What is high mileage?

[Philiptigerrice]

Not sure what the mileage is on this - but it doesn't look happy...

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[HarveyCamm]

EEhaw eehaw eehawlways looks like that

[Richard Simpson]

Regular servicing, quality oils and careful riding will see a modern bike engine outlive the rest of the machine. Many years ago a mate of mine worked at a Yamaha dealer and they had a big air-cooled FJR (?) in with a slightly weepy head gasket and 100,000 miles on come in. As much out of curiosity as anything the owner told them they could lift the cylinder while they had the head off and measure the pistons, rings etc...which all turned out to be well within tolerance. He had used the bike on mostly long journeys, changed the oil regularly and didn't thrash it from cold...I doubt the engine would have lasted half as long otherwise.

IIRC about 10 years ago one of the bike mags did a feature on a courier company that was based in Swindon and put huge miles on its bikes doing distance work to and from London. Effectively they were putting courier van miles onto motorcycles. They used Honda Blackbirds and VFRs. Chains, sprockets, tyres etc all needed regular replacement, and eventually clutches would need attention. Their highest mileage bikes came off the road because the plastic bodywork wore out...it the little lugs got fatigued and fell off. By that stage they were worth so little that there was no point in putting even used or pattern parts on.

But, if you've got a very high mileage bike that's virtually worthless, the economics of fitting a new set of tyres, discs, pads and a chain and sprocket kit can be a bit challenging....you are effectively throwing £1000s in consumables onto a bike that's only worth £100s even with them fitted!

I've got a 2004 950 Adv with 32k on. In that time I've had to replace the clutch slave cylinder, the starter clutch and flywheel, the exhaust system, the reg-rec, and (most recently) the waterpump seal and bearings.

It's also needed various things doing on the chassis....brakes, fork seals & bushes etc. And the battery leads have rotted away.

Most of the engine repairs were needed because KTM didn't sort some development issues properly before the bike came on the market. It might have been 'ready to race', but it certainly wasn't 'ready to release'.



Hopefully, with all those issues sorted, it's now the bike that it should have been 12 years ago!

With the benefit of hindsight I shouldn't have bought such an early-model bike...it was two years old with low miles when I got it, and I should have bitten the bullet and paid more for a new one then which would have had most of these issues sorted!

[Tonibe63]

A local bike instructor had a 1050 Tiger with 183k miles on it when it was written off

[AustinW]

I sold my Transalp 650 with 112,000 miles on the clock. The engine was fine, burned very little oil, started on the button etc. Oil & Filters Serviced every 8K, plugs every 24K and not a lot else. BUT it needed tyres, C&S, an engine service, a brake service (new calipers really), fork and shock service, and more. The fairing fasteners were stretched and loose and all the lugs had broken - the whole lot clattered and banged all the time. The wiring loom was corroding and I had some strange electrical gremlins that were most easily fixed by cutting into the loom and replacing wires. As per richard's post it wasn't worth spending the money on it so it went (via here IIRC). It was on eBay a few months later still needing all the work but about a further 6,000 on the clock. I suspect its scrapped now as not worth keeping alive.

I did 50K on a Varadero and that was still holding up fine and scrubbed like a good un and was still tight and tidy.

My 2011 GSA has 60K on it and is also mostly fine. Main problem is corrosion/paint lifting on the engine covers and rear wheel hub. Otherwise its tight and tidy too. I service it myself (in fact did a 12K service today) and I reckon I will clear 100K on this one too.

[threepot]

A local bike instructor had a 1050 Tiger with 183k miles on it when it was written off

I've read that Triumph give a courier in London a new bike in exchange for his 900 Trident,which had covered 250k ?
My Tiger runs nice with 67k.

[Paul_C]

65k on my 2010 GS Adventure.

[Frog]

Just coming upto 57,000 miles on the 950 Adventure, just regular servicing. still original clutch and runs just great, no reason not to see 100,000 in a few years time.

Reckon most bikes should easily top 100,000 miles nowadays with regular and proper servicing.

[Jak*]

I did over 100,000 on my last solo Cali, my Cali outfit has done probably about 130,000 it had 40,000 on the first speedo but the speedo hasn't worked for years, similarly my Triumph TSS has done well over 100,000 but the speedo rarely works. The solo Cali had no major work, the outfit has had two clutches and gearbox overhauls whilst the clutch was out and the TSS has had too much work to list.
A mate of mine has an R100 GS PD that he has done about 300,000 miles on, I think the gearbox has been apart twice and the bottom end of the engine once, apparently there is a known fault on airheads of this age that the pin that holds the outer race of the main bearing can drop into the bottom of the sump at about 200,000 miles. This allows the outer race to rotate which can block the oil flow to the head.
I am hoping my CCM will do at least 100,000 as that should see me till I retire.
Cheers Jak

[Tourider]

90,000 on my 2003 Road King, no major issues. Part-exed it last year, the dealer said 2,500 miles a year is average.

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