Repair History? Carfox?

[Brackstone]

Hey All,

Just wondering because I was going to look into getting the misses a used bike eventually if there was anyway to get repair history information on bikes if they had work done at a garage?

I tried searching the forums but I found some old threads and other things unrelated.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Dave

[RhadamYgg]

I think even in cars - Carfax only reports the history of the title. Remarks that are made on the title (such as damaged by flood, totaled and not for sale title) and not service history.

With bikes, though, such as Kawasaki, if they did all their service there - might be able to give you the service history based on VIN number. They knew when I took your Ninja 250 for maintenance that you owned it and that it had a warranty. I didn't ask for service history, but I think I could have.

[jaskc78]

i think the only bike manufacturer that usually has a CarFax record is Harleys. best way i know of is to just give the bike a really good look. check for any scratching on the handle bar ends, footpegs, shifter, brake pedal, engine covers, everything. especially take off the plastics and check what's covered, usually people will only replace the cosmetic stuff that's visible--if it's not seen and doesn't pose a mechanical problem then it doesn't need to be replaced. other than that, just talk to the seller and see what kind of vibe you get from them. all else fails, hit me up and i'll get you a good deal on a bike i've inspected and checked myself.

that's the way we do it at the shop i work at, anyway. every time we buy a bike without actually putting eyes on it ourselves it's a risk, but you can't go across the country every week just to look at 600 bikes when you're only interested in maybe 30 anyway.

[Wrider]

Yeah most don't do Carfax. Although Carfax isn't all that reliable anyway. I was recently looking at a Dodge Dakota, and noticed it didn't have the fog lights but it had a switch for them. I started looking closer, turns out the truck had been in an accident and been repaird, but not reported to the insurance company, so the Carfax was clean, even though the truck had been repaired from a front end collision that wasn't anything small.

[flynrider]

Carfax only does cars and light trucks. No bikes. While there's no guarantee of completeness, I find their reports useful. It's pretty easy to wash the title of a salvaged car, but that info is unlikely to get past the Carfax folks.