Buying Used Motorcycle Parts

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Why Buy Used Parts?
Because they are cheaper?
Well this is not always true. Breakers tend to base their prices on what people will pay, so for some parts in sort supply and high demand this can be more than the new price. So it is always worth checking the new price first.

Most parts from breakers are broken, worn out or stolen – not true. As with any industry there are some dodge people but personally I have never had a problem with parts bought from a breaker, as a person who raced bikes for 10 seasons and built a street fighter I have bought a lot of used parts!

There are two main places to source used parts for motorcycles; Motorcycle Breakers and E-bay. Over the last few years E-bay has made a difference to breakers. There are new breakers who just trade on e-bay (many of which do it as a part time job in the garage at home breaking one bike at a time), there are established breakers who also have an e-bay shop and there are many others who rely on customers ringing or calling in. Some established breakers have even gone bust over the last few years, mainly because they did not realise how important internet selling is.
E-bay can be a very good source for used parts, but as with anything on e-bay make sure the seller has a good feedback rating. I have found that parts from e-bay are generally 20-40% cheaper than from a breaker. But this gap is closing.

Buying direct from Motorcycle Breakers – the main problem with this is that there are some many different models of motorbike, many of which change every year you may have to make many phone calls before you find a breaker with the part you want. This can be a time consuming and costly process.

Part Searches – For some time there have been several Part Search businesses that contact the breakers for you. Most of these had a premium rate phone number you would ring, costing typically £3.00 a call. Then at the end of the day they would compile all the requests together and fax them to loads of breakers. If a breaker had the part you wanted they would ring you. This was a great way of getting parts, it saved time and often money!

With the advent of the internet this was simplified even further and became free to use. The first free on-line only part finder was www.Bike-Breakers.info This web site had two major advantages over the old premium rate phone call services;

It is free for the customer to use

The request goes instantly to the suppliers.

The disadvantage is that because the motorcycle breakers have to pay an affiliation fee fewer breakers get your request. So now some part searches offer a free service and a “premium” service as well. Bike-Breakers.info has a sister site www.Bike-Breakers.co.uk this web site charges a small fee but sends your part request to far more breakers, over 130.

So what is the best way to get used parts? My advice is to look on e-bay and use a free part search like www.Bike-Breakers.info If you can not find the parts from either of these then try a part search you have to pay for such as www.Bike-Breakers.co.uk and if you still can not get the parts then you either have to buy new or get the broken part fixed!

Things to remember;
Always make sure you have the suppliers full contact details including a land line phone number
Make sure you know the exact condition of the parts.
Make sure you know what is included – a full engine to a breaker does not include things like carbs. Starter motor.