Top Things to Know About Selling a Motorcycle

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Selling a motorcycle can be a complicated process that leaves you with a lot of questions. You might be wondering how you can sell a motorcycle with a lien, how you can protect yourself from potential buyers, or where are the best places to sell your motorcycle. We are here to help give you a comprehensive list of your most important questions about selling your motorcycle.

• What is the best place to sell a motorcycle?
• How to sell a motorcycle with a lien?
• Why is it so hard to sell a used motorcycle?
• What are the Dos and Don’t of selling a used motorcycle?
• How can I sell my motorcycle fast?

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Question 1: What is the best place to sell a motorcycle?

There are countless places to sell your motorcycle, both in-person and online, so let’s start with the basics. When you are looking to sell your motorcycle you want to make sure the person or business is legit, which isn’t always easy to vet when you are dealing with online marketplaces like Facebook and CraigsList. If you’re looking for an in-person way to sell your bike, dealerships are accessible, but not the most lucrative. Dealerships are a reputable place to sell your bike, but many sellers have to ride to many different dealerships to find which one will give them the best offer, which can be a big chunk of wasted time from your day or even weekend.

Another problem with selling a motorcycle to a dealership is if there is no desire for the make or model in your area, or if it's off-season you would not be able to make a sale and your motorcycle would continue to sit, unused, in your garage.

Free, online marketplaces like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Cycle Trader can match you with a good buyer, but there is a lot of time needed to write the motorcycle description, take photos, communicate with potential buyers, weed out the tire-kickers and time-wasters, and decide who (if anyone) you’d like to meet. If shipping the bike is involved, that also adds a new set of hassles and financial obligations to deal with. Sites like Cycle Trader also put their premium listings, aka their paid listings, at the front of the search results. This means that there’s a chance your listing may never even get seen unless you put money behind it. Online sites can also pose a safety risk when meeting up with a stranger from the internet. You are opening a world of potential trouble if you give them your home address or let them test ride your bike.

Selling your motorcycle to RumbleOn offers you a quick, hassle-free, way to sell your bike. Your motorcycle doesn’t leave your garage until you get your payment and then we will come and pick up your motorcycle for free. RumbleOn is BBB accredited and also a publicly-traded company, which means our company must adhere to ethical guidelines and put transparency at the center of our business model. Our company information is available for investors and anyone who wants more information about our business model

Read our guide on how to sell your motorcycle for the most cash.

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Question 2: How to sell a motorcycle with a lien?

Selling a motorcycle with a lien, or a motorcycle loan can make the process more difficult, but isn’t impossible. Having a motorcycle that you still owe money on might make a private buyer shy away, but there are companies like RumbleOn that won’t miss the opportunity to buy your bike and take care of the finances. If you still owe money on your motorcycle and are selling your bike privately, make sure you get the money from the seller ahead of time so you can pay off the loan and hand over the title to the new owner. If you are selling your bike privately, make sure you have a well-written bill of sale for your bike.

Whether you decide to sell to a dealership, sell privately, or sell to a ready-to-buy company like RumbleOn, keep these things in mind; a) selling to the dealership when you have a lien on your motorcycle will result in being paid less money for your bike, b) always initiate a private sale with an exclusive buyer who’d be willing to negotiate sale terms given your lien status, or c) sell it to a ready, online, motorcycle marketplace like RumbleOn that is ready to buy your motorcycle and give cash for your bike and/or powersport.

Do you still have questions? Read additional information on motorcycle liens and the selling process.

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Question 3: Why is it so hard to sell a used motorcycle?

Like we stated earlier, selling a used motorcycle is a complicated process and there are a number of factors that can affect the selling process of your used motorcycle.

• Marketplace sites:
  Listing your bike on free sites like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace may seem like a great, free, way to get eyes on your bike, but chances are the right people aren’t seeing it. You could have great photos and the best description of your bike, but unless interested buyers are viewing your listing, it’s all a waste of time. Speaking of wasting your time, marketplace sites are notorious for scammers and tire kickers who want to get your bike for nothing.

• Relying too heavily on KBB and other sites to price your bike:
  Kelley Blue Book is a helpful tool, but it is just a tool. When setting a price for a used motorcycle, some people become too dependent on KBB, NADA Guides, and MSRP. For instance, dealerships don’t use KBB for pricing because they rely on sources that aren’t available to the public to determine the market resale value of a motorcycle. Companies like RumbleOn use proprietary collection of data points and market trends to come up with a cash offer for your motorcycle.

• Attaching too much value to your motorcycle:
  Most motorcycle owners don’t keep a bike as stock for too long. Mods are great, but the more you customize your bike, the harder it becomes to sell. Putting $3,000 pipes on your bike or adding a custom paint job to the tank doesn’t mean that money gets added back into the value of your bike. At the end of the day, a 7-year-old motorcycle with $7,000 in modifications is still a 7-year-old motorcycle.

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Question 4: What are the Dos and Don’ts of selling a used motorcycle?

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• Give an honest description of your motorcycle when you are trying to sell.
• Try multiple ways to sell your bike
• Be open to offers
• Meet in a public space if you are doing a private sale
• Have all paperwork ready to sign over
• Clean your bike and perform basic maintenance on it before selling

‍DON’T‍

• Lie about your bike; including accidents, damage, mileage, or parts to get a better offer
• Depend on only one avenue to sell your motorcycle
• Let anyone test ride your bike with a valid license and/or the full payment amount
• Accept anything besides a full payment at the time of sale

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Question 5: How can I sell my motorcycle fast?

Things happen and life changes. Whether it’s needing to sell a bike you don’t ride anymore, or needing to downsize, sometimes you just need to get rid of your motorcycle. There are several factors that can affect how quickly your bike will sell, whether that is privately, to a company that will take care of the hard parts of selling like RumbleOn, or to a dealership. Your location, the time of year, the make and model of your motorcycle, and the condition of your bike are all factors that play into how quickly you can sell your bike in your area.

If you need to sell your bike fast, RumbleOn is able to give a cash offer for most motorcycles. RumbleOn uses a combination of pricing guides (NADA, Kelley Blue Book, Black Book), current market data, as well as RumbleOn's own proprietary technology to arrive at a cash offer for your bike. Our cash offers are no-obligation and we have a no-hassle selling process.

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