Bikes with abnormally low km's | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Bikes with abnormally low km's

Very common story. Someone wants to live the dream of having a new bike, buys it... then doesn't ride it. Sometimes it's them not having the time to ride it, sometime they get bitten and become un-enamoured with it, sometimes the bike isn't what they thought it was. Has worked out for me, I once bought a very nice Ninja 1000 for a good price that hadn't even been broken in.

Of course, if I look at how many kms I have put on my own bikes over the last 5 years... I'm basically one of those people now
 
Lightcycle said:
Damn, son! You're doing well.

I thought I was doing ok. I've had my bike for a month, put just over 3,500 kms on it.

I do have another bike that I ride just as often though, so there's that. But no excuses, I obviously need to get out riding more!!! ???
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Haha I’d say you’re doing very well
 
A while back, I did 12,600 km in one year on two bikes.
Bought a new bike 11 years ago but only put 7,200km in that time.
Bought a house in that time and was too busy to ride.
Hope to do more riding sometime soon.
 
Brian P said:
It's not uncommon for someone to buy a motorcycle and then not ride it, whether due to not having time, or who knows what.

Someone else mentioned checking the tire manufacturing date and comparing that to the condition and wear of the tires to see if it's plausible. Even if tires have been replaced, if the bike is truly high mileage, check other touch points, particularly grips and switchgear, and compare that to what the odometer claims. Some of those touch points are easily replaced with new, but replacing all of them gets expensive and it isn't something that most people would do.

I've taken three different bikes past 100,000 km. My experience has been that maintenance costs start going up after about 80,000 km; that's when you start wearing out stuff that most people never wear out. Brake disks. Master cylinders and brake caliper seals. Starter motor gear-reduction bushings. Who wears out stuff like that?? <raises hand>
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I bought a 7 year old FJR with 3700 km on the clock. Guy used it between his cottage and house a few times a year.

My 75 OldWing had 54k on it 2 seasons ago. Belonged to my neighbour who took a couple of day trips a year with his buddies. His 2016 Wing has 14000 km.
 
My second bike was used. It was 2 years old and only had 170 km on it. It was like buying a new bike with $4000 off. Original owner rode only twice. Then decided riding wasn't for him.
 
My first year riding I think I only did 300km's. However it was only one month of riding in the season left for me until I went back to school.
 
250R-ICE said:
My second bike was used. It was 2 years old and only had 170 km on it. It was like buying a new bike with $4000 off. Original owner rode only twice. Then decided riding wasn't for him.
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Even better when it's also modded out with thousands of dollars of farkles that you would have put on yourself anyway.

Bought a bike like that once. Previous owner had all the right things on the bike: crash bars, heavy-duty skid plate, headlight protector, sidestand enlarger, touring windshield. It was kitted out *exactly* the way we would have done it up.

We only paid 50% of what the stock-bike cost brand new.

And the best part is: bike only had 2,500 kms on it...
 
My old VTX I mentioned earlier was a Timex. Still had the original 13 year old rubber when I bought it so I knew the odometer was legit.

I sold it with just under 100,000km on the odometer last spring after 4 years of ownership and would have took off on a cross country trip with it without a second thought even at that mileage. Never burned an ounce of oil, never caused me an ounce of grief. Biggest year was a shade under 30,000km and aside from a set of tires and a set of brake pads that year, just oil changes and gas.

Most modern bikes a pretty damned reliable now - the manufacturing tolerances have made leaps and bounds in the last 30 years.

Edit: And like Lightcycle mentions above, it came with the value of the bike over again in accessories the previous owner had bolted on. I rode it for 4 years, put 90,000KM on it, and sold it for $500 less than I paid for it. Win win.
 
ReSTored said:
One tip if you're seeing a 5 - 10 year bike with very low mileage is to check the date of manufacture on the tire. If you're looking at a 5 year old bike with 5,000 km on it and you have a tire dated 5+ years ago this might help give you some comfort that the indicated km is probably correct.
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Correct. Just looked at a bike from 2006 yesterday. Rear tire was 2006, front was 2018. Current owner says the front had a nail, so it was replaced. One of the first things I look at when examining a bike.
 
BigEvilDoer said:
Correct. Just looked at a bike from 2006 yesterday. Rear tire was 2006, front was 2018. Current owner says the front had a nail, so it was replaced. One of the first things I look at when examining a bike.
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What are you looking at?
 
Some buy a new odometer/speedometer unit and replace it. There's a few vids floating around the internet on it. Some guy with an Indian did a story on it.
 
PrivatePilot said:
My old VTX I mentioned earlier was a Timex. Still had the original 13 year old rubber when I bought it so I knew the odometer was legit.

I sold it with just under 100,000km on the odometer last spring after 4 years of ownership and would have took off on a cross country trip with it without a second thought even at that mileage. Never burned an ounce of oil, never caused me an ounce of grief. Biggest year was a shade under 30,000km and aside from a set of tires and a set of brake pads that year, just oil changes and gas.

Most modern bikes a pretty damned reliable now - the manufacturing tolerances have made leaps and bounds in the last 30 years.

Edit: And like Lightcycle mentions above, it came with the value of the bike over again in accessories the previous owner had bolted on. I rode it for 4 years, put 90,000KM on it, and sold it for $500 less than I paid for it. Win win.
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Was it the 1300 or 1800? I had a vtx 1300, great bike.
 
you'll sometimes guy selling things off and they had multiple bikes, some just didn't get the saddle time, I once bought a 40 yr old bike with 850miles on the clock, it had been parked for 38 yrs.
 
Nikola Tesla said:
Was it the 1300 or 1800? I had a vtx 1300, great bike.
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1300. I loved that bike, had many great adventures with it. Should probably never have sold it, but no room in the garage for a “memories” bike I probably wouldn’t have rode much anymore.
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