What are the cons of buying a rebuilt sport motorcycle?
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at
7:15 am
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Honestly, if you don’t know much about bikes, I would steer WELL clear of anything with a salvage title.
A salvage bike has, at one point in it’s life been totaled by an insurance company who previously carried coverage on that bike.
All told, it doesn’t take TOO much to total a bike, but as soon as you cross the threshold into rebuilt salvages, you can drop way off into a whole world of trouble.
On one hand, if you get a bike that may have had a relatively slow low-side, the plastics may have been ruined but that was enough to total it out. To fix it would be simple, and it’s pretty much just as good as before.
On the other ,and much more common, hand… Handlebars can VERY easily be jacked up in any kind of crash. Misaligned handlebars are a good way to total the bike again (crash). A bike that hit a curb at any reasonable rate of speed may have frame damage. Obviously, you will not want to go on the road with any sort of vehicle that has or has had frame damage. No matter how good the welding job done on the frame by the person selling it to you, it will not be as good as the original frame that the manufacturer built the bike with.
Rebuilt motors are certainly a lot less dangerous. Thousands of motorcyclists perform both routine and advanced maintainance on their machines with great success. An engine rebuild on a bike is not the herculean task that it is on a car. It can be done in a garage with the proper tools by most anyone with a working knowledge of engines.
That said, before buying any kind of used bike that is ‘rebuilt’, take it to a reputable mechanic and have them give it an inspection. It might save your life