Anything in particular to check or ask before buying?

[alamogeorge]

The Title...

Have him make sure that the guy actually owns the bike and that the odometer matches close to the title mileage. There was a guy on here in a similar circumstance who flew to the seller and found that the title mileage read higher than the bike did. Some things could explain this but there were other fishy things on top of it.

P.S. If his name is George.....RUN!

[Troll]

Yeah, after 47 years as a wrench, and being a basically cheap bastard, I hate to have to replace anything do to a lack of maintenance...always cheaper to do the preventative, that the remedial...'course, that's how I buy vehicles..broken, and then exorcise the demons...

[greenbarn]

The new one came with a grease fitting , so It should last a lot longer.

ONLY if they get greased.  Troll, I can tell from reading your posts that you'll grease yours, but you might be surprised how many cars I get in the shop with never-used grease zerks on ball joints, tie rods, and u-joints and the like!  I'm convinced most of the "quick lube" places, and Wally-world don't even know what one looks like.  It's ironic to get a, say, 6 year car in with one original ball joint that is still good and tight, and one that has been replaced with a dry zerk.   Point is, if it has a zerk you must grease it or it's going to wear out faster than a sealed unit.

[Troll]

When mine went bad, the bike had a very strange vibration at different speeds. These  bikes are SO smooth, that things you wouldn't notice on an H-D stick out like a sore thumb... The joint gets a tight spot in it, and then the vibes start. I replaced the joint with a joint from a Kawasaki ATV....like $24 as opposed to buying a whole drive shaft. It's a pretty big job, but not brain surgery. If you've ever replaced the u-joints on a car drive shaft, it's the same thing, only A LOT smaller.
The new one came with a grease fitting , so It should last a lot longer.

[chief]

Troll, you are right on that, I sorta blanketed that in my original comment... seals also.

[Ironraven]

How would I check the prop shaft joint?  Is that something I could do myself?  Thanks guys, I'll post up pictures if I end up buying it

[Troll]

Clutch, maybe...the prop shaft U-Joint, after 13 years...

[chief]

Nope. Nothing you wouldn't want to know about any 13 year old bike with liquid cooling, wet clutch, air shocks, shaft drive and fuel injection. No serious recalls (except oil filter on 2004's).

[Ironraven]

So I sold my Yamaha yesterday and I have my eye on a Drifter that I will be hopefully be looking at next week. It's a couple states away though so other than the normal stuff is there anything in particular I should ask?  It's a 1999 1500 with 15k miles, I have a buddy that's going to go take a look at it for me tomorrow or Monday and I'd like to know if there's anything in particular I should have him look at. Thanks guys, I can't wait to get out there, I'm gonna take it for an 8 hour ride home to break it in!