What will an HPI Bike Check tell you?
1 in 5 used motorbikes HPI checked show they have something to hide, make sure you are covered when
Check a motorbike’s history with a HPI bike text check
IF you have your eye on a new motorbike, it’s always wise to check out its history first before parting with your hard-earned cash.
Used cars aren’t the only vehicles with secrets to hide – about a fifth of all motorbikes on the UK’s roads have a dodgy past, something which will put off any prospective purchaser. It could be anything from outstanding finance, the bike’s been reported stolen, declared a write-off or scrap or had something altered on in a bid to disguise its true identity.
Some unscrupulous sellers will go to great lengths to cover a motorbike’s murky past. Among the things which can be tampered with altered on a bike are the colour, mileage and registration number.
You may also discover that a dodgy dealer is trying to pass off some fake paperwork as well.
When you carry out a HPI text check on a motorbike, you need to find all these things out as well as whether the bike is an import or export and whether the make and model matches up with the data from the HPI check.
Bikers – Don’t ‘head out on the highway’ until you’ve done your homework
For many, owning a motorbike, and all the gear that goes with it, can be pretty exciting. There is a certain freedom in whizzing away on your bike, without a care in the world. That is, until a nasty surprise from the motorbike’s
jumps up and bites you.
So if you don’t want to suffer the pain of discovering a bike’s dodgy past after you’ve handed over the cash, have a look at our quick guide.
Motobike HPI Checks – What to look out for
Stolen motorbikes
Checking out a motorbike’s history is an effective way of finding out if it has ever been reported stolen. HPI checks uncover almost 30 stolen vehicles each day, so it’s worth carrying out a text check on that bike you have your eye on to see if it’s one of them.
Just because you didn’t know a bike was stolen when you bought will not stop the police from confiscating it and, where possible, returning it to its rightful owner. You’ll more than likely lose the money you spent on it too.
Written off motorbikes
A tenth of the bikes which have been the subject of a HPI a check have been found to have been written off.
When you consider that insurance companies write off just under 500,000 vehicles a year because they are deemed not worth repairing, it’s very worrying that so many of them end up back on the road.
If an insurance company writes off a motorbike and someone patches it up and sells it on, there is no way to verify whether the repairs carried out on it are safe.
A text check will find out if a bike has been previously written off, so you won’t have to run the risk of unwittingly buying an unsafe bike which would not only but your safety at risk, but that of other road users and any passengers.
Bikes with outstanding finance
Many people take out loans or other finance agreements to purchase motorbikes. If you buy a bike which still has money owed on it from a previous owner, then you could be in difficulty.
In the case of bike with outstanding finance, the bank or loan company will assume ownership of the vehicle until the loan is paid off, even if you have already handed over the money.
Consequently, you won’t become the owner of the bike and you won’t be covered by the Sale of Goods Act (1979).
With one in 22 motorbikes, which have been the subject of HPI checks, having some sort of finance still attached to them, it pays to carrying out a text check.
Has a bike been cloned?
No, this isn’t something that happens in a lab with test tubes and that. A cloned motorbike is one which has had its identity changed in an attempt to pass it off as legitimate. This is done by using the identity of a legal bike so, effectively, there will two motorbikes with the same identity on the road.
Among the features changed on a cloned bike are the make, model, mark, registration and VIN number.
HPI checks have shown that one in 20 motorbikes scrutinised have been found to have had their registration plate changed as some stage. While this in itself is not illegal, there may not always be an innocent explanation behind it.
Carrying out a text check is a good why to find out if a bike has been cloned, but you should also be vigilante when shopping for a used bike. A motorbike which is sold for cash at a greatly reduced price should have alarm bells ringing.
Bikes with clocked mileage
The National Mileage Register has 85 million mileage readings. This means that when you perform a text check on any motorbike, there’s a good chance of finding out its true mileage. Vehicles with altered mileage are known as ‘clocked’ and HPI checks have found out that five per cent of vehicles have had inconsistent mileage records.
A seller may attempt to reduce the mileage on a motorbike in an attempt to get a better price for it, so a text check can ensure you aren’t paying more than you should for a bike.
Get peace of mind today with a motorbike check from TheTextCheck.com.
MotorBike HPI Check by Text at TheTextCheck.com
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