No APK on a motorbike, which shifts the burden
Cars and campers come up for an APK, the Dutch roadworthiness inspection, on a fixed cycle. Motorcycles are not on that list, according to the RDW's own overview of what each vehicle type owes. One fewer date to watch, and one fewer document to show.
That second half is the part sellers forget. Someone looking at your motorbike has no recent report from a test station to lean on, so what they have is the onderhoudsboekje, the workshop invoices and whatever you tell them. Put the mileage down to the kilometre. Say when the chain, the tyres and the brake pads were last done. Mention the time it went over in a car park, because a fall writes itself onto levers, pegs and exhaust, and a buyer who spots one will wonder what else went unsaid.
The test ride is the moment you lose sight of it
You can sit beside someone testing a car. On a motorbike the buyer rides off and you wait at the kerb. Before that happens, read the licence and check the category covers your bike, and read your own policy to see who it allows on the saddle.
Sellers handle the rest in their own ways: a deposit left behind, or the buyer's vehicle parked on your drive while they are out. Either is reasonable. What does not change is that the kentekencard and the code stay with you until the deal is closed, and the motorbike only goes for good once the payment has arrived in your account and the register has been changed.
Selling a motorbike that is asleep for the winter
Suspension (schorsen) is what many riders do for the months the bike stays in the garage. Road tax and insurance fall away while it runs, and in return the motorbike may not be ridden or left standing on a public road.
A suspended motorbike still sells. The RDW drops the suspension the moment a new keeper is registered, and the buyer insures it from that same moment. The practical catch is collection, since nobody may ride it away, so it leaves on a trailer or in a van. The rules are the same for bikes and cars, and we set them out in our guide to a suspension.
Road tax stops by itself, insurance does not
Motorrijtuigenbelasting on a motorbike runs for exactly as long as the register says the bike is yours. The RDW passes the change on to the Belastingdienst, which refunds the part you had paid for after the sale, and you report nothing to anybody. Our road tax guide goes through the refund.
Your policy behaves differently. It runs until you ring the insurer and end it, so make that call with the date of the sale and the vrijwaringsbewijs in front of you in case they ask. Up to the transfer, keep the cover in place. A motorbike waiting for a buyer in a garage is still a registered motorbike.
What the buyer needs from you at the RDW
Two items, and the second one comes in two halves. Give the buyer the kentekencard and the complete tenaamstellingscode, and the registration can be moved to them online or over a counter, which puts the vrijwaringsbewijs in your hands.
The code is nine digits long. Four sit on the tenaamstellingsverslag, the slip handed to you when the bike became yours, and the other five came in the envelope with the registration card. Half a code missing is a common problem on a bike bought years ago. The code guide sets out how to ask for a fresh one.
Getting an offer from us on a motorbike
Motorbikes go through the car form. Enter the plate, we look the bike up in the RDW register, and you fill in mileage, condition and damage, plus photographs of both flanks, the clocks and the tyres. Ask for an offer here, at no cost and with nothing signed.
The offer waits for your answer, so the season can turn without costing you anything. Accept it and we come to the bike wherever it stands in this country, free of charge, change the registration at the RDW during the visit and pay you as the keys change hands. Anything you want to ask first can go to us on WhatsApp, where a person answers.