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Street/Sport Bike millage

wags81

New member
What do you guys consider high millage on a sports bike? Im looking into getting one and I cant quite justify spending a extra thousand bucks or more just because a bike has 5000 less miles. What is the highest millage you would not worry about when buying a bike? Thanks!
 


What is the total mileage on these bikes? Are we talking 15,000 compared to 20,000 or 50,000 compared to 55,000?
 


I would start to shy away from something with more than 20k... depending on how hard it was ridden/how well it has been maintained 20k is where a sport bike gets into issues or gets expensive with maintenance.. I had a 2002 yamaha yzf600r I bought at 19k, rode it till 24k and stripped out 2nd gear. which is a 1500 dollar fix on a 2000 bike.
 
I hear ya. I think ill be getting a gsxr from one of my friends that takes good care of his toys. It is a 01 and has just under 12 thousand miles. Im not looking for anything fancy or new because it will be my first sport bike.
 
I would start to shy away from something with more than 20k... depending on how hard it was ridden/how well it has been maintained 20k is where a sport bike gets into issues or gets expensive with maintenance.. I had a 2002 yamaha yzf600r I bought at 19k, rode it till 24k and stripped out 2nd gear. which is a 1500 dollar fix on a 2000 bike.

if you know how to work on a bike it's way cheaper than that to fix, just takes time.
 


and if you shredded 2nd at 24k miles it's because the person before you didn't use the clutch and was terrible at it.

once you undercut 2nd gear it falls into place 99.9% of the time perfectly and you NEVER get stuck between gears. they just don't do this from the factory on bikes.
 
Yeah, but that yzf600r was very common for 2nd gear to chip/shred off teeth. and the fix was getting the gear undercut. And I did all my own work on the bike, and it is very much like working on a car as it will be cheaper if you can do it yourself.
 
Look at the bikes in person and judge how they've been treated and maintained based on the owner. Hypothetically:

Bike #1: newer bike is filthy from sitting outside, the oil is black as tar, the owner is an idiot and the bike has 12k for $4000

Bike #2: older bike is clean and looks well maintained, has fresh oil, fresh fluids, the owner seems to understand or care about the bike and maintenance, has 20k miles for $3800.

There are lots of variable to consider but I'd try to acquire bike two. A well maintained motorcycle can last a very long time (50k or even 100k miles) but they are typically crashed or otherwise ruined before they ever get there.

What I'm getting at is MILEAGE is not the only, or even most important, factor to consider.
 
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