hey guys, im going to look at a 2001 F4i tomorrow (looking at it for my first bike ). the owner is a girl, and it was her first bike. the bike has 21,xxx miles on it and she wants $3500. im going to try to get her to sell me the bike for $3100-$3300. she says that it's never been dropped, has a clean title and has service records at the shop where im meeting her at tomorrow. i just wanted know if there was anything i should look for when checking it out. also, she said that the title says that it's a 2000. it could be an honest mistake, but is there any way i can tell if it's an F4 with a fairing conversion?

 

yea an f4i has the "i" at the end of the the 4 fuel injected on the side fairings. 21,000 is allot of miles but the bike is now 8 years old so i guess thats a pretty good amount of riding in that amount of time. i recently bought a f4i with my friend it was an 01. make sure u take it out for a ride. and try to go over the bike tires a most cause that can cost allot of money, chain, ask if the oil has been change after every season. i think for that kind of millage u should defiantly talk the price down. good luck man !!!!!!!

 

Grab the VIN number and maybe a dealership can help give you some answers, but my VIN sticker says in big numbers 2006 then in small font 'F4' not F4i.

An F4i has alot of life in it if it only has 21k miles. Mine is 2 years old with 12k and it runs like new, if not better.

 

personally i think that is a little much for 21K miles definately talk her down some....and if you want to make sure its a 2001 check the VIN number....its on the frame of the bike on the left side pretty close to where your left leg would be

 

21,000 isn't a lot of miles for an 01... just depends on how much she rode it. If its a full fairingconversion from an F4 i don't think they would leave the "F4" sticker on the side, especially if they are telling you its an F4i.

The gauges are different... i think the F4 looks like this


The F4i looks like this...



Usually titles don't have wrong years on them... look to see if you can see Carburetors, that's a dead give-away.You can also check the VIN sticker on the frame... that has a huge year printed on it, unless they took it off, but if it says 2000 on their you know there is something fishy. Good luck... and maybe you can get one of the mechanics from that shop to look at it too.

 

the "used motorcycle evaluation guide" is a great read if you're looking to buy your first bike. i read it and i was aware of a lot more things when i got mine.
http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html

 

cool. i'll definitely check out the vin number. what maintanenceshould it have had by now? what should i ask the mechanic at the shop? and how would i go about checking if it has a carburetor? sorry for the dumb question... i've never done this before

 

dead giveaway would be if it has a choke then its carbureted. fuel injected has no choke it would probally be on the left side on the handel bar.

 

F4's have petcocks on the gas line from the tank too i think... F4i's don't.

 

i would def do what they say and talk her down. and make sure it is fuel injected that is another dead give away unless she spent alot and converted it