New to the forum- and looking for advice buying 2nd hand

[opentarget]

Ok so first time poster and first time bike shopper, so a hearth felt hello to everyone on the boards.
I have never been on a bike in my life(much to the disappointment of my dad who biked from the age of 14..the good old days when rules wernt rules he says), but have sorted out my provisional licence and am booked in for lessons.
I have got my eye on a bike and its a marauder, it seams like a good starter bike and looks great to.

So my question is regarding buying second hand. Is there anything I should look out for with this model of bike, is there any mileage i should be looking for or looking to avoid. is to much bad or to little suspect? any rattles or noises i should look out for?
also general wear and tear, is there any part of the bike that take more abuse than the rest?

Any advice would be great. there is a few on offer in my general area.

Im going to see one tomorrow:
2001 Suzuki GZ Marauder 250cc.
15,000 miles.
Kept in garage.

When i contacted him i asked a few questions about damage and so forth:
The bike is in perfect condition mechanically. It has a couple of minor scratches (really minor, 20 cents coin size) on the right handside.
It was serviced last week but it doesn't have a log.

20 cent(euro cent that is) sized scratches sounds to me like it was dropped, but i wont be able to know untill i see.
the thing that worries me is that "It was serviced last week but it doesn't have a log" would that be a normal occurance?

Sorry for the long first post, but id love to hear your comments and suggestions.

Kev

[geezer]

mine was dropped twice in one day by the ol lady and sure it got scuffed up but nothing adverse happend because of it. its a begginers bike and youll probably drop it to lol so you can over look some scratches i hope. thats alot of miles in my book for a GZ unless the owners are like me and just ride the hell outta it as a commuter and not just every other weekend take it down the stret types. check for the tires, chanin and sprokets need to be in good shape it will be obvious if the sprokets are bad cause the teeth will look like ocean waves lol. bring a buddy who can ride it for all its worth and he will tell you whats up. also try not to spend more then say 1200 on it.

[alantf]

Hi there & welcome to the madhouse.

Firstly let me tell all our American members that Ireland is a law unto itself Begorrah

You say that there's a 20 centimo sized scratch. Thing is, ALL bikers are going to go down at some time in their career. It's one of the facts of life. I've been riding over 45 years, & had the marauder for over 4 years now, & you'd be surprised how many dints & things my bike's got. If it's just cosmetic, then it's a matter of how much he wants for it. Over here a new one is around €3000. I am surprised, however, that he's got no service record. It could just be me, but I ALWAYS get the service record stamped. Could you get the name of the service guy from him, so that you could check? or ask him why he's not got a receipt? On the other hand, he could be genuine. I know that when I had my car serviced in England, I used a one man garage for my servicing, & because I didn't want a receipt I got it cheaper, & the money went in his back pocket.

Best advice (I think) is to let someone with bike experience check it over, & if any "problems" rear their ugly head, let us know & we'll tell you whether it's a normal marauder thing or not.

BTW, mines got 20,000 km (12,500 miles) on it, & no problems yet. :2tup:

Nearly forgot - we've another member in Dublin - viirin. Dunno whereabouts in Dublin, but it's not that big that you can't get together if you want to.

[alanmcorcoran]

A GZ with 15K on it should come pretty cheap - but I'm an American and things could be a lot different in Ireland. The scratches on a bike are not anything to be concerned about per se - one or two kerfluffles in 15,000 miles is to be expected. On the other hand, lots of nicks and dings could be an indication of a crappy rider and a crappy maintainer. There's a lot worse that can be wrong with it and it's hard to judge much from your post. If you can't get a mechanic to look at it (highly recommended) at least do this: Show up (unannounced if possible) and have the owner start the bike cold, preferably on a cold day. (Be careful "verifying" that the engine is cold - it it's not, you can burn yourself - use caution and don't touch the tail pipe.) A very high percentage (probably 80% or more) of typical GZ problems will manifest themselves as "hard to start". This includes weak batteries, broken chokes, clogged carbs, cracked blocks, electrical shorts and more. The bike, if properly maintained should fire up almost immediately on the first push of the starter, the idle should quickly climb and after 3-5 minutes no choke should be needed. If it passes that test, move on to checking the tires, the brakes and the transmission. It's also easy to check the headlight, taillight turn indicators, high beams, horn and kill switch even if you aren't a mechanic. Not a perfect test by any means, but better than just looking at it and saying, "Yep, it's a GZ, alright!"

Good luck and have fun. Erin go bragh or however that goes!

[Strelok]

opentarget~

Welcome to the Forum!

Sounds okay except just how
big is a 20 cent Euro Coin?

:tongue:

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Strelok

how
big is a 20 cent Euro Coin?

Just dug one out of my pocket & measured it. It's 7/8" diameter. [attachment=0:2n57dhra]img002.jpg[/attachment:2n57dhra]

[blaine]

Welcome to the family. :cool:

[opentarget]

thanks to everyone who posted, some good advice.
hes looking for 1200 for it, id like to get him down to about 900-1000 if i could so ill be looking for every reason "not to buy".
I have a friend coming to test it out for me, and help checking it over. From my dad fixing and buying old bikes over the years i have a fairly good eye for what to look out for....just never been a rider yet is all.

Ill let you know how i get on.
Just out of curiosity, and im sure this is a biased place to ask, but is the gz250 one of the better cruiser style 250 bikes out there, or could i bo looking at other makers to widen my search if the gz250's come hard to find here?

[alantf]

Most 250s (Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki) are roughly the same performance. It's the riding position that's different, so it's really down to what is comfortable for YOU. :2tup:

[opentarget]

Gota tell yous....I think i fell in love with the bike I saw last night.
The scratch's mentioned are hardly scratch at all.
One small one on the very end of the exhaust, looks like it was scraped into a wall when backing it up...
And one on the brake fluid boxy bit on the handle bars.

A very small amount of surface rust is apparent on the back suspension but other than that the bike is very clean.
Any ideas on cleaning this up?

Also, and this may sound stupid. but i hate the plasticy marauder logo on the tank, i much prefer the "S" on the US and Canadian bikes I have seen. I wounder if its posible to swap them out?
I know it would probably involve a respray, but a good friend of mine sprays cars and bikes for a living and im sure id get mates rates on a small job like that.

I think tomorrow ill be joining the ranks of Gz250 warriors

A friend is coming to test drive the bike for me tomorrow and give it one more look over(im not licensed to drive this even as a learner, so wont take the risk)
And ill try to muster up some extra cash for it, as its slightly out of my budget