salvaged title?

[kittay]

I was just curious what your opinions were regarding a salvaged title on a bike?

I am looking to buy an s2r, however it has the salvaged title. The parts have all been replaced, but it still worries me slightly. I can get it for a good price, but I know that if I go to sell it the resale price will be effected as well.

So what are your thoughts, should I go for it, where it's a good price, or steer away? Opinions??

[philb]

If you can get it checked to make sure the frame and forks are straight, then a salvage title bike can be a really good deal. It's a better deal for you if it's a bike you see keeping for the long term; then you get the lower price, and that's that. If you tend to buy and sell bikes, then it's less so, since the money you save now, you lose on resale, and it's harder to sell a salvage title bike.

PhilB

[TheOther996s]

Value wise I generally see salvaged title bikes going for a 30-50% discount off of a clean title bike. Doesn't mean you won't pay more, and doesn't mean you won't get more when you sell it.

[kmdani]

Another thing to watch for is insurance - I have no personal experience, but I've heard that they won't do full coverage on a salvage title.

-Ken

[kittay]

that's a good thing to know, I will check into that!

[caferacermike]

If I were ever to consider a "salvage" title bike I would need copies of the insurance paperwork describing what happened and why they "totaled" it, as well as pictures of the bike at the time of totaling. I'm not going to buy a bike that was smashed into a tree at speed and then beaten out with a hammer. On some of today's bikes if you forget to put the kickstand down in your driveway at no speed and drop the bike, a broken mirror and bent handlebar are enough damage for an insurance company to total the bike and walk away from it.

On the other hand not always is the damage from an accident. Being in Texas I can recall after hurricane Katrina all these ads from car dealers pleading with people to seriously consider whether to buy a new car or a used car for a couple of years. After the flooding unsavory people were drying out these cars and dragging them all over the area and trying to sell them super cheap. The engines were underwater and were shot. Some people were altering Titles to try and hide where the vehicle was actually from. Just another reason why I want to see why the insurance company decided to total the vehicle rather than repair it.

As a seller I might tell you just about anything to get you to buy the bike and then the problems that arise later belong to you, not me. The documented facts won't lie to you. If the seller says "I bought it at auction I don't know anything about it" using the VIN and some snooping you should be able to find out what actually happened to the bike.

And as was stated, buy a salvage bike because you want to own it. Plan to ride it into the ground, pass it on to a friend or relative later, or race it, not to buy it and resell in a year or two. If you do find one you are considering, take it to a shop and have it all checked out. A dealer preferably as they are the most familiar with the bike, but the opinion of a good independent shop is better than no opinion at all. Plan to pay $70-120 for a used bike inspection. Tell them up front it is salvage and list what the damages were and what the seller did to fix it. That way the don't skim over and miss something while worrying more about tire tread and brakes.

[Ducati Marine]

I'm going to agree with everyone else here. If its a "good" salvaged title, then go for it and don't plan to sell. Take it and turn it into a your dream bike. Since its most likely going to be a cheap bike, then take the time and learn your bike. Do your own work on everything and anything possible. Do/make your own mods, and anything else. Make it yours and truly unique, because if for some reason you screw something up beyond any repair (which is hard) then you can breath easy knowing you didn't spend that much in the 1st place. Just my opinion =) Happy riding

[65218]

I've actually been looking over salvage bikes at auctions since I started buying bikes and flipping them. I've been a Benz tech for over a decade so I understand the mechanics of these things and I know where to look for damage, engine issues and water intrusion. I've found that many insurance companies seem to have a replacement policy with damaged bikes, regaurdless of the damage. With a monster, it's pretty obvious when salvage means the tank and fenders got scuffed as opposed to a major collision with a bent frame. There's not really much that you can hide. As far as water damage from katrina cars, just pull a few connectors apart like the one on the back of the cluster. If it's full of green or white residue- skip it. If it was a cracked engine case (which you could do just by dropping the bike on the kickstand at a standstill) check the engine number with the DMV and make sure that the replacement motor was not stolen. A front end impact does not doom a salvage either since the cheaply cast stock triple clamps tend to break well before a fork leg or trellis frame bends. Look for cracked paintaround the welds at the head tube to check for bent parts. Ride the bike and make sure the wheels track in the same line, if it looks like the back wheel is off to one side while going straight- something is not straight. But like I said, with a Monster- it's a naked bike, and it's really hard to hide things naked. So unless the bike is in a pile of parts in an auctionyard salvage, salvaged just means the insurance company didn't want to deal with it and has no bearing on it being a good bike.

Now a clean title means jack as well. I just picked up a trellis frame with a clean title online. All I have is the person's word that the bike was never wrecked and they just bought a completely good running bike to part out for cash. I can see the frame is good, and I checked with the DMV to see if it was stolen. But what I'm hinting at is that people don't tend to keep full coverage on a bike, so if it gets wrecked, they pick up e bay parts, patch them up and sell them off and it has a clean title. The tank and panels may look spotless, but the frame tubes look like a crushed coke can underneath. All a title is, is a peice of paper. It is not a factual docuentation of the complete history of a vehicle. About half a dozen of the lease return Benz's I inspect for pre owned certification have a clean title, but have the front end of another car welded on at the firewall (sometimes very clean work, sometimes looking like a 3 year old stuck it on with peanutbutter) and I have to fail the car for certification. And that was about a $20-40k repair someone did out of pocket to hide it, on a car that was required to have full covereage. The only thing clean on a title is the paper, you have to inspect the bike yourself.

On another note- unless the owner actually hands you the service records, figure in the cost of a major service with the purchase of any used bike (salvaged or clean). I do my own work but, my cost on belts, shims, spark plugs, oil/filter, brake/clutch fluid is still more than few hundred bucks plus a day of my time. If you send it to a dealer your looking at $750 to $1k. And that's not including tires and brake pads if you see that they're worn as well.

Long winded, but I hope it helps. And if you ever see bikes for sale on this forum I'll post before and after pics of my repairs so salvaged or not- you can see they are solid.