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High mileage bikes

24K views 45 replies 15 participants last post by  Hokie 
#1 ·
I was doing some general searching yesterday and it seems 10K or higher miles and a bike is a very high mileage bike. I bought my bike brand-new and I've put about 10K miles on it in approximately 6 or 7 months, which got me thinking about 2 issues:

  1. for the '13+ Daytona, what is high miles? I will average about 20K miles a year at my current pace
  2. Why don't I see many 50K+ mile (sport) bikes, not just Triumph either - do people just not drive them much or crash them first

And before it's said, I do realize that there are some high mile bikes out there, but they seem more to be the exception rather than the rule, and that's what confuses me I guess. I live in SoCal and I can drive my bike year round and do. But even when searching for used bikes, cycle trader didn't have many listed above 12K miles.
 
#2 ·
I'd say those high mileage bikes such as the 30-40k+ aren't in sight because they don't strike high value to sell vs. low miles. I bet they're either held onto, pieced apart or wrecked. When I do see 675's with high miles Craiglists the price is so low I wish I could buy em' all haha. Then again high miles probably means high chance of service maintenance, and other parts needing replacement equaling what you would've payed if you bought with low miles and no hassle.
 
#3 ·
I've heard of triples going into the 40k-50k range without major work. A lot can depend on the kind of miles and maintenance as well as the environment.

You've stated the main reasons for why you don't see high mileage sport bikes. Super sports like the Daytona, R6, GSXR, etc. are generally not viewed as very comfortable to do big mileage so most people just take them out on occasional joy rides or the track. Others meet their fate through crashes as many people ride sport bikes beyond their skill level.
 
#4 ·
I suspect that many people crash the motorcycles before they can accumulate any significant milage. I have known people to own multiple motorcycles that made it to 100k miles without significant issues.

Higher mile bikes are also harder to sell and very stigmatized. It could be that people that make it to a high mileage just keep their bikes because the market price is unfair for the seller.

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#5 ·
I've got just over 48,000 miles on my 2009 Street Triple and it runs/looks as good as the day I brought it home from the dealer (looks better, actually, lol). Maintenance and care are everything. These days, an engine is an engine, pretty much regardless of who or where it is made. If the rings get seated OK and you don't thrash the piss out of it endlessly, any engine out there should easily be capable of 100,000 miles. Not a big deal, mechanically-wise.
 
#6 ·
I always assumed this too, but reading the various other forums and sites, I started to think that motorcycle engines were wildly different, possibly because their higher revving nature.

I'm hoping maintenance does the trick. While I've followed the manufacturer recommendations with most of my four wheeled vehicles, i.e., 7K oil changes, I've been doing them a bit more frequently with the bike.
 
#7 ·
They may or may not be active on this forum, but there's quite a few 675's out there that are pushing or over 100,000 miles. Yeah, I would not expect a dedicated track machine to rack up high miles, but that's common sense when running under extreme conditions.

Consider that the technology used to design and manufacture just about every engine out there is the same. Nobody is using anything special or proprietary at this stage of the game. Engineering principals and methodology has been pretty static when it comes to engine design, for quite some time. The only wild card has been tolerance/machining control, and most factories are up to speed, certainly the mainstream OEM's. Sure, we always are reminded about poor "Chinese" QC, but that really does not apply to this conversation. The so-called track-life issues are there because of the sustained stresses at or above design criteria limit.

When I was a kid, nobody would touch a car motor that had 100,000 miles on it, unless you were prepared to rebuild it. Nowadays, the very cheapest of craptastic cars easily exceed 100,000 miles (the rest of the car typically falls apart around the motor, lol). As other posters above have commented - a "typical" sport bike is purchased by a newb or younger rider and it gets thrashed a lot more than a more mature rider would treat it (track use not withstanding). I'm willing to bet if GoldWings were suddenly the "in" thing and being bought by hords of newbs, it's reputation of being bullet-proof would fall pretty quick.

You can't out-engineer stupid, regardless of what the government dreams of. :smile2:
 
#8 ·
I think it's because of the type of bike; as mentioned before sport bikes aren't comfortable machines you go touring or commuting on (with some exceptions of course). A lot of them are probably weekend rides that see very little miles every year and once they reach a certain age they probably get traded in to a dealer.

With proper maintenance, pretty much any car engine these days will do 200k mi. For a higher revving engine like the 675, 100k mi is probably still very realistic. I personally know of at least two that surpassed that mileage; one Daytona and one STR.

I sold mine at 48k and it still purrs like new :). If I should be selling them before 10k mi, I'd go bankrupt on buying new bikes every year LOL
 
#9 ·
Some very valid points above.

I would add that the way the bike is used (I don't mean crashing!) plays a big role too. Heavy-handed thrashing and a life near the redline has a heavy toll on engines. I learned that the easy way with my SV650 and from my year-long reading through this and other forums, it is a real factor in 675 engines too. I want to believe that if I stay south of 9-10K RPM (and properly maintain it of course) I will be riding my 675 for years to come without any trouble.
 
#10 ·
My bike is used as a daily commuter and the majority of the time it's below 7K RPM - I liked the idea of a "sports vehicle" for commuting as it makes it fun. Reading up on bikes had me worried I would have to replace it within a year or so; glad to hear even at approximately 20k a year, it'll last and still be performant (is that even a word?)!
 
#11 ·
I'd expect most modern MC engines to easily go 100k miles with routine maintenance. On high mileage bikes, I'd worry more about frame maintenance -- steering head, swing arm bearing lube, rear suspension pivot lube, etc. And brake calipers if the bike has been ridden in the wet a lot.

I agree that most of these get ridden so little that they age out of decent resale prices long before they wear out.
 
#12 ·
As most stated here, it's not only the engine itself you have to worry about on high mileage bikes, its other wear and tear items too.

A few weeks back I went to look at a high mileage bike, an 06 with 54,000 miles on it. Owner claimed engine had only 24,000 because bit was replaced. So I went to look at the bike, needed a lot, and the engine wasn't the problem. Turns out it needed forks rebuilt, tires, rear shock, front brakebpads, rear brake pads, rear rotor, brake fluid and who knows what else, that was just on initial inspection, at the sellers house. All that shit adds up, real fast.

So a cheaper priced higher mileage bike may sound like a deal, until you do the math to replace anything that needs replacing. Then after you invest all that money bringing the bike back to life, you still have a high mileage bike with a low resale value. Sounds like something I'd stay away from.
 
#14 ·
A few weeks back I went to look at a high mileage bike, an 06 with 54,000 miles on it. Owner claimed engine had only 24,000 because bit was replaced. So I went to look at the bike, needed a lot, and the engine wasn't the problem. Turns out it needed forks rebuilt, tires, rear shock, front brakebpads, rear brake pads, rear rotor, brake fluid and who knows what else, that was just on initial inspection, at the sellers house. All that shit adds up, real fast.
But that further proves the point others have made that a lack of maintenance is worse than high mileage. An 06 with 5,000 miles would need all of the above too if they hadn't been done, with maybe the exception of the pads & rotor provided they're not rusted to hell.
 
#13 ·
Statistically, most sport bikes are wrecked before they hit 10k miles. Add in that the majority of people ride less than 2k miles a year and you don't see many bikes with a lot of miles. There are at least a handful of Daytona 675's above 100k that I know of, and a friend of mine has an F4i with 310k miles on it, still going strong (and to the track).

I wouldn't buy a bike with 50k miles on it though. Too many other bikes with 10-20k for just as cheap out there.
 
#22 ·
I'm actually more impressed with all these people that find motorcycle shops that only charge $150 for jobs like rebuilding shocks...just to keep my bike in warranty, I've been bringing it to the shop: the 600 mile service, 3K mile, 6K, and here soon it will be the 12k. I believe each time it's been around $600+ just for that (last time it involved tires, but the other times it didn't).

I'm worried what the valve check will cost here in So Cal - I should probably do this work myself as most of it seems to involve "inspecting" the bike and changing the oil.
 
#31 ·
I'm worried what the valve check will cost here in So Cal - I should probably do this work myself as most of it seems to involve "inspecting" the bike and changing the oil.
Valve checks are easy. It's just buried in there real good so the cost comes from having to take all the shit off the bike. There's a how-to on this forum that does a good job explaining. You don't need to pull the radiator off, even. Just loosen it up and let it hang by the hoses, and then you can slide the valve cover off the engine without having to drop the engine as they would do in the dealership.

Even if your valves aren't in spec, it's pretty easy to replace the shims. Just make sure you don't drop a shim into the engine like I did. Then you go out and buy a boroscope to try and see if it ended up in a cylinder. I lucked out and it didn't. Just fell down an oil passage and ended up in the oil pan. Got it out later once I dropped the pan to fix a leaky gasket.
 
#32 ·
I understand people shying away from high mile bikes, but I have a bike that I bought with 33K on the odo and love it. I would say the only thing to be concerned about in buying a "high mileage" bike is the previous owner, not the soundness or longevity of the engine design. What I mean is, the main thing that destroys the longevity of an engine is not miles as much as the previous owner that thrashes it and thinks oil changes are a sales gimmick by the petroleum industry. Best case most of the time is a bike that has been maintained by the dealership because the majority of people will not meticulously maintain it themselves. However, I know many people who take better care of their bikes than the dealership, and I have bought many bikes from owner's who did all the maintenance. I mean generally, if someone doesn't give a damn about maintenance, the bike reflects that visually. You can also tell a lot from the interaction with the seller. Are you getting a new bike? No. Is it going to grenade the engine right after you take it home because it has a few thousand miles? Doubt it. Bottom line is this: If you're going to lose sleep over buying a used bike, don't buy it. If you can afford a new one, buy a new one. People worry about what other people think, say, believe. If you feel better getting a new bike, get a new bike. I have a car with 300k on it and still drive it everyday.
 
#34 ·
If I remember right, the service manual says you have to drop the engine. At least on the 06-12 bikes. Not saying the dealers actually do that, but they bid the job based off of book time involving that.

Whats your question about pulling the cover off? You take the cover off to the side underneath the frame. Probably poor wording on my part causing confusion.
 
#35 ·
Oh I thought you were swinging the radiator away to pull the cover off forwards. I either pull it off towards the back or like you, to the side under the frame. I've always found plenty of room without even moving the radiator, much less dropping the engine. I guess the only reason they'd suggest that is so you can get a torque wrench on that one bolt directly under the frame.
 
#36 ·
My question doesn't necessarily pertain to high mileage bikes, but about buying a used daytona 675 in general.

I am currently looking for a gen1/gen2 bike to purchase. I am coming across some with very low mileage. My question is, is that where are the miles stored, on the ecu or the cluster? Because what's stopping some from swapping out clusters to recouperate a higher resale value? Can I read the actual mileage of the ECU through TuneEcu or something?
 
#38 ·
lol, not paranoid, just want to cover all angles(I grew up in Jersey:grin2:), we aren't talking a few hundred dollar investment here.

I came across other threads that have conflicting information, saying you can just put a new cluster without pairing to ECU, and one guy mentioned how you can save on depreciation with a lower mileage cluster lol
 
#41 ·
Even though there is always some crazy a-hole out there, I don't think the risk is very high that someone swaps out the cluster to hide the mileage. And if the bike truly has a lot of miles that the owner is trying to hide, it will probably show in the overall condition of the bike.
 
#42 ·
How about the opposite of a high mileage bike, something with low miles but used on the track.

Reason I ask is there is a 2012 675R with 1400 miles on it? What's the consensus on purchasing track ridden bikes to put ln the street? Is that 1400 miles really like 50k? lol
 
#43 ·
Track bikes are consistently ridden at sustained high rpms, therefore will definitely have more wear than a bike with equal miles used on the street. That being said, track bikes normally have the fluids changed way more often, sometimes multiple times at one track if being used for racing. Usually these are discounted because they are: 1. not registered for the street or titled for off-road use only when they were bought 2. Have track set-up, again can't be used on the street ( no lights, race fairing, etc), or 3. have been lowsided at the track and have cosmetic damage.

I'm not sure what the equivalent in mileage would be from a track machine to a street bike, but if you base it on how many revolutions the engine has done (I know its not a 100% accurate measure of wear considering differences in operating temp, oil level, etc) then the track machine would see more wear with less mileage.
 
#44 ·
There's a huge difference between "ridden on the track" and a dedicated track bike. A street bike that was occasionally ridden on the track doesn't worry me in the least. Read it as actual mileage.

A bike that was track only and converted back to street needs a little more detective work. Ridden in the beginner group, you can almost get away with a normal maintenance schedule. Ridden in advanced group, the fluids should be changed about twice as often. Double the mileage.

A bike that was race only and put back to street needs to be thoroughly inspected. I usually shy away from these sort of bikes unless I'm racing them myself. Fluids should be changed every race weekend. Hard to put a number on it, but I would probably quintuple the mileage of a race bike.
 
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