Buying a Bike? Keep These Points in Mind

A bike is more than just two wheels and an engine. Its about aspirations, dreams, a means to an end – a machine that means different things to different people. Whether you want to buy a bike for the wind in your hair feeling, while humming your favourite song, or for independence from the chaos and queues of public transport, it’s time to take the next step and buy motorcycle of your dreams.

Advantages of Having a Two-Wheeler

Whether you live in a big city or small town, having a two-wheeler as ones personal transport has multiple benefits, such as:

1. Freedom and Convenience: Owning a motorcycle is the first step towards freedom of mobility and extreme convenient. With public transport becoming increasingly overcrowded and inconvenient, it makes sense to have own your own transport. A motorcycle allows you to go wherever you want, whenever you want.

2. Safety: Personal transport is safer than public transport. With one’s own set wheels, you never have to worry about catching a bus or train, irrespective of the time. It could be early in the morning or late and night, you can always depend on your ride to take you home safely.

3. Saves Time & Cheap to Run: Owning a motorcycle saves you on a lot of time. It is quicker and more reliable than almost all forms of public transport. A motorcycle is also very cheap to run in comparison to any other mode of transportation.

4. Low maintenance: Motorcycles, especially commuter bikes are very low maintenance and don’t require much expense. A new motorcycle from a reliable brand such as Hero MotoCorp, will give you years of trouble free service.

5. Pride of ownership: One of the biggest reasons to purchase your own motorcycle is the pride of ownership. For many, a motorcycle is a symbol of achievement and progress, and nothing can match this feeling.

Also Read: Tips for Choosing the Best Off-Road Bikes 

Choosing the Right Bike

It may sound exciting to purchase and ride a new motorcycle, but choosing the right bike can be extremely confusing given the large number of makes and models that are available today. While making this decision, do consider the following points:

1. Body Style: Based on your comfort and convenience, decide on a body style that works for you. Ensure that the height of your motorcycle seat is suitable for your body type. Whenever you visit a dealer to take a long test ride of your preferred motorcycle, place your feet firmly on the ground and get a feel of the comfort levels. Commuter bikes are best suited for driving in the city while premium and higher powered bikes are ideal for touring.
2. Engine Size: The size of an engine is measured in cubic centimeters or CC. Choose a bike based on your monthly running and usage. There are a variety of options from 100cc to over 1000cc. A small engine is efficient and suitable for daily commuting while a bigger engine is high on power and ideal for long distance commuting. Choose the engine based primary usage pattern.
3. After Sales Service: Never forget to check the cost of after-sales service. Purchasing from a reliable and trustworthy brand like Hero MotoCorp, offers various advantages like wide network of service centers and cheap and easy availability of spare parts, etc. Maintenance costs for commuter bikes are far lower in comparison to sports bikes.
4. Resale: Go for popular brands that are known to fetch good value in the second hand bike market, since at some point you would want to upgrade to a fancier motorcycle or car. Usually, models which have great demand (e.g. a Hero Splendor or Passion) in the new bike market also have higher resale values.

Purchasing on Finance or Buying Outright

This is another important decision that you need to make. After choosing the make, model and version you want to own, you need to decide if you want to finance your purchase buy outright. For this you need to answer a few questions, do you want to spend all your savings on a motorcycle? Or do you want to take a safer path and purchase on finance? A few advantages of financing are:

1. Smaller, More Manageable Monthly Payments: If you have spare cash, then making an outright purchase makes sense. You need not spend all your savings on buying a motorcycle, buy it outright only if you are totally comfortable and have sufficient savings for other expenses, or else choose the finance option.
2. Quick Loan Process: The application and approval process for two-wheeler loans is quick, easy, and requires minimal documentation. Making it highly convenient and easy to get.
3. Attractive Offers: Financing a motorcycle allows you take advantage of various schemes and offers. It could be a lower rate of interest or a rebate on the processing fees or free insurance. These offers vary based on the loan amount, motorcycle model, time of the year, etc.
4. Guarantor Not Required: Most loans usually require a guarantor which is essential for approval. However, for most two-wheeler loans a guarantor is not required which expedites the approval process and result in enhanced convenience.
5. Quick Approvals: The relatively smaller ticket size of these loans, allows financiers to speed up their entire loan approval process and disburse these loans in very short amounts of time. For most two-wheeler loans, Hero FinCorp’s offer decisioning in under 15 minutes and formal approvals in under 2 hours.

Documentation Required

For purchasing a motorcycle on finance, it’s crucial to have all the required documents in place. Most financiers require the following papaerwork:

1. Identity Proof: PAN card, Passport, Voter’s ID Card, etc.
2. Address Proof: Rent Agreement, Telephone Bill, and Electricity bill, Passport, Voter ID, etc.
3. Income/ Employment Proof: IT Returns and/or Salary Slips

Buying a motorcycle is your first step to freedom and success, but make sure you invest some time in researching the market and choosing the best two-wheeler and finance option. Don’t just avail the first offer that comes your way. Choose the motorcycle and financier very carefully, this will ensure that your future rides are smooth and trouble free, whether on the road or while creating budgets.