How many miles is too many

Hi guys

Looking to buy an SV at the moment, budget quite low (less than £1500 ideally) - just wondering how much notice you should take of mileage?

Given that everyone seems to self service their SVs it's very hard to tell internal condition. I know Honda CB500 engines are reputed to go on forever, what's the reputation of this 650 unit?

Any feedback appreciated

Will

[jambo]

The chassis trends to suffer neglect especially bearings in the shock linkages so it's worth having a look on any bike but those can be seized at quite low mileages. One of the race bikes we are taking to go to race in mini twins this month had 110,500 miles on the clock when we disconnected the speedo and started using it for track days. Original motor still makes good compression figures and many of the bearings are original but that bike did a lot of long commuter trips and was well maintained. Other bikes with half that milage have been in a complete state.

Thanks Jambo, is there a sweet spot? What would you pay for a second hand SV to have hassle free time and be able to sell it on eventually? I want to ride it through Europe for a couple of weeks this summer.

[Bibio]

for £1500 i would expect to do work as i would never take the owners word for anything.

high miles is a bit like how long is a piece of string, it all depends on how its been looked after.

second hand bikes are always a gamble. buying any second hand bike i would always budget another £300 on top just in case.

value afterwords is what someone else is willing to pay for it.

i think i know the bike you have been looking at on here and i personally would have no hesitation in buying it buuuut i would still assume that i would have to do a little work. in fact if i had a spare £1700 (transport fee) it would be sitting in my lockup.