▸ Inspections
2
Once in Costa Mesa. Once again in Kobe after arrival.
▸ § The Inspection · Costa Mesa & Kobe
Every bike CoKo sells is inspected twice — once before it leaves the United States, and once after it arrives in Japan. Two shops. Two reports. One bike you can buy without flying to see it first.
▸ Inspections
2
Once in Costa Mesa. Once again in Kobe after arrival.
▸ Photographs
60+
Every angle, every flaw, every number.
▸ Reports
2 PDFs
EN + JP. Both stay public — we don't quietly edit the first.
▸ Markets
Japan + SEA
Delivered through to the buyer's port of arrival.
A vintage Triumph that crosses the Pacific in a crate is not the same bike on both ends. Things shift. Fluids leak. Fasteners loosen. A small problem at the dock in California can be a bigger problem six weeks later in Kobe — or it can disappear, which raises its own questions.
Most overseas sales are inspected once, by the seller, before the bike ships. The buyer trusts the report and hopes nothing changed in transit. We didn't want to ask anyone to do that. So we built the process around two independent inspections, by two shops that know these bikes — and we publish both reports.
No step is optional. A bike does not move from "Inspecting" to "Available" until the Kobe re-inspection is signed.
▸ Step One · Sourcing
Bikes come from CoKo's network in the US — private sellers, estate sales, longtime collectors who are downsizing, and other Triumph shops that know we'll give a bike a fair look. We focus on pre-1980 Triumphs only: rigid pre-units, unit construction bikes, and oil-in-frame OIFs.
A bike has to clear basic checks before we even bring it in: matching or honestly-disclosed numbers, real provenance where possible, and condition that's worth the cost of a full inspection. Most bikes we look at, we pass on.
▸ Step Two · California inspection · Le Hangar 23
Once a bike comes into the Costa Mesa shop, Elliott's team puts it on the bench for a full mechanical inspection. This isn't a once-over. It's the kind of teardown a vintage Triumph specialist does before they buy a bike for themselves.
Everything is documented. Every category gets a written note, every flaw gets a photo, and where it helps, video. Anything that needs to be repaired before the bike can be sold is repaired in California — and called out as repaired in the report. We don't hide work, and we don't hide the parts we left alone.
▸ Step Three · Crating and shipping
Bikes are drained, secured, and crated for ocean freight. Transit time from California to Kobe is usually four to six weeks. Each crate is marked, tracked, and opened only by Fonk Motorcycle on arrival.
▸ Step Four · Kobe re-inspection · Fonk Motorcycle
When the crate is opened in Kobe, Satoshi's team starts from the California report and works through every category again. We're looking for two things: transit damage, and anything the first inspection might have missed. Fresh eyes catch things.
If we find something new, it goes into the Kobe report — visible to the buyer, alongside the original California report. We don't quietly edit the first document. Both stay public.
Only after a bike has passed the Kobe re-inspection does it move from "Inspecting" to "Available" in the catalog.
▸ Step Five · Sale and handoff
When a buyer commits to a bike, we walk them through both inspection reports, answer questions, and handle the logistics through to the buyer's port of arrival. Shop buyers and individual buyers are handled slightly differently — shops get volume terms and faster turnaround; individuals usually want more conversation up front, which is fine.
▸ COKO MOTORS · INSPECTION REPORTS
▸ California + Kobe · Both PDFs
▸ Example listing
▸ Ready to look?
Now that you know how the process works, the catalog will make more sense.