The first one was an '83 Honda 750 for $700 that I bought off of ebay. I had emailed the guy before buying it, but never saw it. over email, he told me he was going to a bigger bike and wanted to get rid of this one. when i go to pick it up, the guy is working on the bike, says he barely knows anything about them; turns out he's an auctioneer who bought it for $400 and is reselling it. needless to say, the fucker lasted for four hours. i got it running again a few months later and the mechanic told me to cut my losses and get rid of it.
The second bike i bought i found on cycle trader, went to see it. it was a '74 Honda CB550 for $900. he had three bikes in his garage and said he was getting rid of this one to put more money into the other ones. That was four years ago, and I still have it. It's not perfect, but I ride it everyday.
The biker community is somewhat like the skykdiving community; they wave at each other when driving past, and shit, it's a common bond. Hence, they don't generally screw over other bikers. Getting a bike I'd look at local sellers, and make sure they actually ride themselves. When you go to look at it, tell them to not turn it on before. You want the engine cold, to see how it starts up. You shouldn't need to put too much effort into it. After a few moments it should run smoothly, idle between 1-2000 RPM.
Find out how long its been sitting. If it's sat for a year or so, you'll probably need to clean the carbs and do a bunch of other crap to it which could add a bit of money to it. Bikes like to be maintained much more often than cars.
If you know how to ride, the best bet would be to just take it out and see how she rides. If you don't know how to ride, take a motorcycle course before you buy. If you can borrow someones bike for a while as you're learning, that would be helpful as well.
You should be able to get a decent running old bike for US $1000-1500. The good thing about old bikes is that its very basic parts and you can do 90% of the maintenance and repairs on it yourself. For $3000 you should be able to get a pretty nice bike as well. For your very first bike, you also want a naked-ish bike. You will eventually drop it, and if it has plastic fairings on it, it'll be expensive to replace.
Also, a friend of mine recently bought a bike from the BMW dealership for $5000. They supposedly don't get commission, so I would have no problem buying from them. Beamers are damn good bikes, but a little on the pricey side. It could be worrth it if you have the cash for it.
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