Theres a few things ive learned from buying and selling bikes. Ive never owned a brand new bike because the insurance companies here wont offer fully comprehensive cover for motorcycles, infact they wont even cover you for fire... third party only.
1. Never view/test ride a bike in the wet. For one thing rain does a pretty good job of cleaning bikes for people who dont care enough about them to spend the time doing it themselves. It also does a niffty job of hiding scratches and other tell tale signs of wear or minor damage. For another thing if you come off for any reason on a wet road you may be unfamiliar with you will be liable for the damage.
2. In countries where insurance is mandatory, make sure you are covered. If you get stopped by the boys on blue whilst on a test drive and you are not covered you could lose your license.
3. Check for things like cracked or worn tyres, cracked or damaged fairing, cracked or worn seals or grease on the forks. If in doubt take it to a garage and have a mechanic give it a quick look over. Most experienced mechanics Ive met can tell you in about 2 minutes whether or not to give it a wide berth and Ive never been charged for it yet. If the guy selling the bike has a problem with this, walk away.
4. Check for signs of respraying or rust bubbles under the paint. If you see bubbles the bike has gone rusty and has been painted over without first treating the rust.
5. If the wheels are spoked, check the condition of the spokes. Very often on used bikes they can fade and just look worn. This isnt a problem as long as they arent loose. Check that all spokes are present and tight.
6. This one should have gone first but its only just come to mind now. Do your homework first, save time and money by reading reviews online. Forums like this one are an excellent resource for finding out what to expect when youre expecting in the second hand bike world. I also use
http://www.reviewcentre.com/
7. When possible pay with a check. Cash is a great way of bringing the price down on a used car or bike. But I have paid cash for a used car before and had it die on me on the way home. If you are buying from a garage or used showroom you have some limited protection in this sense. If you are buying second hand privately, good luck proving that the bike was broken before you bought it. Paying with a check means that if something does go wrong with it within the first few days, you have a record of when you bought it, how much it cost you and if the worst comes to the worst you can put a stop on the check whilst you and the seller can come to an amicable agreement.
8. Always make sure you get the sellers details such as name, address, contact telephone number and always get some form of receipt.
9. Do a background check on the bike before you buy it. Make sure that the bike belongs to the person you are buying it from, that it isnt attached to a loan and that there are no other legal or financial issues with it. A friend of mine who is a debt collector stopped me from making a costly mistake once. I was talking to him about a bike I was going to buy and he said he knew the bike. The previous owner had a loan attached to the bike and didnt pay his bill. He then took the bike to a trader who would agreed to sell the bike for him and take a commission. My friend told me that as soon as he saw it on the road he was legally within his rights to repossess it.
10. Avoid bikes which have been modded up with power bands and racing exhausts etc... alot of these racing mods require more maintenance than the stock parts and often they get none. Your always better off buying a stock bike and fitting your own mods so that you know exactly whats been done to it.
These top 10 tips of mine are by no means the be all and end all. But these are things that Ive picked up over the years and I hope they will serve you well.