Nope, I would neither buy nor sell without a test ride. It is absolutely self-evident.
If I'm buying from a dealer, well, they have test-drive liability forms for me to sign, saying if I break it, I've bought it. That said, I bought my current bike used from an importer, and their shop was on an industrial estate where they let me have a test-ride. (More to see if the bike was really what I wanted - the importer has a decent enough reputation that I did not expect it to be a lemon.)
If I'm a private seller... well, if the buyer feels dodgy to me, I might ask him for a cash deposit while he's test-riding. Either the purchase amount in the worst case scenario (I'm thinking for US people, where just having a moto license doesn't guarantee the person is able to ride the bike safely), or a few hundred euros as "excess" and the guy's driving license.
But both times I've sold bikes privately - once my own, once helping to sell a friend's bike - and in all the instances I was shopping and test-driving bikes from private sellers, it was just like with buying a car. I drive over, leave my car with the seller while I test-drive the bike, come back and tell him if I want the bike or not.
|