Will Japanese bike dealers take Harleys for trade-ins?

I ride a Harley Davidson Sportster at this time and am currently making payments on it, but may want to get a sport bike before I actually pay off the Sportster and was wondering if I would have to pay it off and sell it or would most dealers; Kawasaki, Suzuki, Honda, etc. take my Harley for a trade-in towards a new sport bike?

I am making payments on it for a couple of years and am also wondering if they would take the trade-in value and put it towards to paying off the Sportster.

I also am thinking of the Harley/Buell line of sport bikes, which would probably would be easier as far as trading in my Sportster, but I want to see if I can expand my choices to other manufacturers.
There is nothing wrong with my Sportster, I enjoy it, but I eventually want to get into a sport bike and can't afford both or have room for two motorcycles.

Do you want the short answer or the long answer?

The short answer is "Yes" they will.

The long answer is "Why?". They will certainly under pay, and it's so easy to sell a harley, even a sportster in todays market, that there is no reason you shouldnt sell it yourself. Even selling on Ebay should give you a better rate than the dealer!

As far as getting them to pay it off, there is once again, no short answer. This is completely up to the dealer. Some dealers will, and some dealers won't. If your only talking a few hundred dollars, then most probably will. If you are talking about several thousand, some still probably will, but not as many. I still raise the question I did before- "Why". You can probably sell it quickly for more than the trade in, and pay off the sportster.

The Buells are nice, and I'm sure your friends will give you a hard time trading a Harley for a Japanese bike. Clearly, the japanese bikes will be cheaper, and i'm guessing since your paying off the sportster, that Buells will require a little more $$$. If you already have a license and a bike, many dealers will let you test drive the bikes. If your Harley dealer will let you, you should try out the Buell. If you like it, and you can afford it, it may be a good "medium" between the harley and the japanese bikes. If you want to save some money and just want to get a sport bike to have some fun with, you can't lose with the japanese bikes.

I hope that helps!
-BRF

No dealer is going to give you a fair trade in price for ur bike
If you do trade it in the amount of money you owe on the bike will be added to the loan amount for the new bike.
every dealer has too many used HD's for sale and he can't give them away, some dealers are taking used HD's and stripping down and selling the parts cause they can't sell the bike.
Your best option is to find someone to buy it and taking over the loan payments and just walking away from the bike and buying a new bike with no trade in.
I didn't mean to be rude, I'm telling you the truth, used HD's are hard to sell.

Some Harley dealers will put your bike on the showroom and only charge a small commission.
You will get more for the bike that way and no hassle dealing with prospective customers.

You will always get more money selling the bike, but that can be a pain sometimes. As far as letting the Harley dealer sell your bike, I inquired about that a couple weeks a go and they want $2000 to put it on consignment. A Honda dealer is only charging me $150 to sell it.