Buying a bike. Previous owner was an insurance company? (IAG)

[sobriquet]

It was stolen and recovered, and he warned me about the condition it was recovered in, so its history is uncertain. He's going to try and find the before/after pics.
Very helpful.

[CookMySock]

The vin process is pretty good for determining roadworthiness, but it's not infallible.

Yeah you got that right.

I looked at a GT650R wreck earlier this year, and to my surprise I stumble across the said red repaired and revinned GT650R in Tauranga last month. We had the seat off it, and lo and behold the center chassis member between the two side parts of the frame is bent upwards in the center. Now theres only ONE way the center chassis member gets bent UPWARDS and that is if you press the two sides together.

I asked the owner (a police officer) who VINned that, and he refused to tell me.

Steve

[sobriquet]

Now I'm quite worried about the percentage of dangerous bikes that might be on NZ roads.
I had a look at it today.

When I arrived, the front brake reservoir had coffee colored brake fluid, and the rear had none at all.
Nobody had replaced the key-based ignition since it got ripped out by the thief 4 years ago.
The engine seemed to sound alright, but the gearbox was trashed, making all kinds of awful noises in higher gears.
The front wheel bearings also seemed screwy, as the bike wobbled and wanted to upright itself around corners.
The newer fairing barely fit the bike, tires had flat spots (and rubber under the rear fender).
It dropped into neutral from 2nd occasionally, and wouldn't go into neutral sometimes while stationary.
Fairings were from a different model, barely fitting, and acted as a knee/leg warmer.
It had 2 right hand mirrors, one of them at an odd angle as a substitute for the left hand mirror.
The owner was also unsure when the oil was last changed, and they'd had it for 2 years.

This all surprised me, as the owner seemed quite knowledgeable about bikes, at least enough to assume they'd know about regular maintenance.

These are just some of the more obvious things that were wrong with it, and
I'm now quite worried that getting recertification and a WOF might be a bit too easy in this country.

Surprisingly, the frame/subframes seemed to be in alright condition.
With regards to cost, it was perhaps worth 10-20% of the asking price.

I hope I don't incriminate anyone if the seller posts here, but buyers beware - try before you buy.

This guide helped immensely: http://www.clarity.net/~adam/buying-bike.html. As did the comments in this thread, so thanks.
A larger percentage of the "RUN" suggestions in the buying guide occurred than I ever expected to encounter.

[vgcspares]

we write off bikes if they are old simply because we can't source original parts and then can't provide indemnity under the policy, ie: restore it to it's pre-accident glory

if a bike has been recomplied legitimately it will be a better bet (on average) than a comparable uninsured bike as that could easily have had a crash, then a botched repair and no record of either