in the small display ads in the back of MCN and in some of the large adverts of the big dealers.
Don't expect too much out of the guarantee, as they are usually on offer on the other side of the country; the dealers happily offer free delivery, secure in the knowledge that they are unlikely to ever see the punter again. Consider yourself lucky if they actually get a thorough PDI.
Dealers are very variable in the way they react to punters, sometimes insisting that there's no need to offer discounts on bikes that are selling as fast as they can get them; other times practically panting with excitement at the thought of a sale. They probably have sales targets to meet; the more they sell the bigger the percentage commission they make. If you don't get any joy, try another salesman on another day. The end of the month seems the best time.
The back street dealer selling used stuff, often acting as a breaker as well, is a whole other story. On the plus side, the bikes are a lot cheaper than the regular dealers (the ones that aren't complete dogs are often shifted through the larger dealers), but a majority of them are real goners. Thrashed into the ground, neglected something rotten, often crashed and usually on their last legs; the reality of their decay denied in adverts in which they are lavishly praised, as if the printed word can overcome the reality of their neglect.
The same illusions applies to thousands of the grey imports that have flooded the market. For sure, there are plenty of really immaculate grey's but they cost serious money. For under £1500, certainly for less than a grand, what's on offer is pretty naff. I've seen XS650's for £1500 that I wouldn't pay £500 for; GS750's that have been going for twice what I'd consider fair; and old, really doggy CB500T's, and the like, that seemed like fifty quid hacks to me but were priced at £600 to £700. Unbelievable!
Grey importers in the UK, almost uniquely in the world, take a particular delight in bringing in bent and bashed stuff, that's straightened out on a dangerously mean budget; some of the race replica Jap cycles ending up as an accident looking for somewhere to happen. Decent spares for the imports can also be expensive and difficult to find. Having said all that, in the £2000 to £3000 price range there are some real bargains - low mileage, immaculate bikes - you just have to know what you're doing. As always.
Other than buying new bikes, or newish imports, though, it's best to avoid dealers altogether if the most machine for the buck's needed. Private vendors are mostly concentrated in the classified section of MCN, but they also turn up in free-sheets, papers that allow free adverts, auto-trader style magazines and in newsagent (or motorcycle store) windows.
The latter turn up some great bargains. Recently, I've seen a DR400 for £75, a CD200 for £50 and a GS400 for £95. The DR ran but the tubular frame had almost rusted through at the back end. The CD was a total rat but rattled into life after ten kicks. The GS400 had a reasonable engine, lacked any rust but all the consumables were dead meat and the back wheel was breaking up.
Naturally, I bought all three! Other recent bargains include a sixties Suzuki T200 for £200 (really nice nick throughout), a GS550 Katana that had gone around the clock (at least once) but looked like new (thanks to several re-sprays) for £350 and an XS650 with a home-made fairing that left what was a pretty good bike firmly in rat status (at £600 and 89000 miles it was a bit too iffy for my liking but could have been a good deal if I wanted to take a chance).
These are the high end, I've been offered numerous step-thru, horrible stroker commuters and even the odd scooter. I often place adverts in papers or magazines where they are free - something general, like motorcycle wanted, anything considered. After all, I'm not paying for the telephone calls! These ads bring in a regular trickle of calls, mostly the kind of dross that really needs a match in the petrol tank, but some decent deals turn up and I live in hope of some little old lady saying there's this big Brit bike in her garage with a name that begins with V...
Alex Silver