I have been entertaining the thought of purchasing a bike from one of the many salvage company's that are all over the net. I am wondering if purchasing a bike this way is a good option. They have really great deals. Seems like most have cosmetic issues and some are just done with life. In particular I have been looking at Kimmotor and Bentbikes.com. Kimmotor really goes out of their way to take pictures from every angle so you can see exactly what's wrong with the bike. Bentbikes seems to have better bikes that are not destroyed by fire, flood or wrecks.
It would be OK to fly out to one of these places and have a look-see before purchasing. But unless the bike has been down on both sides and fallen into a metal crusher it would be hard to pick out items like a tweaked fork or swing arm or probably worse, a bent frame. I am very mechanically skilled and have been riding since '73. But the best skills on the planet can't fix a frame. Well at least I can't. Bentbikes will go over the bike for 500.00. But they are in the business of selling bikes. I don't know, take the bike to a local Harley shop and have it gone over? I'm sure that would not fly with these people... What you see is what you get!
Buzz nailed it. For many years I lived directly across the street from the owner of a large cycle salvage yard. Some of the bikes had only minor damage and others were scrap. The one thing they had in common was a Fla salvage title. This will hit resale with a brick and can complicate insurance and out of state registration. Work through the details before you buy. Prices are down and going lower. Values from even a year ago have dived. Dealers have too much inventory so don`t expect them to reach out to make a deal. In other words there are great deals without going salvage.
Very good advcie from Buzz and Wrightturn. I would add if you're thinking of financing the bike you'd better check with your lending institution. Many, but not all, of them will not make loans on vehicles with salvage titles.
I checked out Kim Motor and I thought that their prices were way too high for a wrecked bike. One I remember checking out was a BadBoy. The ends, sides, top and bottom were all damaged. If I remember correctly they wanted $8900. Check you local want ads for a bike that someone needs to unload quickly. You will find a better deal this way. I've said it before and I'll say it again...it is a buyers market and the deals on bikes are getting better by the day.
__________________ "A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat. When a well packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and it's speaker a raving lunatic." Dresden James
Salvage title laws vary from state to state. In some states a savage title the vehicle must be scraped, other can be titled. There are guys that used to move the title from state to state to clean the title, but that is getting tighter, so check with your state, title office first.
Same thing for a assembled vehicle title, getting more strick but vary from state to state.
Hard to keep up.
The NHTSA has been trying to get national title legislation, but I have not heard of anything lately.
Personally I ride a bike forever, so to me a salvage title would not be a problem, as long as I bought it cheap.
Salvage, repo, theft recovery 
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