Believe me when I say you may have problems w/ even new bikes. A friend of mine bought a left over 07 CBR100RR and his clutch started slipping w/ in a week. He takes to back to Mountain Adventures, they replace the clutch-it starts doing it again w/ in a couple days. He searches the forums and finds out some 1000RR have problems w/ the hydraulic clutch line getting hot and boiling the fluid. He replaces the line w/ a steel-braided line and within a week it slips. He's furious and takes the bike back to Mountain and they void his warranty b/c of the stainless line!! It's got 480 miles. Now he's about to replace the Master Cylinder and lever. We'll see
Another friend just bought a brand new Ducati 848 from Ducati of Atlanta-it overheated on him 4 times in a month. Everytime he takes it back they say it's got an air pocket in the cooling system-they bleed the system and give him back the bike-it overheats again. He called the regional sales rep for Ducati and they say if it happens again they'll buy it back full price or replace it w/ another one. Well it overheated the next day(last Saturday) he's deciding if he wants to come back to the Japanese inline bikes or get another one.
The Kawasaki ZX-14s have frame recalls going on as I type.
Me-I'm in the middle-I don't want a new bike but I don't want a bike w/ a lot of miles no matter how it's been ridden. I won't buy a used bike if I haven't met or talked to the owner. I'll only buy a bike from the original owner and they bike has to be under 5K miles w/ minimal if any modifications. I'm in a financial position now in life where I can be picky but not obsurd(that's why I can't afford or don't want to make payments on a new bike). When I bought my F4I w/ 29K miles I wanted a bike and I didn't have that much $$ so I got what I could afford and took my chances. I still met w/ the only and saw what type of guy and rider he was. I asked specific questions about the the bike and what type of riding and who he rides w/. Then you can go on to see if they took care of the bike or just rode it hard and stunted on it.
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