The Most Common Problems We Find in Used Bikes in Kathmandu

The ten checkpoints that most often score low

How to read this

A low score on a checkpoint does not mean the bike is bad, and it does not mean the fault was left as it was. It means that when the bike reached us, that point was clearly below what a healthy bike shows. Some of these are cheap to put right. Others are the first sign of something expensive.

The table changes as we inspect more bikes, so the order you see today may not be the order next month. What stays fairly constant is that the same few groups of problems account for most of it.

Battery, charging and starting

Battery Voltage, Charging Voltage and Self-Start Load are three checkpoints on one system, and they need to be read together. A tired battery with a healthy charging system is a cheap fix: replace the battery. A weak charging reading is different. It means the battery is not being topped up while you ride, and a new battery will go flat again within weeks.

City riding is hard on batteries. Short trips with a lot of starting do not give the charging system time to put back what the starter took out, and a bike that sits unused for weeks slowly drains. Both are common in Kathmandu. Our guide to battery voltage readings explains how to tell a tired battery from a charging fault with a multimeter.

Tyres

Tire Thread Depth, Tire Age and Sidewall Cracks are scored separately because they fail separately. A tyre can have deep tread and still be too old to trust, and a nearly new tyre can be worn flat in the middle by under-inflation and commuting.

Tyres are a consumable, so worn ones are not a reason to walk away from a bike. They are a reason to adjust the price, because a pair of tyres is a real cost you will meet in the first month.

Wiring, lights and the ECU

Wiring Harness, Brake Light, Indicator Relay and ECU Error Logs tend to move together. The usual cause is not the bike but what has been added to it: an alarm, extra lights or a charger spliced into the harness with tape. A brake light that works from the lever but not the pedal is often just a switch, which is cheap. A stored ECU fault on a fuel-injected bike needs reading before anyone can say what it is.

Service items: oil, plug, tappets, air filter

Engine Oil Condition, Spark Plug Condition, Tappet Noise and Air Filter Clogging are the checkpoints that show how a bike was looked after rather than how it was built. Each is inexpensive to put right. Several of them low together is the pattern to notice, because a bike that has missed its basic servicing has usually missed other things too.

Clutch and gearbox

Clutch Plate Bite and Gear Shift Smoothness are worth more attention than their place in any table suggests. A slipping clutch is a known cost. A gearbox that jumps out of gear is not something to buy into without a clear idea of what the repair involves.

Small hardware

Seat Lock, Mirror Tightness and Stand Mechanism score low surprisingly often. None of them will leave you stranded, and all are cheap. They matter because they are the things a buyer notices on day two.

What this data is, and what it is not

• It comes only from bikes that MOTOVO inspected. It is not a survey of every used bike in Kathmandu.
• A checkpoint counts as low when it scored 55 or less out of 100 at inspection.
• A checkpoint that does not apply to a bike (ECU logs on a carburettor bike, a radiator fan on an air-cooled engine) is left out for that bike.
• The numbers are recalculated from the reports each time this page loads. Nothing in the table is typed in by hand.

If you are checking a bike yourself, the 50-point checklist explains how to look at each of these points without workshop tools.