Motorcycles For Sale
Buy and sell motorcycles in Panama.
In Panama City a motorcycle is as often a work tool as a weekend toy. The 150 cc bikes threading through Vía España traffic with a delivery box on the rack far outnumber the adventure bikes heading up to Boquete, and both can be listed here, new by dealers and pre-owned by the riders who own them. Automatic scooters for the daily run in from Arraiján or La Chorrera sit alongside them. Before you go to see any of them, ask how many kilometres it has done and whether it ever worked deliveries, because the answer says more about the bike than the year on its papers.
Work bikes, scooters and the bikes bought for pleasure:
most motorcycles on Panamanian roads are manual 100 to 150 cc work bikes, the Bajaj Boxer, Hero or Honda that carries a rack, a box and ten hours a day of courier runs. Built for load rather than comfort, they are cheap to run and simple to fix. Automatic scooters do the same city job without a clutch: a Honda Navi for short hops, a Vespa at the expensive end, both with a CVT gearbox and storage under the seat. Then come the bikes people want rather than need. Nakeds and sport bikes such as the Bajaj Pulsar NS200, a TVS Apache or a Yamaha MT-03 suit riders who spend hours on the Interamericana. Trail bikes, from the Honda XR150 to the Kawasaki KLR 650, add long suspension and ground clearance for the hill roads above Volcán or the back country of Los Santos.
Clutch or CVT, the gearbox that decides it:
it matters more than the badge. A scooter is easier in the stop-start crawl along the Transístmica, but its belt and rollers wear, and it struggles two-up on a long climb. A manual 150 pulls better with a passenger or a loaded box. On the highway, a 110 cc scooter is out of its depth, while a 150 to 200 cc bike holds highway speed on the run to Penonomé without being wrung out. Shorter riders should sit on a trail bike before buying, because the seat height that clears a rutted road can leave you on tiptoe at every light.
New on fortnightly payments, used in cash:
that split shapes every price. New 150 cc commuters run from about $1,300 for Indian and Chinese brands to $2,300 to $2,900 for a Honda or Yamaha, and dealers and lenders spread that over fortnightly payments. Finance for a used bike is hard to find, so a private seller wants the whole sum at once and has to come in well below new to compete. Used bikes in the popular sizes mostly change hands between $1,200 and $2,500. Japanese bikes hold the top of that range; most Chinese work bikes and scooters lose their value faster, and an ex-delivery one falls furthest.
Kilometres, delivery racks and a cold start:
between them they tell you most of what a seller will not. Fresh bolt holes or a cut-down rack on the tail mean the bike carried a box; a worn seat, smooth footpegs and shiny grips on a bike showing low kilometres mean the odometer is not the whole story. Ask to see it cold and listen to the first start: hard starting, knocking or blue smoke are serious. Look for crash marks on the bar ends, levers and footpegs. On a scooter, a judder as you pull away points to a worn CVT belt; on a manual bike, a clutch that slips under hard throttle is due. If repairs are needed, price them in motorcycle parts before you agree a figure. The chassis number stamped on the frame should match the registration papers, and those papers should be in the seller’s name. A seller who will not let your mechanic look at the bike has answered your question.
Your bike with its plate, insurance and papers in order:
a Panamanian buyer wants all three settled before making the trip, so answer them in the listing along with the year, engine size, kilometres and whether the bike ever worked deliveries. Photograph both sides, the odometer, the tyres and any scrapes, and keep the workshop receipts to hand; they sell a bike faster than polish. Whoever comes over from Arraiján or Colón to see yours will want to hear it start cold and check the registration against the frame before money is mentioned.