I've been waiting for a bike for a month or two now as the stupid salesman at the dealership told me 3 weeks ago that the bike would "be here in 2 weeks"(by the way, I went yesterday and they said it would be another month so I just got my money back).

In all this time I've been thinking more and more about starting on a bigger but used bike. I was planning on buying a brand new Ninja 250 because of price and because I'd give it to my girlfriend after. The problem is though, I'm afraid if I buy a used bike, something may happen and I'd have no warranty and it would end up costing much more than I want to spend.

So the question is, if I were to get a used, how hard are they to take care of and service? I don't have any friends that know about motorcycles to help me out, they've only worked on cars. As for myself, I only do computers.

 

Working on bikes is pretty easy. It's just a smaller car.
Buying new on a ninja 250 is probably less smart than buying used on the same bike.
That bike gets purchased alot for a beginner bike so the market is littered with them. They can be had for very cheap, and most of the time won't have many miles on them.
You shouldn't have to worry about a bike's mechanical reliability much unless it was poorly maintained and/or horribly abused.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slvrblckrdRC51 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Working on bikes is pretty easy. It's just a smaller car.
Buying new on a ninja 250 is probably less smart than buying used on the same bike.
That bike gets purchased alot for a beginner bike so the market is littered with them. They can be had for very cheap, and most of the time won't have many miles on them.
You shouldn't have to worry about a bike's mechanical reliability much unless it was poorly maintained and/or horribly abused.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I couldnt have said it better myself.

 

Having small hands helps. But otherwise, basic bike maintenance is simple, and major maintenance requires patience and a service manual.

 

I guess another problem is going to be looking at a used bike. People can say they took care of their bike, or it was only tipped over once, etc etc things like that, but it's hard to prove anything. I'd be afraid to try out somebody's bike too for fear of dropping it. This one caught my eye recently.

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/mcy/219794716.html

 

Doing basic work on a bike is very easy. Working on the engine, not so much. Everything is cramed into a little frame and/or covered up by other parts. I used to have a ninja 250 and even changing the spark plugs wasn't exactly easy. Changing the air filter wasn't very fun either. But these are things you probably arent going to do very often anyhow. Its not like its impossible to work on bikes but its not super easy like on a car, it just takes some patience.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yed &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I guess another problem is going to be looking at a used bike. People can say they took care of their bike, or it was only tipped over once, etc etc things like that, but it's hard to prove anything. I'd be afraid to try out somebody's bike too for fear of dropping it. This one caught my eye recently.

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/mcy/219794716.html</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yikes, too much chrome on that bike for me. If a bike is completely repainted you have to ask yourself why. Maybe they're covering up damage, or it was completely repaired or something.
Find yourself a buddy who knows alot about bikes and when you go to look at a bike go over it very thoroughly. I went with a friend to check out a 600rr and the guy said it was perfect had never been down. He had also added "ghost flames" to the fairings, meaning it was completely repainted. I was curious as to why he would repaint so i started looking around and noticed the subframe was twisted and the passenger peg on one side stuck out further. I looked on the inside of the passenger peg and there was sharpie on it that said "left 03 RR" like it was from a parts shelf somewhere. I figured out the bike had been highsided and completely repaired.
Search the internet, there's some websites out there that will tell you what to look for when investigating a bike.

 

The only thing worse than working on little hands Japanese MC's is working on Knucklehead Engineering Italian MC's... all MC"s are VERY easy to work on

 

working on your bike is easy. biggest thing is making sure you have lots of tools, a magnetic retrieval tool is KEY for anything you might drop. I just finally got one but borrowed a friend's before when I dropped a cct cap down into the rear cylinder head and I've dropped many of intake screws. Get a manual too and as marm mentioned have patience... Oh having a front and rear stand does help. good luck

 

Thanks for the advice. I found a guide through google: http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html that I'm going to keep in mind when I go look at some bikes. Let me know if the guide seems wrong.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yed &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the advice. I found a guide through google: http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html that I'm going to keep in mind when I go look at some bikes. Let me know if the guide seems wrong.</TD></TR></TABLE>
That link is also in the sticky'd thread, in the first post.

 

The thing i love about working on bikes...

:If you leave a tool on the other side, just reach under neath.:

 

Bike are funner to work on then cars, for damn sure. The biggest reason is that you can work comfortably, you don't have to lay on the greasy ground under this huge hunk of metal that dripping **** on you. You can chill on a chair and sit next to the bike.

 

Still waiting for the dealerships to call me. Starting to seem like they don't care about their customers or something, none of them have bothered to follow up with me. Besides that, waiting on a good used bike to show up for me to buy.

One of my co-workers suggested to just buy anything, doesn't matter what it is to see if riding a bike is really what I want. If I go that route, any thoughts on this bike?
http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/mcy/221429960.html

 

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/mcy/221185983.html
That also caught my eye and probably is a better example of what I was asking about. In the ad he says he thinks the crank/rods need to be replaced. Would that be something I'd be able to find information about and fiddle around with myself? Or would that be something that would take some months of experience?

 

as a first bike i wouldn't get something that requires tons of work.(i.e. replacing the internals).
you're co-worker is on the right track. Get something cheap, maybe not $650 cheap, but cheap. Then figure out if you like riding.
Ninja 250
Ninja 500
SV650
CBR Hurricane
Thinks like that

 

Yeah, that's the way I've been wanting to go but I've had no luck in finding one.