High Mileage ?

Sandycheeks

Sandycheeks

Sandycheeks

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Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on mileage before buying.

Theoretically, I would consider buying a 1L car with 70-80,000 mls but when it comes to bikes I always seem to sniff at mileage above 20,000.

Say I am looking at a 800cc bike, I can pretty much guarantee that unless Danny Pedrosa was the previous owner, the bike would have hardly ever been ridden near is limit and should still be pretty sweet even with a 80,000 on the clock, whereas a 1L car would amost certainly of been driven at near its limit for a lot of the time.

Basically I am wondering if I am limiting my search for a new bike by my disregard of bikes with mileage above 20,000.
I know service history can be a real plus.

If you had 2 to 3 grand to spend on a bike what would you be looking at.
 
I guess it all depends on how many miles you will be putting on it yourself. Obviously if you are only going to be doing 2-3k a year at most then Id happily consider 20-25k mileage on a bike if it was in fairly good condition otherwise I would personally be looking for lower as you will easily rack up the miles and servicing could start getting expensive.
 
I always buy on condition over mileage but if im honest I wouldnt touch anything over 15k miles or probably over 10. Only for the reason that I hate re-selling them and low mileage makes a very, very easy sale.
 
depends on the bike,if you know them well then I wouldn't fuss at 20-40k miles

but for peace of mind always try and get the one with the least miles

there's pro's and cons,higher miles tend to have all the service intervals/stamps done,low miles you will have to face all those bills yourself ect

im at 54k on my bike with no engine work done at all,valves were checked at 18k and its fine tbh,but it depends on the bike model
 
Servicing will be done by me, I'm pretty handy with the spanners...not through choice but necessity when younger to keep bikes/cars on the road that should have been scrapped 10 years before I bought them.
 
Mmmm.. well mine's on 21k miles and it's running like a beast... my mates R1 (1999) has 44k miles on it now and it's not missed a beat... if they're serviced, checked over and treated well... I'm seeing CBR600's on 80k miles and running sweet.

Suppose it does depend on the bike etc.. BUT, blimey to not look at bikes with over 20k on... seems like you're limiting your possibly bargains... bear in mind... we all like low mileage but if you can find a bargain, loosk mint, I'd never have a problem.

When I bought my Mazda Xedos 6 (2.0ltr V6)... it had 102k miles on the clock but was MINT... I got it to 197k miles in 3 years and it never had so much as a lightbulb replaced... the day I sold it, flew through MOT and even the guy said he couldn't believe the emissions... I used to and always do change my oil on cars every 6k miles maximum... normally 3k miles on the RX8...

On the bike, I change around 3k miles or once per year... dependant on whatever comes first...
 
I'm looking for the sweet-spot, I don't want to lose a lot of money on it when I come to sell it. If I buy a bike for £1500 with 50,000 miles on it and keep it for a year I would imagine next year with another 3-5000 miles the miles wont be that big of a difference as it's already high as far as bikes go but would be even harder to sell.
If I buy a 5 year old bike for £3000 with 20,000 miles on it next year it would probably only be worth around £2000.
If I buy new I would lose a chunk due to depreciation so a £6000 bike sees a loss of about £2000-£3000, based on the fact I would surely keep it for 3 years until the warranty runs out etc...
 
you'd pickup a good used zx6r for £1500

g1/2 or j1/2 model,those bikes are good for reliability

id look at the Honda cbr's aswell
 
The engines are good for 100k these days. Its the rolling and bouncy bits that need replacement. A bike with 20k on its original suspension and brakes is going to feel very tired, and are disproportionately expensive to replace compared to the cost of small car suspension and brakes for example.
 
My FJ1200 had over 40k when I got it, which is barely broken in. These bikes will do 200-300K easily.
My previous bike, a 650 Dragstar, is reknowned for some very specific known failures and will generally be knackered at 50K if it's ridden year-round, yet will go far further if properly cared for.

It all depends on the bike and its life thus far.
 
On Japanese bikes 20k is nothing for the engines, provided they have been looked after. Plenty of sports bikes have gone past 100k on the original engine.

I would be more concerned about rest of the bike: rear shock and linkages, forks, head bearings, swing arm bearings, wheel bearings etc...
 
excluding the CG, i've never had a bike below 40k miles. current bike has just turned over to 55k.

If the price is right, and it looks tidy enough, then i'd have no problem going for a high miler.
 
Because I only passed my test last July I'm thinking I would be better off to just get a 600 or 650 as a bit of a stop gap until I can get a big bike.
Sure a 650 would have enough grunt but I would rather have something bigger.
I want something that will sell pretty easily in 12 months and high miler just don't sell very well.
I am seriously considering selling my Trials bike and my GS500 and getting something pretty new.
I like the look of the GSX650 F...I can get a 2009 with less than 10,000 miles for £3,499 and I'm sure that would be worlds apart from the GS500...just not sure.
 
I try to avoid buying anything with more than 10k on it.

It's irrelevant this time round as I'm buying new, but I've always tried to stick to that.

Why? It's a hang over from two stroke ownership, unless it was a 350 YPVS, anything approaching 20k was going to need something doing to it on a high performance stroker (2T mopeds and 125cc learner hacks not so much) and it's just stuck.

Yes they were easy enough to rebuild, and not that expensive, I just couldn't be arsed with it.

Plus as well bikes are not cars, they just were not built that well it's only fairly recently that you haven't had to completely rebuild the shocks, forks, swing arm bushes, head races, brake lines, calipers, Cush drives, and clutch at virtually the nailed on 20k mark on a good deal of bikes.

Paintwork used to be 1micron thick, plastics would fade and crack, the paint on the frames would peel and crack, forks would pit and would need replacing because they would trash the seals, exhausts would be made out of wafer thin metal and rust before you eyes. sub frames would crack, various mounts would snap off.

The list is endless.

The engines for the most part there was no problem with, it's everything else that was attached to it that would just rot away or brake off.

Things are much better these days.
 
atpbx said:
Plus as well bikes are not cars, they just were not built that well it's only fairly recently that you haven't had to completely rebuild the shocks, forks, swing arm bushes, head races, brake lines, calipers, Cush drives, and clutch at virtually the nailed on 20k mark on a good deal of bikes.
Click to expand...

What do you count as fairly recently? Anything Japanese from late 90's or early 2000's onward should be pretty robust. My Aprilia Mille is a 2003 bike with 22k on it and none of the above has required rebuilding (apart from e.g. partial dismantling for fork oil change). If an Italian bike can manage that then Japanese ones should breeze it, provided they are looked after.

This seems like the same kind of ingrained mentality that causes 100k miles on a car to frighten people, despite a vast number of cars managing to double this or more without serious problems.
 
Dogbreath said:
What do you count as fairly recently? Anything Japanese from late 90's or early 2000's onward should be pretty robust. My Aprilia Mille is a 2003 bike with 22k on it and none of the above has required rebuilding (apart from e.g. partial dismantling for fork oil change). If an Italian bike can manage that then Japanese ones should breeze it, provided they are looked after.

This seems like the same kind of ingrained mentality that causes 100k miles on a car to frighten people, despite a vast number of cars managing to double this or more without serious problems.
Click to expand...

Well if you read the whole post, you will see it's exactly that. :o

And yes, 2000 onwards would be fairly recently.

I keep forgetting how old I am.
 
My 97 VFR750 has just passed 60000kms about 37k miles. But on one of these it's nothing, Check the VFR forums & there's plenty with 75k+ miles up them & one Dude has one with 250k miles up it he has been doing 30k a year commuting on it.
Mine was owned by the same family for 11 years & is in good condition for it's age & sailed through it's MOT tuther week, MOT tester said the bikes Perfect.
Horses for courses I s'pose but I'd Trust my bike to take me Anywhere. :cool:
 
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