Motorbike Finance

What we finance

Road and sports bikes, cruisers and touring, adventure and dual sport, dirt and motocross, scooters, and trikes.

Smaller loan amounts — the honest bit

Bikes are often cheaper than cars, and that creates a wrinkle worth being upfront about: most lenders have a minimum loan amount. Below roughly that threshold, secured finance stops being viable and a personal loan is usually the better route.

If the bike you're after is at the lower end, ring us and we'll tell you honestly which way makes more sense — including if the answer is “put it on a personal loan instead”.

Personal loans →

Learner and returning riders

Being on a LAMS licence doesn't affect finance. What can affect it is the bike itself — very high-performance machines narrow the lender field, and some won't write competition-only or non-road-registered bikes at all.

If you're coming back to riding after years off, that's not a problem either. Nobody's assessing your riding history.

From classifieds to first ride

One sequencing tip before the list: don't book a pre-purchase inspection or hand over a holding deposit until approval's in. It's usually back inside 24 to 48 hours, and it saves paying to inspect a bike you can't yet buy.

Practically, that timing means a bike bought early in the week is a realistic weekend ride. Apply Monday, approval midweek, seller paid by Friday. The thing most likely to slow it down is a seller who's hard to pin down — not the finance.

• Apply — a couple of minutes online, or ring and do it over the phone.
• We run a credit check that won't affect your credit score and price the deal across the panel.
• Conditional approval, typically 24 to 48 hours.
• Find the bike and send the listing. Private sale? We check for money owing before anything's paid.
• Sign electronically. We pay the dealer or the seller directly.
• Gear on, ride home.

New or used: the bike version

New bikes come with warranty, ride-away pricing and modern rider aids — ABS and traction control are standard on most new road bikes now, and they're worth having. What you trade is the first-owner depreciation, which on bikes is front-loaded just like cars.

Used is where the value lives, and bikes tell you their history if you look. Levers, bar ends and engine cases show drop damage. The chain and rear tyre show how it was ridden. A stamped service book shows whether it was looked after between rides.

Bike odometers read low compared to cars — most bikes do a fraction of a car's annual kilometres — so condition and service history matter more than the number on the dash. A tidy bike with average kays beats a neglected one with low kays every time.

Ex-demo bikes are worth a look too: a few hundred kilometres of test rides, dealer-serviced from day one, priced under new and financed as near-new. On popular models they don't sit around long.

Gear is part of the budget

Helmet, jacket, gloves, boots. Decent kit runs well past a thousand dollars before you've ridden anywhere, and the helmet legally has to meet the approved standards. None of this is where you save money.

Here's the useful bit: bought with the bike from a dealer, gear and accessories can often go on the same finance rather than the credit card. Tell us the full picture — bike plus kit — before we submit, and we'll tell you what the lender will carry.

First-month costs to plan for alongside the gear: rego transfer and CTP if it's a private buy, and insurance active from day one — on a secured loan, lenders generally require comprehensive cover from settlement.

While you're getting insurance quotes, check whether the policy covers your gear as well as the bike. Some do, some don't, and after a slide the helmet and jacket are replace-not-repair items. That's a factual difference between policies worth knowing before you pick one — not something you want to discover at claim time.

The upgrade cycle

Most riders don't keep their first bike long. Off restrictions in a year or two, and the itch for the bigger bike arrives on schedule. Finance should be set up knowing that.

Practical version: keep the term honest. A long term on a bike you'll replace in two years means trading with plenty still owing. A shorter term costs a little more each month and leaves you free to move when you're ready.

When upgrade day comes with money still owing, it's routine: the lender issues a payout figure, and either the trade-in covers it or the difference folds into the next loan. We sort the payout either way — just don't agree numbers with anyone until you know yours.

Selling privately usually nets more than trading, and money owing doesn't stop it — the sale proceeds clear the payout and the encumbrance comes off for your buyer. We coordinate that so the buyer's check comes back clean and the handover happens once, properly.

Bikes that work for a living: quads, farm machines and delivery scooters

Ag bikes, quads and side-by-sides working on a property are business machines, and they finance like it — on the ABN, often as a chattel mortgage, with the low doc assessment we run for any work asset. Self-employed and farming buyers are our home ground, and an ABN under two years is workable.

The same logic covers the other end of the market: scooters and small bikes bought for delivery work. If you're riding for the food apps on an ABN, the scooter is a work asset and can be assessed that way — bank statements showing the delivery income do the talking, not payslips you don't have.

Recreational quads and buggies that will never see rego are a different conversation — some lenders won't write machines that can't be road-registered, so the route depends on the machine and the use. Tell us honestly which it is and we'll point you at the right structure first time.

Either way, say what the machine is for when you apply. Work use and play use can go to different parts of the panel, and starting in the right lane is faster than switching lanes mid-application.

Mistakes riders make with the money

Questions we get asked