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WHEELS

* Look carefully around the circumference of both sides of both wheels and look for dents [1]. Around $100 (each) to get them straightened, plus labor to get them off the bike, the tires off, the tires back on, and them back on the bike. Ugh! It's usually easier to tell if the wheels are dented when they're spinning. So get them up in the air and spin them, if possible. Remember to check both sides. More on wheel damage at the end of this section.
* Check the speedometer/odometer operation... there are two common designs of this system... if the bike has a cable that goes from the front axle (usually on the left side) up into the instrument cluster:
o Get the front wheel off the ground (see CENTERSTAND CHECKS, below), spin the front wheel as fast as you can and see if the speedometer registers anything. If the speedo needle doesn't rise, check to see if the trip odometer's 1/10th mile digit has moved after the wheel has spun for a while. If it hasn't, the speedo is probably disconnected or just doesn't work.
If your bike doesn't have one of these cables off the front axle, the bike's speedometer/odometer is probably keyed off the countershaft (transmission output)...
o Get the rear wheel in the air, start the engine, get the bike into second gear, and let it idle... the speedo needle should rise a bit, and the odometer digits should scroll slowly. If it doesn't, the speedo/odo is disconnected or just doesn't work.
If the speedo/odo doesn't work, it's hard to know how many miles are on the bike, since you don't know how long it hasn't been counting off miles. Run away!
* Again, if you can get the wheels in the air (see CENTERSTAND CHECKS, below), see if the wheels spin freely. Wheels that drag could be either blown wheel bearings or dragging brakes. Some brake drag is normal, so examine this on a number of bikes and you'll know when something is out of the ordinary. (In general, though, wheels spun fairly hard should spin for a couple of seconds before stopping. Rear wheels won't spin as long, since they'll be giving up some of their energy towards overcoming chain/belt/shaft friction.)
* If the bike doesn't have a centerstand, and you're feeling physically up to it, put the bike's sidestand down and pull sideways on the handlebars or the rear sub-frame to get the bike to pivot on the sidestand and lever a wheel up into the air. This is a little dangerous -- it's very easy to drop the bike! -- but not too hard if you've had some practice. It's the only good way to get wheels in the air without a swingarm/front-end stand or a centerstand. It is highly recommended that you have a friend on-hand to help with this.
* If the bike has spoked (rather than cast aluminum "mag") wheels, check to make sure that the spokes are all there and wiggle them to make sure they aren't loose. Loose spokes are a sign of neglect.
o If you can get the wheels into the air, spin them, and hold something rigid against the spokes as they turn -- the handle of a screwdriver works well for this. (Careful not to scratch the spokes -- you don't own the bike yet!) The pinging sounds that the spokes make as they strike this object should sound roughly the same, since, ideally, they're all under the same tension. A change in pitch indicates spokes of different tightness. Easily fixed, but a sign that regular maintenance hasn't been performed.
* Magnesium or carbon-fiber wheels require excruciatingly careful inspection. (And their presence may be a good indication that the bike has been raced.) These types of wheels are extremely lightweight, but they tend to crack rather than bend, and cracks can lead to sudden and catastrophic failure. If you're buying a bike with magnesium or carbon-fiber wheels, spend some extra time examining the wheels to make sure there are no cracks. (Unless the seller tells you that the wheels are magnesium, it'll be hard to tell, since magnesium and aluminum wheels both look the same when they're covered with paint.) Wheels made by "Technomagnesio" or "Marchesini" are likely to be magnesium. Carbon-fiber rims are usually unpainted, as the first law of aftermarket motorcycle parts is, "Thou shalt show off thy pretty carbon fibers whenever possible."


CHAIN/SPROCKETS (and belts)

* Grab the chain at the rearmost point on the rear sprocket (warning: greasy!) and pull backwards. If you can pull it off the sprocket enough to expose half of a sprocket tooth (or more), it's time for a new chain. $100 + an hour of labor to install. Some rust on the side plates of the chain is fine, but the rollers (the round middle part) should be shiny and smooth.
* Sprocket teeth should be absolutely symmetrical -- they'll tend to get hooked as they wear. Look at some of the exposed teeth from the side to check the individual teeth for hooking. [1] Don't forget to check the front sprocket, too, if visible. (It's often covered.) Hooked teeth = new sprockets. $60 total for two new sprockets, plus an hour or so to install.
* If the chain uses a clip-type masterlink, make sure the clip is still present. (The clip slides over the pins that extend through the sideplate of the masterlink, and is designed to prevent the sideplate from sliding off the pins. They're extremely common in aftermarket chains.) Make sure the closed end of the clip faces toward the direction that the chain rotates (otherwise it's installed improperly and more likely to fall off.)
* If the bike has a centerstand, put the bike in neutral, raise the rear wheel in the air, and you can check the chain condition. By spinning the rear wheel slowly (by hand, never with the engine), you can feel for tight spots and other problems.
o Except, please, for goodness sake, don't stick anything you care about (e.g., your fingers) near a moving chain -- plenty of people can't count to ten anymore because their fingers got mangled when they got pulled into a moving chain and sprockets. Same goes for belts and pulleys (discussed below): fingers and moving parts do not mix -- keep them apart!
Spin the wheel a bit, stop it, check the chain for kinking or tight spots. Spin the wheel a bit more, repeat. Tight spots and kinked/frozen links probably indicate the need for a new chain. If the bike doesn't have a centerstand and you're feeling brave, put the side stand down and have someone lean the bike over so that the sidestand is holding the rear wheel off the ground. (See WHEELS, above.) Then do the aforementioned test of chain smoothness.
* Most riders tend to have their chain set too tightly, massively accelerating chain wear and adversely affecting suspension action. With your friend putting all his/her weight on the seat, the chain should have at LEAST an inch of play at the middle of the bottom of the loop.
* In response to asking this page's readers how to properly check and adjust drive belt tension (if the bike uses a belt for its final drive, as many Harley-Davidsons and Buells do), it seems that belt drive bikes should come with tension gagues in their toolkit, and that the owners manual for the bike will explain how to check the belt tension. (Thank you for that assistance, readers.)



EXHAUST

* Look for holes (from a crash or from advanced rust.) Sometimes you can hear exhaust leaks, usually as a sort of staccato "chuffing" sound made as exhaust pulses escape through the rust hole.
* Rust on the exhaust is usually on the surface only, and thus merely cosmetic, but advanced rust (older bikes?) may have caused holes in the exhaust pipes, requiring replacement. It is possible to patch holes in exhaust pipes, but it rarely looks good, and it also rarely makes sense -- often the pipes rust in a number of places, not just one. It probably isn't worth it to patch them all, but that's up to you and your local exhaust shop.
* Exhaust pipes are a common aftermarket accessory... see ACCESSORIES, PRICE, and DEALING, below. Loud pipes don't "save lives" (a common motorcycle aphorism), they attract cops. But they also sound nice. : )
* If the bike has more than one exhaust cannister, start the engine and, holding a piece of paper (not your hand) a few inches back from the exhaust tips, feel to see if the pressure coming from each cannister is roughly equal. It should be -- if it isn't, one of the cylinders probably isn't firing. (You don't want to use your hand for this because if the bike backfires, anything behind the exhaust pipes is going to get badly burned.)
* This next step is optional and should only be performed if you have easy and unrestricted access to the exhaust pipes. If you want to try this, rehearse it with a "dry run" when the engine and the exhaust pipes are cold -- having your arm halfway trapped in a confined space next to thousand-degree pipes is not a good situation to get into. (For example, there is definitely not enough room to reach in and test the exhaust pipes in photo [1], below.) So:
Be extremely careful with this step, and only do it if you're confident that you can do this without burning yourself! Cover your fingers in a folded-up & thoroughly water-soaked paper towel, and very briefly touch each individual exhaust header pipe [1], about 7-9" from where it comes out of the engine. (The header pipes will potentially be over a thousand degrees, so you don't want to touch the paper towel to them for long at all! Try to do this shortly after the engine has been started.) Hissing indicates a hot pipe; a cold pipe (when others are hot) indicates a cylinder that isn't firing. A variety of things could cause this -- no spark, clogged carburators, vacuum leak, etc., so it's hard to give you an idea of how much it would cost to repair. Probably between $5 and $200, once the specific problem is identified. If you're hearing a hissing sound from where you touched the pipes, and you're not using the wet paper towel trick (mentioned above), that's your skin that's hissing as it burns -- you're giving yourself third degree burns, and you should stop immediately.


ENGINE/FLUIDS/CARBURATORS

* Did the seller warm up the bike before you got there? (See if the engine cases are warm, but they might be hot, so be careful and don't get burned. Engines will stay warm for a couple of hours; exhaust pipes get MUCH hotter much faster but cool quickly.) A pre-warmed engine might have been started & warmed-up to mask cold-starting problems, so this might be a good thing to check first... then you can let the engine cool down as you test other things, and get back to checking the engine after it's had a little more time to cool. In particular, if the bike you're going to look as is a kick-start, make sure you can kick-start the engine when it's cold.
o You'll probably be able to sense heat radiating from a surface before you actually have to touch it, but when touching potentially hot surfaces, use the back of your hand. Your body's reflex reaction to dangerous heat is more likely to pull your hand away if you use the back of your hand. (But don't get into this situation in the first place! Be careful around hot surfaces, or surfaces that might possibly be hot. Use common sense.)
* The engine should start uneventfully (with some choke*, if it's cold) and sound reasonably good. If you hear obviously bad sound like loud clacking sounds or sounds like shaking a coffee can full of marbles, run away and don't look back. The engine should rev smoothly off idle. Don't redline the thing, but after it's fully warmed up, twist the throttle and see what happens. Hesitation & stumbling = carburation problems.* A test ride will help you gague whether or not these will be easy to live with. The throttle grip, when released, should snap closed sharply, no matter how the handlebars are turned. Try turning the bars full-lock left and right, and test cable action at both extremes as well as in the middle. Resistance at the extremes but not in the middle is probably just a cable routing issue. Half an hour of labor -- if that -- to fix. If the cable moves with resistance everywhere, the problem is probably the carbs, not the cables themselves. See below. While the bike is running, and in neutral, turn the bars -- does the engine rev without even twisting the throttle? Cable routing problem. When you give the throttle a little blip with the bars turned all the way, does the engine rev and keep revving? Cable routing problem.
* *=These comments refer to carburated bikes. Some more modern bikes are fuel-injected: instead of carburators, the bike is equipped with throttle bodies and fuel injectors. Fuel-injected bikes sometimes have a "fast idle" lever instead of a choke lever, but some detect the need for an enriched (choked) mixture by computer, and automatically adjust the fuel-injection accordingly. You should not experience any "carburation" problems with a fuel-injected bike, and if you do, they may be harder to correct than on a bike equipped with carburators.
* Some bikes use a fuel pump which may need to build pressure before the bike will start. If you flip the ignition switch to "on" and hear a whirring sound from the gas tank, wait for it to finish before thumbing the start button. (If you don't, and you know the bike has a fuel pump, they're about $100 + 1-2 hours of labor to replace.)
* If the bike has a centerstand, put the rear wheel in the air and try shifting throught the gears to make sure they all engage properly. Don't spin the elevated rear wheel too fast -- if the bike slips off the cenerstand, it'll launch you into next week. Letting the bike idle and clicking through the gears is fine. Always keep the front brake applied when doing this, just in case.
* The oil level should be visible through a sight glass or dip-stick, typically on the right side of the engine. Make sure the level is between the upper and lower edges of the glass (or marks on the stick) when the engine has been off for at least a few minutes and the bike is on level ground. Way too low or too high is very bad, but just outside the range probably hasn't caused any damage. The surface level doesn't have to be right in the middle, but it should be visible through the glass. See below for color analysis. Ask the owner when the oil was last changed. The owner better know. As far as frequency goes, at least every 5k miles or 6 months is fine, and always before storing the bike for a while (e.g., before the winter). (As noted in the section on QUIZZING THE SELLER, this interval only applies for street bikes -- dirt bikes should get oil changes much more frequently.)
* Checking oil color... look through the sight glass. If your bike doesn't have one, you'll need to dip something down into the oil fill-up spot. Either use a dowel or popsicle stick, or roll up a paper towel. Pull it out and look at what color you've got:
o honey-colored: very recently changed (fades to black with time/use)
o black: old oil -- ask owner when it was last changed
o white milky streaks: water is leaking into the oil (see below)
o grey oil: lots of aluminum particles in oil (semi-OK on dirt bike, not OK on street bike)
o shiny metal flecks: run away -- major abnormal engine wear
* If the throttle cable twists with a lot of resistance (and then won't snap closed), there are a couple of possibilities, none of which is really good news:
o The carbs may be hopelessly gunked up with gas and varnish. If the bike won't start, that definitely points to this possibility (rather than either of the next two.) A good carb cleaning will either cost around $200 of shop labor or $5 + 1-3 hours of your time, depending on whether you have a shop do the work or you do the work yourself. (Warning: not for the inexperienced or mechanically faint of heart -- there are lots of small and easily-confused parts -- but if you've done it before, it's not too bad.)
o The handlebar itself may be slightly bent, preventing the twistgrip's throttle tube from sliding well. Look very closely -- sometimes it's hard to tell unless you really scrutinize it (or remove the throttle tube.) Bent handlebars can cost $75 or more to fix, and are a good indication that the bike was crashed and may have other crash damage. Be on the lookout.
o The throttle cables may partially seized, or simply routed improperly. This may mean that the carbs are fine. It's very hard to check while you're visiting a prospective acquisition, but try straightening cables or untwisting them and see if the behavior changes substantially. If straightening them or untwisting them makes them slide a little easier, they're probably routed around the frame the wrong way (hamfisted home mechanic alert!), and they can be fixed fairly easily. If not, new cables will probably run you about $20 each, plus about half an hour of labor to install.
* Some engines use air and oil for cooling, some are water cooled. The comments below about checking the coolant or worrying about coolant in the oil apply only to liquid-cooled models, not to air- or air/oil-cooled models.
* If the oil has a white streaks in it (look at the sight glass) that's water -- beware! Water in the oil could be two things -- condensation from the air in the engine, or a leak in the coolant system that's letting water escape into the lubrication system. (Guess which one isn't so bad and which one is really bad.) Condensation will burn off... let the bike run for a while (20-30 minutes?) and see if the white streaks in the oil are gone. If not, you're probably looking at major engine work to replace gaskets (or worse.) Side note: two-stroke with milky white oil can be repaired much easier than four-stroke engines. ("Two stroke" is an engine configuration, and has nothing to do with how many cylinders the machine has. Two stroke bikes sound just like chainsaws, because chainsaws use two-stroke engines.)
* Check coolant level. Find the radiator overflow bottle, and see if the coolant is between the "high" and "low" lines on the bottle. If you can't find the coolant overflow bottle, trace the thin coolant tube back from the radiator cap assembly -- it almost always goes to the coolant overflow bottle. If the coolant is clear (i.e., it's water) or is a light pink, it may be an indication that the bike has been raced. (Roadracing organizations don't allow the use of antifreeze, so race bikes run with plain water or plain water with a product called WaterWetter that makes the water pink.) This does not apply to dirt racebikes, which will probably have green coolant.
* The coolant itself should be a neon green, not brown or even a murky green-brown. You'll need to remove the radiator cap to check the coolant color, something you never want to do when the engine is still hot. If the radiator cap is hot (be careful!), do not open it -- come back to this step later, when the engine's had time to cool down. If you can safely open it:
o Pure, clear water is bad -- it's at least an indication that the coolant system has been run without corrosion inhibitors, and also an indication that the bike may have been raced.
o Pinkish-tinted water is also a possible indication that the bike has been raced.
o Bright green coolant is good.
o Brown-colored coolant either has rust in it (bad!) or oil in it (bad!). The former indicates that the insides of the engine have started rusting -- run away! Oil in the coolant probably means trouble with the head gasket or the O-rings on the oil cooler (if the bike has one.) Bad head gaskets is Very Bad, failed O-rings is only a little Bad. I'd have a professional mechanic look at the bike so you know which it is. And/or consider giving up and looking at other bikes.
o Finally, no coolant in the radiator is extremely bad -- run away!
* One other head gasket check... You won't notice this unless you spend a fair amount of time with the bike, but a partially blown head gasket will allow the bike to consume coolant over time, which will gradually lower the coolant level in the overflow bottle. It's OK for the bike to emit white smoke out the exhaust pipes as it's warming up, but after it's been running for a while and it's nice & hot, the exhaust gasses should be invisible. White smoke coming from a hot bike is a sign that the head gasket is leaking badly.
* Bikes should not emit blue smoke. White smoke (as mentioned above) is water burning off, blue smoke is oil burning. Why's the oil burning? Either because the bike is a Harley or because its rings and/or valve stem steals are worn out. If the bike emits blue smoke, have a mechanic do a compression test or a leakdown test (see below.) Or give up and look for other bikes.
o Side note: it is very normal for two-strokes to burn oil and thus emit blue smoke, since they're designed to be lubricated by oil mixed into the gasoline. This smoke tends to go away as the two-stroke engine heats up, but they're often called two-smokes for a reason. As noted above, two-strokes will sound like chainsaws.
* Needless to say, I should think, fluids leaking from the engine are a Bad Thing. Probably just new gaskets, but possibly worse. If you don't feel qualified to decide, I'd recommend having a mechanic give you his/her opinion, or simply giving up on the leaker.
* Engine compression: engines are basically air pumps, and must seal tightly to work well. Engines that don't seal well will be hard to start, will burn oil (blue smoke), and will have reduced power and fuel economy. Old engines will tend to exhibit this more than low-mileage ones, but young engines that have been abused may also have low compression numbers. Unless you know what you're doing, have a shop do a compression test on the bike. It's not a critical test, but it might give you some evidence one way or the other if you suspect that the bike may have been abused.
o Dirt bikes and some older street bikes have kick-starters that enable you to spin the engine directly. So even if you don't have a compression tester, you can at least test to see if you can feel some compression. If you spin the engine with the kick-starter and feel it get substantially harder to spin at certain points (almost like there there's a "tight spot") -- that's good: what you're feeling is compression. If you spin the engine with the kick-start lever and it doesn't really feel like there's a tight spot, the engine is probably suffering from a serious lack of compression. Run away, or, if you have your heart set on it, have the bike checked out by a shop!


CENTERSTAND CHECKS

* If the bike has a centerstand, you can test some other stuff. Put the bike up on the centerstand, have someone sit (or push down hard) on the passenger seat so the front wheel lifts in the air, then grab the sides of the front axle and try to move the front wheel forward and back (not twisting.) It shouldn't be able to move in this direction. The front wheel should rotate from full-lock left to full-lock right without binding (improper cable routing?) or feeling notchy (worn-out steering-head bearings ... see below.)
* Bad steering head bearings will feel faintly notchy, typically when the handlebars are centered. Potholes and hard landings (from jumps or wheelies) can cause little dents in the steering-head bearing races. These little dents will make the bearing feel notchy as you (slowly) rotate the bars past the notched point. With the front wheel in the air, move the bars back and forth slowly, feeling for notches. (Make sure that cables and control wires aren't causing any irregularities that you may feel.) If the steering head bearings are notchy, they need to be replaced -- figure on $60-80 of parts and 2 hours of labor.
* Spin the front wheel and apply the brakes ever so gently. There shouldn't be a pulsating feeling from the pads. A pulsating feeling at the lever means new brake rotor(s); a pulsating sound (by itself) is probably nothing, but it could be an indication that the rotors are warped, and you should make an effort to test them at speed. Checking the rotors by spinning the wheel is pretty hard to test reliably, but do your best. Spin the wheel hard and apply the brakes gently so they slow down rather than just *stop*. As noted in the section on brakes, brake rotors are around $150-250 each.)
* Next... put the front wheel back on the ground and grab the rear axle. Try to move the axle side to side. (You're checking for wear at the swingarm's pivot.) If things just feel loose back there, figure on $150 of parts (bearings, seals, etc.) and ~3-4 hours of labor. You shouldn't be able to move the swingarm side-to-side independent of the whole chassis. If you can, the swingarm bearings are badly worn.
* Check axle alignment. Hard to do 100% properly without a pair of 8' straight-edges, but look at the axle alignment marks on the sides of the swingarm and/or sight down the rear wheel to see if it's in line with the front one. Not something that's easy to detect, and it'd probably suffice to just look at the axle adjustment marks on each side (look for hash marks on the swingarm, right near the axle.) There's a way to check axle alignment with 10-15' of string, but it's a little hard to explain. Fortunately, Motorcycle Online has published a pretty good article on how to do it.


SERVICE

* Ask the owner if the bike has been serviced according the manufacturer's specifications, and, if so, for service receipts as verification.
* If you feel uncertain about the bike's condition, it's not unreasonable to request that the seller take the bike to a mechanic of your choosing for inspection -- at your expense. It's also not unreasonable to expect that the seller might to try to sell to someone who won't make him go through the added hassle of doing this.
* As noted in the FIRST THINGS FIRST section, labor rates are typically around $50/hour, though factory-trained mechanics for European marques (BMW, Ducati, Triumph, etc.) might charge a little more.


DIRT BIKES

* Look for cracks and dents on the frame, near the engine mounts. These can get cracked on bikes that have experienced a lot of hard landings.
* Pay particular attention to bearings (wheel bearings, swingarm bearings, steering head bearings) -- dirt riding and frequent post-dirt pressure-washing are a bearing's worst nightmare. Check them for notchiness, looseness, etc.
* Many dirt bikes will have been raced in local motocross races, so while the standard caveat about bikes that have been raced still applies, you may have more trouble finding a bike that has led an easy life.
* Particularly with smaller dirt bikes, you should ask the seller who the main rider has been -- adults tend to be more gentle with bikes than kids.
* Ask the seller where the bike was ridden -- sandy/dusty areas may cause more wear on chains/sprockets/bearings and will require more frequent air-filter cleanings than an equivalent amount of time spent riding trails.
* It's usually easy to remove the flywheel cover on two-stroke dirt bikes (typically on the left side on recent models) -- the rubber gasket won't be damaged by removing the cover. Pull the cover off and, grabbing the flywheel, try to move it off its axis. If you can feel movement, either the flywheel is loose, or the crankshaft bearings are badly worn. In other words, you may just need to tighten the flywheel mounting bolt(s), or you may need to have the cases split and have the lower end bearings replaced. ($40-$70 of parts a couple of hours of labor.)
* If you take this flywheel cover off and see oil dribbling out, the crank seal has failed and the engine will need to be disassembled to fix it. ($30 or so of parts and a couple of hours of labor.)


QUIZZING THE SELLER

* When the seller is going over the bike, giving you his sales pitch, try to ascertain whether or not this person really cares about the bike's condition. When you come across something wrong -- say, a handlebar that got slightly bent in a parking lot tip-over, does the owner seem to think that it's no big deal and doesn't need to be replaced, or did the owner point it out himself, and acknowledge the fact that it needs fixing? Try to figure out if the owner seems like the kind of bike-savvy person who maintains his bikes well, or someone that doesn't keep up with scheduled maintenance and just gets a different bike when he's worn one out. You can often tell a lot about someone through intuition alone.

Ask the owner:
* Has the bike ever been down?
o If the seller says, "no," but you see evidence of crash damage, ask the seller to explain.
* Has the bike ever been raced?
o If the seller says, "no," but you see safety wire, tires with ragged edges, aftermarket case guards, etc., there better be a good explanation.
* When was the oil last changed?
o Street bike oil should be changed at least every 5000 miles or six months, whichever comes first.
o Dirt bike oil should be changed after every couple rides, or at least every couple hundred miles. For dual-sports (on/off road), whether the oil change interval should be more like a dirt bike or more like a street bike depends entirely on what percentage of their use was in the dirt.
* What is the maintenance history of the bike?
o Is the bike overdue for regular servicing, like a valve adjustment, a carb sync, etc? (If the owner hasn't lost the bike's owner's manual, open it up and look at the maintenance schedule to see if it was followed properly.)
* How old (years & miles) are the tires? Ask the seller if he thinks the tires are good.
o See the section on tires, above to evaluate their condition for yourself.
* What modifications were made to the bike?
o Heavily-modified bikes should probably be avoided.
* Off-road bikes: How often is the air filter cleaned? Replaced?
o Dirt bike air filters should be cleaned or changed frequently, and fairly proportional to how frequently the bike sees sandy & dusty conditions. Unless you're looking at a dual-sport (street + dirt) bike,

If you made it through all of this...congrats, and I hope it helped to make you more aware of things to look for when buying a used bike.

Nothing here is written in stone... Please note.. this is only a guide, and suggestions of what to look for. Happy Hunting.