If HPI stacks up, there's a decent service history, etc, anything else to look out for if a bike is being sold cheaply (as in a lot less than book price)? Does HPI show up crash history for instance?

Is it from a dealer? This time of year they will be glad of a sale. High mileage? Engine and frame numbers match up.

Private sale, lowish mileage, I'm waiting for confirmation of engine no etc.
As for dealers being glad of a sale – not the ones I've spoken to!

Remember average mileage on bikes is a lot less than cars – 3000 miles per year??? A bike with 10 000 miles a year is considerd high mileage and will be hard to sell.

What is the bike?

As well as general condition you might want to look for any evidence it's been raced (e.g. wired or drilled bolts). I'd also want to check for any signs of impact on the frame (areas of paint flaking away) – if the bike's been crashed and fixed without the insurance being involved there will be nothing in it's history to show for it.

What type of bike is it and how much is it going for?

So it's average mileage, 07 Sprint.

A sprint won't have been raced. Reasonably popular bike as well, so no reason (other than the time of year) to sell it really cheap if it's in good condition.

This isn't a great time of year to sell though (spring and early summer is much better) so perhaps they just need a quick sale.

Something worth checking would be the frame stops for the forks. Can be a good indicator of if the bike has been on its side and also around the bottom of the forks, but these could be replaced, along with levers, bars and such like. Its been said above that if its nt gone through the insurance then its not going to come up on HPI – I wouldn't trust that to guarantee its not been involved in some sort of incident.
Then again, it could just be someone in a hurry to shift it and bargain to boot.
Good luck

Thanks all, I'm going to stay away from it. Hasn't been serviced recently by a Triumph dealer but is less than 3 years old, having checked again the price is half what would be expected, something doesn't seem right.

How about offering to pay for the dealer to check the bike over (or perhaps even get it MOT'd)?

If it don't feel right stay away. have you got a pal who can check it over? Link to the advert?

how much is it selling for like ?

Could try getting it checked over I suppose, AA/RAC could do it. Selling for £2700, although I'm struggling to find the ad again – have been e-mailing the seller since yesterday.

Research the model, find out what faults that specific bike has. It's a triumph so it'll have its foibles most likely. Nice bikes though. Don't be put off with lack of dealer servicing, frankly my bike's better serviced in my garage than most dealer serviced machines and triumph owners tend to like spanners. But, if it doesn't feel right, that's not usually a good sign.

Oh, I get the impression that you're not that familiar with bikes, or the mechanical side at least, try and take someone who is- I'm quite an aggressive fault finder and as soon as I can find one issue, generally the seller opens up more. And there's ALWAYS something, just like cars.

With s/h bikes you've to be real careful with the 'consumables', as even a well looked one could still cost £600 to 'get on the road' – a pair of tyres, chain/spockets, pads*3 (2 front 1 rear) and a service.

Thanks for all the advice, appreciate it.
Been away from bikes for a while so yup a bit rusty when it comes to the mechanicals, and can't afford a mistake!

By heck that is cheap! I am looking at changing my Speed Triple for either a Sprint or Tiger later in the year… I think I would be hard pressed to not go and see that bike if it came up in these parts!

But yes, it is suspiciously cheap – you can't find an early 1050 Sprint for less than £3.5 – £4k from my browsing, and an 07 is a good bit more than that!

RobS – exactly how I feel. If it's genuine I'll have his arm off, but…..