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Buying a used motorcycle has a lot to recommend it. Someone else has run it in, and more important, has paid for its depreciation over a few years. There's a huge range of used bikes available, so how do you find the one best suited to you? Keep in mind that it might not be the one you want most that suits you.

Start with basics. What sort of motorcycle do you want? What are you going to use it for? Will you be doing a big annual mileage? Do you have a car, or will this bike be your only private transport? Do you have any particular bias? (I'm reluctant to buy a Japanese bike, good though most of them are, because inter alia I believe that the proper place for a whale is in the ocean, not on a plate.)

Don't worry unduly about the mileage. It's not that important. Some years ago we had a controversy about odometer tampering in cars imported used from Japan. (We used to have a car assembly industry here before the government destroyed it in keeping with the latest Ivy League economic fad for importing everything, just like in 3rd world countries.) The importers claimed that it wasn't a big issue because mileage was less important than condition (although that didn't stop dealers paying less for high-mileage cars in good condition). Cynicism aside, condition is important, much more important than mileage, unless the mileage is directly relevant. In the matter of the imported used cars, the big problem was the removal of any servicing records which could contradict the numbers on the odometer. So in some cases, mileage is relevant. Ducatis need a major service at 20,000 km intervals, and this service is expensive (around $NZ2000). This can be a useful bargaining lever if the service is nearly due and you have good engineering skills and can do most of the work yourself. Air-cooled BMW twins expect new gearbox bearings every 100,000 km, so if the gearbox rattles when you turn the wheel, pay less for the bike or find another one for sale. Scratched or faded paint can be renewed at your convenience, but damage to the seat needs to be fixed promptly, before the padding gets saturated.

The type of bike you're looking for will determine to a large extent which specialised areas you will check. Japanese sportsbikes with a racetrack bias, for example the Yamaha R1 or R6, or the Kawasaki ZZ10R, are mechanically very robust but delicate in the details, with lightweight bodywork and fastenings which can be very expensive to repair or replace. Fork seals and steering head

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