What is High Mileage on a bike?

All,

I am in a quandry at the minute on whether to swap my SV for a ZX6 but the ZX has 16K on the clock and is a 2002 Reg...

See Here

Can anyone help me either..
A) Convince me that this is high miles and I am right to be concerned
B) Disspell the myth about High mileage bikes
C) Offer me any help at all on either topic...

Thanks guys and gals...much appreciated!

works out about 5-6000 a year, perfectly normal I think... and that may well be better than a lower mileage bike that's been sitting for a long time. Does the general wear and tear match that mileage - should have *some* wear on the controls, pegs, etc. and maybe a few stone chips on the fork and fairing lowers... if it looks totally mint then it would be odd for 16,000 miles.

I'd say a high mileage bike (even a sports 600) would be more like 30k or 50k miles... plenty of mileage left in it... plus surely the dealer will be chucking in at least 1 year warranty with it which should cover anything nasty that could turn up?

The engine should be fine for loads more miles. Suspension won't be as good as a lower mileage bike though...

[Spanner Man]

Hi there
ZX6's are pretty reliable, but do need a lot of maintenance. Most I have to say do get neglected as servicing doesn't come cheap due to the time required. So be prepared to fork out for a proper serviceif you do go for it.
There's nothing wrong with high mileage bikes but obviously the higher the mileage the more likely it is that important servicing tasks have been omitted, like valve clearances, swinging arm regreasing etc.
When I was down south I serviced a ZX6 G2 from brand new, it belonged to a lady who did a 60 mile round trip to & from work, and when I moved last December it had covered 63k with no engine problems whatsoever.
My record was on a despatcher friends XJ900, when he retired it last year it had done 210k and the engine/clutch & gearbox were all original. Not bad eh!

Blimey....thats impressive!

Another thing I suppose I am worried about is whether I will be able to resell the ZX6 if I don't like...how much difference in price does high mileage have? Or higher mileage....

I've had my sv just over a year and its done arround 15k.

Rictus did some silly milage on his, and it's been retired before its first MOT was due.

Dan

[Spanner Man]

Hi
Obviously the mileage will effect the resale price, but then you should be paying less for it in the first place, so as long as it's relative it's ok.

I put 30k miles on the SV this year. was on for 50k+ had I not crashed. one reason I never sell my bikes - my bikes become high mileage within the first month of ownership with most peoples annual mileage done in that time

as spanner man said, the higher the mileage the more you need to make sure servicing stuff is looked at and done if required.

as long as it is there shouldnt be any real problems with the bikes. only thing on my SV was the forks needed looking at and werent done soon enough.

Id certainly ride the ZX6 if you can and take your time making the decision and only get it if you know its right for you.

True....true...its all relative?

So maybe my question should be...

Is a 04 SV650S with 5k on the clock, worth the same as an 02 ZX6R 636 with 16K on the clock?

[Viney]

Milage is nothing on any vehicle. As long as its been maintained and looked after (things like not thrashing it when cold etc) I had 2 vey high milage cars, Toyoa with 265K on the clock, (Handed down from dad as 1st car, he had it form new) and my old vovlo had 215k on the clock, i put 100k on it. My sv has done just under 40k, and still (Touches wood) ok

Originally Posted by aimhamilton

True....true...its all relative?

So maybe my question should be...

Is a 04 SV650S with 5k on the clock, worth the same as an 02 ZX6R 636 with 16K on the clock?

this wont help you but theyre two totally different bikes. the mileage is looking roughly the same per year by the look of it.

but 2 bikes with the same annual mileage wont be the same if one is looked after properly and the other isnt. I wouldnt be worrying about the mileage so much as checking it service history and making sure that its been maintained properly.

if thats the case then your back to making a decision between the IL4 ZX which is totally different from the torquey vtwinned SV.