Buying used
Thread Starter
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Stage I
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: Foster, RI
Buying used
Was looking to get off my street bike and onto a Harley...like the Road Kings or Street Glides. Unfortunately unable to afford brand new bike so have been looking at some used bikes at dealerships and online. Being new to Harley Davidson would like some objective opinions. How do I know I'm getting a fair deal vs being ripped off when, for instance a 2010 Road King on one website is selling for one price yet on another site a similiar bike is selling for $1500 more! I know that it depends on the miles on the bike, and what the previous owner may have added to the bike...I guess what I'm looking for is, what should I be looking out for when buying a used Harley? Speaking of mileage, (I know generally the older the bike the more miles) is there a number of miles on a bike that I should stay away from? Thanks in advance
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 28,842
Likes: 16,582
From: Wisconsin, USA
Start checking prices on Craigsist, Cycle trader, and the Harley Davidson's website, which has a good used bike search engine. I would wait for all the bikes people are trading in on 2014s to start showing up. If you live in an area with winter, buy in late January when salesmen desperate.
Some dealers ask high, some are more realistic.. A big fan of low miles (under 10k) but if a bike is well maintained you can get good deals on high mile bikes. I know a guy with over 200k miles on his Twin Cam .
Some dealers ask high, some are more realistic.. A big fan of low miles (under 10k) but if a bike is well maintained you can get good deals on high mile bikes. I know a guy with over 200k miles on his Twin Cam .
Road Master
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,228
Likes: 34
From: Wisconsin
Welcome to the forum from Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine.
-High Mileage varies by how far north you live, 20K is high where it snows.
-Buying a used bike at an HD dealer will cost extra $$$
-There are lots of garage queens with under 10k miles near where I live
-If buying used from a private party look for "Title In Hand".
-High Mileage varies by how far north you live, 20K is high where it snows.
-Buying a used bike at an HD dealer will cost extra $$$
-There are lots of garage queens with under 10k miles near where I live
-If buying used from a private party look for "Title In Hand".
Big Kahuna HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 35,506
Likes: 27
From: Calgary eh
Welcome from Sunny Alberta! 
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Stage IV
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
From: Gainesville, FL
Was looking to get off my street bike and onto a Harley...like the Road Kings or Street Glides. Unfortunately unable to afford brand new bike so have been looking at some used bikes at dealerships and online. Being new to Harley Davidson would like some objective opinions. How do I know I'm getting a fair deal vs being ripped off when, for instance a 2010 Road King on one website is selling for one price yet on another site a similiar bike is selling for $1500 more! I know that it depends on the miles on the bike, and what the previous owner may have added to the bike...I guess what I'm looking for is, what should I be looking out for when buying a used Harley? Speaking of mileage, (I know generally the older the bike the more miles) is there a number of miles on a bike that I should stay away from? Thanks in advance
Also, to easily compare available bikes in an area from which I was willing to buy (travel for pick up), I built an excel table with year, price, mileage, location, and any meaningful accessories/features .... and could sort by field to rank. I tried to build a quantitative valuation based upon year, mileage, price, and distance ...... but never quite found the correct algorithm.
Good luck.
Last edited by gaterzfan; Sep 23, 2013 at 06:23 PM.