Have made up your mind about renting or buying? Good! Nonetheless, even when you rent there are a couple of things you need to pay attention to when picking a motorbike. If you buy a motorbike, make sure you get a blue card with the bike that matches the license plate. Another number that should be on your card and the bike is the frame number, to be found on your steering wheel right, and the engine number, below the engine on the left side. The blue card is your registration card, and the proof of you owning the motorbike (even if it doesn’t have your name on it). Besides that, it is all pretty straightforward, but just to be sure I still put a checklist together:
- Check the profile on the tires, roads can be slippery.
- Are your head and back light working?
- Are the direction lights and break light working?
- Is your fuel meter working? You kinda want to know when you need to gas up again!
- Ask how often oil has been changed.
- Maybe most important: is your horn working?
- Are both breaks working properly, are they not too loose or too tight?
- Put the motorbike on a high standard to check if your back wheel does not move left and right.
- Do a test ride to see if you can get the motorbike in neutral (located between your 1 and 2 shift).
- See if the motorbike starts without its kickstart.
- Check to see if there are no oil stains on your engine, there should not be any oil leaking.
- Take a seat on your motorbike to see how the springs are, it should bounce back immediately (not yoyo).
- Check to see if the kickstart works, make sure to put your bike in neutral for this.
- Test all gears, which might mean you have to find a piece of road where you can get up to 70km/h, shifting gears should be easy. In its 4th gear a Honda Win should get up to 75km/h.
- Ride in all gears to make sure that the gears do not shift back to neutral (this would indicate a damaged gearbox).
- Check the chain and cogwheel of the bike for any damages.
Sometimes it is better to pay a bit more for your bike so you feel safe and secure when driving, and you don’t spend half your journey fixing your motorbike. Feeling comfortable and safe on your bike is important, especially with the insanity of the traffic in Hanoi. So make sure everything works. Not sure? Get a mechanic to look at your bike before you start your journey! Mechanics can be found everywhere in the city of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, it will take you maybe half a day extra, but you will feel more safe and secure on your bike during the trip.
