Tips for Buying a Salvage Motorcycle Online

The first incentive to buying a salvage motorcycle is the savings. You can easily save thousands of dollars by buying and fixing a cheap motorcycle for sale. The parts will cost much lesser than buying a new or undamaged bike. There are hundreds of motorcycles of various brands available for sale online. If you fancy a Harley Davidson, BMW, Kawasaki or a Honda, you can be sure to find different models of them on some online auction or other for salvage motorcycles. Here are some tips to consider while bidding for a motorcycle online.

Research About the Motorcycle of Your Choice

There are many dealers that auction salvage motorcycles online. So don’t just go with the first auction you find online. Although it is hard to predict what listing you may find next, be patient and look around for a bike that is a better deal than others. If you constantly look around for long enough, you may be lucky to find a bike with barely any damage or a recovered stolen bike with just a few parts missing. And when you do find it, be sure to work quickly, as there may be many others like you.

Check the Item for Damages

If you look around for salvage motorcycles long enough, you can train yourself to identify the key problems by just taking a look at the zoomed in images of the bike on the auction site. Any superficial dents are easy to fix, but bent frames or visually damaged engines should be avoided at all costs. Once you find a bike that catches your interest, do a thorough research about any other common issues that the particular make and model has encountered, apart from the damage and the ease with which it can be repaired.

Calculate the Total Cost of Ownership

Before your make a bid, do a thorough estimation of the total costs you will encounter. If the price of the bike, any fees and taxes, the cost of the spares and the amount paid to fix it, exceed the cost of a clean bike, then it’s not worth the effort. Sometimes the bike may be available for cheap, but if the parts are hard to find, you may end up spending way more on sourcing the right parts for the bike.

Calculate all Pros and Cons

As is the case with a majority of online auction sites, the sale is final once the time to bid is up. All salvage motorcycles are sold ‘as-is’ and since there is no way to see the motorcycles upfront before the sale, let alone test ride it, you should be absolutely sure of the implications of taking such a risk. Stick to reputed sites and do your research well and you won’t end up getting cheated.

The Bottomline

With these tips, you can continue your search for a good bike for yourself. If you buy a cheap motorcycle for sale at a throwaway price, don’t expect it to be in good condition, as it is after all, a salvage bike. Be prepared to fix it, or have it fixed by a good mechanic, and you’ll be the proud owner riding the road on a motorcycle that costs much lesser than the typical asking price.