Used bikes and other powersports equipment can be awesome, but you need to take a few minutes and check things over before you trust your life to your new ride.
This applies to all rides of all ages, not just used motorcycles.
You can’t even trust dealer maintenance shops. I was getting prepared for a long road trip last year and decided to get down low and inspect my rear brake pads and tire pressure. A fucking bolt on my rear hub fell out. I had just taken my bike to a Honda dealer for new tires the day before. I’m never going back there and if I take my bike to some shop for service I can’t do myself, I’m gonna damn sure double check the work.
Addendum: this was a two visit ordeal. First visit was for tires. They broke the tpms senor on the rear tire. Second visit was to get it replaced. I guess I should have taken that as an omen. Next time I’m going to bite the bullet and try to replace my own tires with spoons and a torque wrench.
I did some tire maintenance about six months ago. Generally not bad, but if you don’t have a tank air compressor you’re going to have a hard time seating the thing
Regular inspections go a long way and didn’t take long at all! Make a checklist and take time to go over it!
Loose fasteners can lead to hospital trips or worse on manual bikes too. Especially the ones ridden fast.
