[zombie]

Anyone have the experience of buying a used bike? Please share about what to look out for and the process involved. Thanks.

[laziras]

elo zombie,

i bought my 2nd hand kriss before and i'm quite happy with it. but i traded in the bike after the bike started to make problems. from which party will you buy? the owner or bengkel? if from the owner, better if u know the owner. if u buy from the bengkel maybe bike woouldnt give u big problems if the bengkel do everything to repair and replace the unpleasant parts.

the bengkel that took my kriss didnt touch any parts of the engine (the engine sound like a new engine bcoz it just one month overhauled) but changed the covers.

my 3 and half years old kriss sold for RM2300 and that was the highest that i can get after asked many bengkel. maybe if EX5 the price would be higher as the mechanic said 2nd hand value for EX5 is higher.

[zombie]

Buying from a shop costs much more.. but I guess they will do some repairs before selling it off again. On top of that, you get some form of warranty in terms of weeks or months.
Buying bikes straight from sellers would probably give you a better price but you don't know if you can trust the guy or not.
laziras, you're getting quite a bit for your kirss. You in KL or what?

[ZZRPilot]

I agree. Bike shops rarely sell anything below RM1500, but you will enjoy a limited warranty cover courtesy of the tauke. Buying from a private seller may save you up to RM600, which can be a substantial percentage of the price of a kapcai. But then again, if you ain't picky over a few hundred bucks it doesn't really matter.

What's more important is theft. Small bikes are stolen like nobody's business. Don't forget to match the chassis number & engine no carefully against the reg card. If there's any discrepancy, walk away.

Small bikes are also notorious for traffic violations. So it is also important to run the bike's registration number thru the JPJ & police website.

Because these bikes are cheap to rebuild, you may also run into plenty of "stolen recovereds" or "salvaged bikes" especially from the shops. These are insurance write-offs legally bought from insurance auctions, usually rebuilt with new (or new-looking) parts which is good, but you must make sure that the frame is straight and the bike runs true!

If you're buying from a private seller, pay close attention if the owner is the stereotypical kutu type. Sotong tyres, racing rearsets and pain-in-the-ear aftermarket exhausts are much loved by them and will land you in trouble at the next police roadblock. Worse are internal mods like serious cylinder rebores and racing bearings ('tanam toyol') - you can count on an overhaul pretty soon. So the golden rule in buying a used kapcai is - NO MODS!! Buy stock, bog standards bike only.

[laziras]

Zombie,

I am in KL (staying in SJ), the shop that I mentioned is somewhere near UM, went there because my bike got punctured (friday). then had a little chat with the owner, asked how much if i trade-in my kriss for EX5.

he asked what year then i said will call him tomorrow (saturday). called him and told him my bike was 3 and half year and RM2.3k was the price he said.

monday, went to the shop, bookied for a blue EX5, which was more the RM5k. said that i will buy the bike by cash. he said ok, RM4.9K will be new price.

came 2 days after and paid him RM1000 in advance and he said RM4.8K is for me! 2 days after that I came back with RM1.5 and come back with my new EX5 and one free LTD helmet. asked for rain coat and motorlock but he said cannot but he will give me the price he get from his supplier (dont know true or not).

a simple chrono for u, hope it will answer your next Qs. hehehehe

[zombie]

That's good advice, ZZRPilot. You're right on the soon-to-be-overhauled type bikes. They would probably be dirt cheap from private sellers.
Something else that is kinda vague for me is the process that follows after private buyer & seller agrees to a price. Do they get insurance first or change the registration at JPJ first? Can the change of registration be done at any JPJ offices, like the one in State, PJ?

laziras, I do my biz with that bike shop along jln. gasing, same row with Domino's. Is that the one you're tokking about?

[laziras]

Aiya! still got question for me ya zombie, jk.
Sorry, i dont know where is jln gasing. heheh
but i dont think the shop is same ros with Domino. it located between balai bomba and BP stesen, jln pantai bahru.

and ZZRPilot, tabik! a very good advice.

[ZZRPilot]

>Something else that is kinda vague for me is the
>process that follows after private buyer & seller
>agrees to a price. Do they get insurance first or
>change the registration at JPJ first? Can the change
>of registration be done at any JPJ offices, like the
>one in State, PJ?

Once you agree on the price (and did all your homework and inspection), have the JPJ transfer of ownership form ready. When you hand over the cash, get the seller to give a photocopy of his IC and sign the form. Get the keys, bike and reg card. Then go buy insurance.

After that, you can head on to JPJ and get the bike ownership tranferred to you.

However, you can speed up the JPJ ownership transfer process tremendously if you bring the owner along with you to JPJ. Discuss this before handing over the cash lah.

To cover your butt you might want to draw up some kind of receipt that acknowledges the sale, signed both by you and the seller. I've heard horror stories where unscrupulous sellers report the bike stolen the minute the buyer rides it away!

Oh, throw away all the security locks i.e. padlocks/disc locks that the previous owner gave. Some owners may keep duplicate keys and don't hand those over to you. So buy your own security locks for protection.

[zombie]

Yup, that's exactly what I needed to hear. I must kow tow to you, ZZRPilot.

[deWA]

one thing about buying from shop... some shop arr.. they change some of
the part to local one... like pistons and etc.

usually at shop they will strip the motor first, repaint the chasis to
make it new and cover all accidents mark...