This article covers the process and considerations of buying a street legal motorcycle in the United States. Some contents such as the sections on inspection and negotiation may also apply to other countries.

Before you buy a bike, you should research what type of bike you want to buy and complete a rider training program.

You usually do not strictly need a motorcycle license or endorsement to purchase a motorcycle, but the rider training program is a small financial and time commitment to discover if you'd like to make a substantial investment into this hobby. The introductory riding experience you get from the course will also help you make more informed choices when shopping. Some states such as California require a motorcycle license to register a motorcycle.

Funding

There are two major ways to fund a motorcycle purchase: Cash and financing.

Cash is the recommended way to buy a bike. You save up the full purchase price in advance and pay the full cost at once. You receive a title free of lienholders.

Financing involves getting a loan from a bank or credit union and making payments over time. Your title will have a lienholder listed until you pay off the loan. The potential upside is that if the interest rate on the loan is lower than the growth rate of your investments, you can potentially save money this way over time. This can be a good way to buy essential transportation. However, there are some major drawbacks to doing this for a motorcycle:

• Most motorcycle loans are classified as recreational vehicle loans rather than auto loans. Interest rates are usually higher and they contribute less to your credit score.
• The bank or credit union will usually require you to carry full comprehensive insurance on the vehicle. This is exceptionally expensive on motorcycles.
• If the bike is crashed or stolen, the insurance payout after deductibles may not cover the remaining balance on the loan. You can protect yourself from this cost with GAP insurance, but this is an additional monthly cost to consider.
• It is more difficult to sell a bike with a lienholder on it due to additional process. It is common for the bike's value to depreciate below the remaining balance on the loan, making you "upside down" on a vehicle you may not want to keep.

In some niche cases, you may buy a bike via check (e.g. from a dealership) or cashier's check (e.g. private party sales for expensive bikes).

Do not attempt to buy a bike via wire transfer or cryptocurrency! Any seller who asks for a wire transfer is trying to scam you. There's little or no benefit to buying vehicles with crypto, since you have to declare the purchase to a centralized government.

Insurance

You should get an insurance quote prior to seeing a bike. If you decide to buy the bike, you can instantly confirm the quote from your phone and be immediately insured to ride on the street.

Motorcycle Insurance Guidelines

Inspection

Resources for inspecting a used bike:

Used Motorcycle Evaluation Guide - An extremely comprehensive checklist. Skewed towards older sportbikes, but useful for most bikes.

T-CLOCS - A basic checklist that should catch the most critical issues.