Motorcycles

A whole bike or the parts that keep one running:

that is the first fork. Complete bikes, running or not, go under motorcycles for sale, whether it is a 125 cc work bike with a rack, an automatic scooter, a dual-sport bike for dirt roads or a 650 built for long trips. Anything unbolted from a bike belongs in motorcycle parts: the wear items a rider replaces every few thousand kilometres, plastics and mirrors after a fall, and engines, wheels and tanks from bikes being broken for spares. The two meet more often than you would expect. A cheap bike with a tired engine can be the right buy when the engine it needs is listed one section over, and a rider whose bike has been written off often does better selling it in pieces.

Carburettor or fuel injection for the climb over Cerro de la Muerte:

it matters more in Costa Rica than in most places, because one day’s ride can start near sea level and pass 3,000 metres on the Interamericana Sur. A carburettor stays set for the air it was tuned in. Take a bike jetted on the coast up into thin mountain air and the mixture runs rich, it loses power and can foul its plug; take one tuned in the Central Valley down to Golfito and it runs lean and hot. Fuel injection reads the air through its sensors and corrects the mixture as you climb, starts more easily on a cold morning in the hills and burns less fuel. The carburettor’s case is that any mechanic in any town can clean and adjust one, while a fault on an injected bike needs a scanner. Plenty of work bikes and dual-sport bikes still run carburettors; most bigger bikes are injected. If the bike lives in one place, either will do. If your week runs between the mountains and the coast, injection earns its keep.

A bike that spent the rainy season parked outdoors:

gives itself away in a few places, because from May to November the afternoon downpour arrives most days across much of the country. Ask where it slept. A bike kept under a roof and wiped down after a wet ride ages slowly; one left at the kerb or in an open yard collects rust on the chain, the spokes and the edges of the brake discs, and green corrosion on the battery terminals and the connectors in the wiring. Switch everything on before you ride it: both indicators, the brake light, the horn, and the headlight on high and low beam. Electrical faults that come and go are the usual legacy of water in a connector, and they take hours to trace. Press down on the seat too, since foam that has soaked up rain stays damp and smells. On a carburetted bike that has stood for weeks, a reluctant start and stumbling at low revs more often mean a gummed-up carburettor than a worn engine. That is a cleaning job, not a rebuild, but it is still worth something off the price.

Selling the bike whole or breaking it for parts:

is the first decision once a motorcycle has a seized engine or a bent frame. A bike that runs and has its papers in order sells best as it is. One with a blown engine but sound plastics, good wheels and a straight fork often brings more in pieces, because each part reaches the rider who needs exactly that one. Either way, say whether it is carburetted or injected and where it has been kept, because those are the next two questions. Photograph it dry and in daylight, chain and battery terminals included, and if you have ridden it through the wet months, say so; the buyer will spot the rust anyway. Book viewings for the morning. Someone riding over from San Ramón or Atenas in the rainy season wants to try the bike on a dry road and be home before the afternoon storm.