Let's Ride Page 10

  The minimum you want for leg protection is a pair of jeans. If you are riding around in shorts, you are a fool. If you crash, even at a low speed, you’re going to spend years getting painful skin grafts. Plus you’ll look like an idiot. Regular jeans are the bare minimum you should consider for riding motorcycles. Better yet would be a pair of jeans made especially for riding motorcycles, with built-in armor in the knees. Best of all would be leather motorcycle-specific pants, or at least a pair of Gore-Tex or mesh motorcycle pants.

  I’ll be honest—I’ve never worn gear with built-in armor, but I’ve been lucky. My coauthor, Darwin, hasn’t been so fortunate—he took a low-speed spill a couple of years ago when he wasn’t wearing armor and crushed his knee so severely that he’ll walk with a limp for the rest of his life and will eventually need knee-replacement surgery. Armored jeans or riding pants may well have prevented much of the damage.

  Boots and Gloves

  Always wear a sturdy pair of gloves when riding motorcycles. Ideally you’ll want a pair with gauntlets that extend over your wrists because these will prevent bees and other insects and debris from flying up your jacket sleeves while riding down the road. Having an angry hornet stinging your armpit can be a little distracting when you are riding through traffic. Motorcycle-specific gloves will have extra leather on the palms, fingers, and knuckles to provide extra protection in the event of a crash.

  You’ll also want to wear boots that go up over your ankles. If you see someone riding around in tennis shoes, or worse yet, sandals, you’re probably seeing the same fool who wears shorts while riding. I recommend not getting too friendly with an idiot like that because then you’ll have to go and visit him or her in the hospital while he or she is getting painful skin grafts.

  Good boots serve a variety of purposes on a bike. First off, your feet are an important part of your motorcycle’s suspension—after all, it’s your legs that are suspending the bike when it’s not moving. You want the contact points with the ground (your feet) to be as firm and secure as possible, so make sure your boots have grippy soles. If you go with cowboy boots, make sure they’re work-type cowboy boots with rubber soles rather than the fashion-type boots with smooth leather soles, which are as slippery as banana peels. I wear cowboy boots and always make sure to get boots with rubber soles.

  Your boots will also protect your feet, and not just in the event of a crash; every time you ride they’ll protect your feet from getting burned by the exhaust pipes or getting hit by rocks thrown up by your front wheel.

  WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

  Countersteering is the only way to get your bike to start turning at speeds faster than a walking pace.

  The front brake provides most of your stopping power; use it.

  Helmets not only protect your head, but they make riding more comfortable.

  © by Tina Hager

  Chapter Four

  Evaluating a Used Motorcycle

  WHY BUY A USED MOTORCYCLE?

  THE MOST COMPELLING REASON to buy a used motorcycle is to save money. Any new motorcycle you buy will be worth much less money the moment you ride it out of a dealership.

  For many years Harley-Davidson motorcycles were exceptions to this rule; when Harley built fewer bikes than it could sell each year and their motorcycles were in short supply, you could buy a new bike and turn around and sell it that same day for a profit. But those days are long gone. Once you had to get on a waiting list to buy a Harley, but now the Motor Company builds more bikes than it can sell. As a result, used Harleys are worth less than new ones. If you don’t believe me, do a little snooping around the classifieds, Craigslist, or eBay and see what’s selling.

  In the old days when motorcycles wore out more quickly than they do today, you could make a good argument for not buying used bikes, but that no longer applies. Most motorcycles built today will outlast several owners. Unless you crash, it’s pretty hard to wreck a modern motorcycle. Today’s bikes will easily run for a hundred thousand or more miles, and most riders seldom put more than four thousand or five thousand miles per year on their bike. At that rate a modern bike should last for twenty or more years, so if you buy a five-year-old motorcycle that’s in good shape, you should be set to ride for many years.

  There are exceptions, though. Take Harley-Davidsons, again. While some Harleys might run forty thousand to fifty thousand miles without a rebuild, most of them are pretty tired by the time they hit the thirty-thousand-mile mark. When the Evolution engine came out in the 1980s, the California Highway Patrol ran their Harleys for thirty thousand miles, rebuilt the top ends of the engines, and then retired the bikes from active duty. They used them for training at the academy for a while before selling them, but they were no longer considered reliable enough for patrol work.

  You can plan on rebuilding a Harley four or five times before a Honda wears out. I personally do not believe that any Harley will last longer than fifty to sixty thousand miles without a rebuild, regardless of how well maintained it is. Many Harley dealers won’t accept a used Harley on trade if it has more than forty thousand miles on it, which tells me that their assessment of how long the bikes will run between engine rebuilds jibes with mine. On the other hand, at least you can rebuild your Harley; when your Honda wears out, it’s done. Because of the way most Honda engines are constructed, it will probably cost you four times as much to rebuild a worn-out Honda as it will to buy another used Honda. This is why some people call Japanese motorcycles “disposable.”

  You’ll also want to avoid motorcycles that have been raced or used heavily on racetracks. When I say a modern bike should be good for a hundred thousand or more miles, I’m talking about a hundred thousand street miles. A mile spent on a racetrack takes a lot more out of a bike than a mile spent on the street. If a bike has been raced or used for a lot of track days, all bets are off when it comes to reliability.

  Fortunately there are ways to tell if a bike has been raced. If the bike has some sort of aftermarket bodywork on it, there’s a good chance that it’s been raced, or at least crashed heavily. Or it may have just been owned by some dipstick who fancied himself a racer, but the end result is the same.

  A definitive way to see if a bike has been used on a racetrack is to check the axle bolts and the bolts holding on parts like brake calipers, footpegs, and shift and brake levers; if they have holes drilled in them, they’ve been safety wired. This is a sure sign that the bike has seen heavy track use. If you’re buying a track bike to use on the track, then having a bike ready for safety wiring is a good thing, but for anyone buying a street bike for street use, evidence of safety wiring should be a big red flag that this bike has led an extremely hard life.

  Although you can generally find good, reliable motorcycles in the used-bike market, the potential to get ripped off is high. The following information should help you negotiate the minefield that is the used-bike market.

  A CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT RESURRECTING WRECKS

  ONE OF THE CHEAPEST ways to buy a bike can be to find one that’s been wrecked and rebuild it, but unless you’re a seasoned motorcycle restorer, I recommend against this route. If you know what you are doing and enjoy that sort of work, then rebuilding a wrecked bike can be a rewarding process, but for most of us it’s a complete pain in the ass.

  Even if you have experience, chances are that the end result will be a bike that is never completely reliable. I used to ride with a guy who got all of his bikes this way, and even though he knew what he was doing, his bikes always suffered from niggling little problems.

  Most of these resulted from the fact that the bike had sustained more structural damage in its crash than had been apparent when my buddy first examined it. An engine case might have a hairline crack, or a steering head might have been slightly tweaked, or some hidden piece of bent metal might have been wearing a hole in the wiring harness. My friend spent more time hunting down oil leaks and electrical gremlins than he did riding. I finally quit riding with the guy because I got sick
of waiting for him while he made roadside repairs.

  Trying to save money by rebuilding a wreck can also be an example of what the Brits call “false economy”; in the end you might spend more money trying to fix all the little problems than you would have spent buying a nonwrecked bike in the first place. Even if the damage to the bike is just cosmetic, you’ll be shocked when you see how much bodywork and trim pieces for modern motorcycles cost. There are always exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking you’ll probably save money by buying the best bike you can afford right from the start.

  This brings up another potential hazard of buying used bikes—getting a bike with a salvage title. These are bikes that have been crashed and purchased from the owners by a salvage yard or an insurance company. This means that the motorcycle has been declared a total loss by a state’s department of motor vehicles. “Total loss” means that the cost to fix the damage from a wreck would have exceeded the value of the motorcycle.

  When a bike has been declared a total loss, any future owner who wants to license the bike has to create a new title for the vehicle, which will be marked as “salvage” by most states’ motor vehicle departments. A few states allow the title to be resurrected as “clean” after some kind of inspection, but most states don’t. Unless the title is cleaned in one of the few states that still allows this, the motorcycle will always be marked as a salvage-title vehicle.

  Sometimes a motorcycle might end up with a salvage title because of superficial cosmetic damage, and the bike will be as good as new with a few new parts, but then again there’s a good chance that the motorcycle might have suffered some serious structural damage when it was wrecked, structural damage that might not be readily apparent but will make itself known at the worst possible time, like when you’re riding across Utah or Arizona on a 110-degree day.

  Even if a bike didn’t receive serious structural damage in a wreck, what are the odds that the same careless rider who crashed the motorcycle in the first place abused its engine or transmission to the point of failure before he or she wrecked the bike?

  A related issue to watch out for is a bike with a salvage title that has been “cleaned” as just mentioned. Someone may have bought a wrecked bike, rebuilt it, and then exchanged the salvage title for a clean title in one of the states that still allows this sort of thing. The person then resells the bike as if it’s never been wrecked, even though it is as likely to have serious problems as any other wrecked bike. Be wary of bikes that have been titled in several different states. This could be a sign that the bike has had its title cleaned, which in turn means that it’s either been wrecked or, worse yet, stolen. In the latter case, you might have worse problems than an unreliable motorcycle; you might find yourself under arrest for receiving stolen property.

  MECHANICAL INSPECTION

  THE BEST WAY TO avoid buying a bike that’s been wrecked is to have a professional mechanic examine the motorcycle before you buy it. This is a good idea for any used bike that you might buy, whether you buy it from a dealership or from a private seller.

  If you know a motorcycle mechanic whom you trust, spend a few dollars to hire him or her to examine the bike. Otherwise do a little research to find a reputable shop where you can take the bike. If you’re buying the bike from a shop, there’s not much point in letting the shop staff examine the bike themselves, since they’ve already examined it. You’re best off having a third-party mechanic who hasn’t got a stake in selling the bike examine it. A shop or individual seller who won’t let an outside mechanic examine a bike should be a bright red flag telling you to find a different bike.

  To ensure the most objective mechanical inspection, take the bike to a shop that doesn’t carry the brand of bike you’re buying. Like all things, there are exceptions to this advice. For example, if you’re buying a Ducati, which will have desmodromic valves (valves that are opened and closed mechanically, rather than being closed by valve springs, as on most engines), you probably won’t learn much about the bike from your local Harley shop, where the mechanics are unfamiliar with overhead cams in general and probably wouldn’t know a desmo valve from a pig’s aorta. But in general you’ll get the most unbiased opinion if you take a bike to a shop that doesn’t sell that particular brand.

  I understand that getting the bike professionally inspected will be a hassle and will cost you money, but the grief (and money) you might save yourself could make it worthwhile. It may even be impossible in some cases, but most dealers should allow you to take a motorcycle to an off-site mechanic or allow you to bring in a mechanic to inspect the bike. They won’t encourage this, and they won’t advertise this fact, but if you show you’re serious about buying a bike, most reputable dealers will allow it.

  DEALERSHIPS VERSUS THE PRIVATE SELLER

  UNLESS A PRIVATE SELLER has unrealistic expectations or he or she is just fishing for a sucker to pay an inflated price, chances are that a private seller will ask less for the exact same bike than would a professional dealer. There are a number of reasons for this. A private seller isn’t working on a business model that accounts for the interest he or she is paying the bank for inventory. He or she may have a loan for the bike, but most people don’t think in terms of how much interest they’re paying every day, as do most businesses.To make up their own financing costs, dealerships charge a little extra to help offset interest payments. They also add a certain percentage to the prices of their used bikes to cover operating costs. It costs a lot of money just to turn the lights on in a dealership every morning. Add in the salaries and health-care costs of their employees, and you can see why dealerships have to charge more for used bikes.

  On the other hand, if a dealership is any good, you’ll get something in return for the extra money you spend there. When buying from a private seller, the general rule is “buyer beware.” After you buy a bike from a private seller, if something is wrong with it and the seller won’t make it right, your only recourse may be to sue the seller, which will end up costing you even more money with no guarantee that you’ll be successful.

  Most shops, however, offer some sort of warranty, and if they want to have your repeat business, they’ll bend over backward to make certain you are happy with your new bike. They may even be required to make it right for you by law; some states have lemon laws that apply to motorcycle dealerships as well as automobile dealerships.

  If your bike does need repair, even if it’s for something that happened after you bought it, dealers tend to take care of their customers. They’ll be more motivated to help out a loyal customer whom they know than they will be to help out some stranger who bought a bike from a private seller. Also consider that if a dealership originally sold the bike when it was new, which is often the case with good shops that have a lot of repeat customers, chances are they’ll know your bike’s entire service history and will be familiar with its idiosyncrasies.

  If you buy a motorcycle that still has time remaining on its factory warranty, you may be able to use the warranty to defray the cost of necessary repairs. (Be sure to check the terms of the warranty to ensure the repair is covered.) If you’ve bought your bike from a dealership, any dealership worthy of your business will take care of arranging for the repair and filling out warranty paperwork. If you bought your bike from a private party and take it in for warranty repairs, you may find that the dealership is not quite as helpful. That might not seem fair, but that’s just the way it is.

  If you need to finance your motorcycle, a dealership will have a department that does nothing but arrange financing for motorcycles. It will also be able to help you deal with all the other legal paperwork involved with buying a motorcycle, like paying sales tax, getting insurance, filling out your registration, and transferring the title. When you buy from a private seller, you’ll have to deal with all these details yourself.

  A good dealership will inspect, service, and check to make certain every motorcycle it sells is roadworthy; the odds are that the used bikes a good
shop is selling will be reliable. The same holds true for a good private owner. A responsible owner will keep his or her motorcycle in good repair. The trick is deciding whether or not a shop or individual is reputable, and it’s a lot easier to determine if a shop that sells hundreds of motorcycles every year is reputable than it is to determine the trustworthiness of a private seller who sells a bike maybe once every five or six years.

  GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS

  REGARDLESS OF HOW DIFFERENT motorcycles may seem, at their hearts they are more or less all the same. After spending an entire chapter discussing the different types of bikes, this might seem like a contradiction, but when it comes to inspecting a used motorcycle, the process is pretty much the same for everything from a 250-cc single-cylinder trail bike to an 1800-cc six-cylinder Gold Wing.

  In addition to a mechanic (or at least a friend who’s knowledgeable about motorcycles), you’ll want to bring the following items when you go to look at a used bike:

  Flashlight for looking into dark places

  Tire pressure gauge to avoid a flat while on a test ride

  Clean rag to wipe off the inevitable grease you will get on yourself

  Mechanic’s mirror to see hard-to-reach items like the wiring harness

  The following procedures apply to all bikes, as does the following advice: if something doesn’t check out, move on and find another bike. Unless you have a mechanic estimate the costs of repairing any problems you might find, you can assume the costs will be high. Even routine maintenance like valve adjustments or tire replacement can cost hundreds of dollars. Serious repairs, like fixing a failing transmission, will cost thousands. If you pay $4,500 for a nine-year-old Yamaha Road Star with 59,000 miles, then have to drop another $3,000 fixing the transmission, you’re getting dangerously close to the cost of a two-year-old carry-over version of the same bike with zero miles. (A “carry-over” is a brand-new bike from a previous season that has gone unsold.)