bike milage. whats too high?

As already said a well looked after bike with higher miles is fine. I would buy it as long as its in good nick & been looked after.

missis has said

1. does it have a comfy seat
2. do you want it?

if so pop downa nd look and buy it. seems like she might be talking sense for a change (dont tell her that)

For me, it depends on age. I'm interested in buying a VFR800, pre Vtec. There are many bikes with 40,000 miles on them - this is not much milage for the age of the bike per year its been around, even the 2001 models. Going back to the VFR750's, again some have only 40,000 miles.

However, a bike that is 2 years old with 40,000 mile son, that is alot of miles.

The comment(s) about a high milage bike being well serviced as a good buy is very true. Generally, at about 40,000 - 50,000 miles, responsible owners will get the head race bearings replaced, the forks serviced and the rear shock either replaced or serviced. Thats the chassis back to being as good as new. So long as the bike has had regular oil, filter and plug changes, and valve clearance checks every 15,000 miles (or so, normaly bit longer than that) and the owner keeps things like the brakes well cleaned and serviced, then thats a good buy.

I've come across a few low milage examples of e.g. GSXR's and stuff (i mean less than 10,000 miles on a bike thats 5 years old). Rusty chains, binding brakes...eurgh.

If you do buy a high milage example, and you want to be on the safe side. Go over things yourself. Change the oil and oil filter, check the spark plugs and the air filter - then you know the very very basics have been covered I think for the CBR600F's, the thing that gets a bit iffy with them is cham chain tensioners (its a honda!) so have a listen and ask the seller about it

so whats the deal with the cam chain tensioners?

[yorkie_chris]

They are disposable on those, there was some spastic in Jordans getting 3rd one fitted in couple months, at £100 a time

APE make a manual one, but some never have trouble.


As for mileage basically give it an MOT. If shock bearings are all shagged, you buying a money pit.

Want me to come along?

can do if you fancy. im thinking of popping over on sat if your up for it?

[rictus01]

I tend to use 100k as a benchmark generally, 5 of the S3's I had got retired from the road at around that mleage, but as has been said a good check over is always a good idea.

most fairly modern stuff should be ok to around that figure with good maintenance, with a few exceptions (Buells, Ducati and alike), these needing some serious money thrown at them, but if bought for the right price in full knowledge then it's OK to.

Find out what is original and what has been changed and when (receipts are proof, not the owners words) and pay accordingly.

Cheers Mark.

hello, havent you had a play on mine?!

cam chain thing is totally the thing - the noise will come at about 5500 revs - you gotta ride it although you can hear it when its still if you rev in the right way. mine needs doing.

seat is ok - i have a gel seat though so its amazing.

how much you thinking of? i wanted one at 10k miles - i got 2001 with 11k but most on ebay have very large mileages, took a bit of searching - found mine on mcn pages

not had a go on yours im afraid. the bike im looking at has 39k on it. will know more after ive seen it at the weekend.

bit worried about the cct issue. although if i did get it i would probably change it for piece of mind anyways along with the chain and sprockets....

[Swin]

My T reg Bandit had 60k on it when I traded it in for the SV, the only issue was the clutch needed doing at about 50k but it was generally feeling tired all over, certainly nothing major and it still did the commute no problem. The only reason I traded in was the low mileage Bandit I had bought to (eventually) replace it was stolen.