Tips for Buying a Used Dirt Bike

Part of the Video Series Sport & Dirt Bike Basics

Viewing videos requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Get the latest Flash player.

Learn how to inspect a used dirt bike before purchasing, including what to look for in tires, brakes, fork seals, and sprockets in this free online video lesson on owning a motorbike.

Rating:
Views: 6,490
Comments: 0 (comment now)

Favorited: 0 | Add to Favorites

Tags: bikes, motorcycles, sprockets
Bookmark at:

All Videos in the Series, Sport & Dirt Bike Basics

Member Comments

Video Transcript

Tips for Buying a Used Dirt Bike
Hi my name is Chris Kelley and I’m speaking on behalf of Expert Village. I am a stunt man and I’m going to give you some tips today. So you don’t have the cash to buy a brand new one, a used bike is a good route to go. What you want to look for when you buy a good used bike, first of all you want to see if the bike is clean, if you go to look at a bike and the bike is cleaned, it’s not all dirty, you’ll at least know that whoever owned it took the time to clean it. Certain things you want to look for on the bike, or just a general overlook of the whole bike. You want to look at the forks, the wheels, make sure nothing is severely bent. Look at the handle bars, take a feel of everything that moves, get a good seat on the bike and see if it fits you, see if it fits your needs, if you feel comfortable, if it’s what you’re looking for. This bike here seems to feel pretty comfortable to me. Throttle seems good, the levers are not sticking, they move freely back and forth. You also want to check out the rear end, you want to look at the chain, see if it’s the sprockets down here, you want to make sure that this is not severely worn. When you get a worn sprocket on the rear tire, what happens is that these teeth right here, they start getting curved, they look like a little shark’s backbone, like a shark fin going through the water. What that means is that the chain has worn that groove down deep and when that starts happening those teeth will get weak and start breaking off, then you have a chance of loosing your chain and breaking your engine cases, which is a very expensive repair.

About the Expert

Expert: Chris Kelley has been riding and racing motorcycles his whole life. Currently, he works as a film and television actor/stuntman, and as a stuntman for Universal Studios and Six Flags theme parks. Read More