late model high milage ex govt bikes

Hi all.

The question of wether or not to buy an ex-police vehicle comes up
pretty frquently on aus.cars, but I've yet to see it crop up in here...

Apparently late model ex-government bikes with high milage sometimes
come up for auction, and go fairly cheaply.

What I want to know is:

- Would it be worth buying an ex-police bike? Are they likely to be
thrashed, or looked after despite their milage? Any other pros/cons?


-Anyone know where to get one? How much they do actually sell for,
etc?


-TIA.

 

It has... but not for a while.

Cheaper than private sale ones normally (at least last time I checked
which was a while back).

The fairly small number of people I've spoken too who've bought
ex-police bikes have been mostly happy with thier purchases.

There are a few things to consider. Later model Beemer twins are prone
to gearbox and or final drive problems when they get a few kms up. Very
expensive to fix. The Honda ST1100's don't seem to suffer from this.

The police bikes will have a solo seat and be painted white and may or
may not come with panniers, but if they do then they are often those
little 'city' panniers as BMW called them, rather than the full size
touring panniers.

Your budget should include repainting the bike (so it isn't white), a
dual seat conversion and possibly panniers.

The dual seat conversion can also be expensive as you often need to
change the rear ductail from the squarish one on the police bikes have
to the normal road bike version.

Often by the time you allow for all of these alterations one finds out
that the 'cheaper' price isn't after all so cheap.

People sometimes don't do all (or even any) of these mods, but then the
bikes don't look like a 'civilian' model and when you sell it you'll get
less $. Either way that's a cost.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, just be aware of the costs if you
choose to do so.

Government vehicle auctions. Google for it


G-S

 

I would have thought having your visibility to the cagers increased by a
factor of a 100 would be well worth any decrease in resale (and you save
the cost of respray)

JL

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 14:40:53 +1000

The problem with a police type bike is that everyone slows down in
your vicinity.

On the other hand, your chances of a SMIDSY are much lower.

Zebee

 

solo seat cop cars?

ahh well, at least they can't stick you in the back and beat you up

 

Your buying a late model bike thats been serviced and maintained with books

try to find one with flag holders, they been used for ceremonial duties, not
thrashed every day.

like all work vehicles they do have a hard life.

You might find, that fleet services take the solo seats off and other items
and put them on the new one in service, atleast thats what they do with the
cars, im pretty sure its a sop to have new tyres on them too and generally
be unregistered.



MAD

 

Yeah... but white cars are bad enough... a white bike just looks wrong


G-S

 

maybe its been in the booth

 

Couple of blokes around here bought them ex Fowles Auction Group
(www.fowles.com.au) in Melbourne to do the Australia loop. They paid $9k
for one, and $10k for the other. One bike fired up straight away, the
other didn't. The fault in the non-starter was the electrics, because the
police electrics were pretty much ripped straight out, and some vital
wires came out in the cull. Getting the bikes on the road was another
couple of grand, including rego. The cop bikes come up pretty
infrequently, and usually in small bulk lots.
HTH
- sanbar

 

well with the cars, all the police items they put in, they take out and put
on the next one, the cage, batton holders, radios, long range fuel tank,
bull bars etc, they all pull em out and put the old stuff or new stuff of
the replacement back on.

perhaps gs should buy one too and put a chair on it

 

They take the batton holders out? Shit! What good is a car
without batton holders?

GB

 

Where do I hang my longnecks now?!?!

justAL

 

Which models are like this? A mate bought an ex-cop bike recently and it
has a dual seat. However, I'll have to ask him if he bought it or if it
came with it.

 

you have to hold the battons instead now - long neck goes between your legs,
they never gave us a place to put em

 

In NSW the police bikes go to auction at the government austions at Enfield

You get a choice or BMW R1150's or K1200's
All Apart from 2 or 3 will go to auction with around 40,000km on them,
serviced correctly and all faults looked at and fixed. They are usually
only ever ridden by one officer for their lifespan. All the NSW bikes come
with touring panniers. Some of the more recent ones even have headlight
switches.

The only real problem with ex police bikes is that they will generally need
a new clutch at 50,000 or slightly less due to all the slow riding that
these bikes do. Thre may be some scratchs on the panniers etc and the tyres
will be roadworthy.

They sell for anything between $7500 for a real shitter to 10,000 for one
that is in very good condition.

 

The Victorian K100RT and K1100RT are like this. Not sure about others.


G-S