When is a bike considered old and near mechanical problems? | GTAMotorcycle.com

When is a bike considered old and near mechanical problems?

spaz619

Active member
I am not too familiar with purchasing a used bike and would like the community's advice.

With regards to buying a used car, I tend to gauge the condition of the engine by the amount of km's it has run. Personally, I consider cars with around 250000kms and above to have potential problems. Obviously, the year of the car has to be considered as well.


So for used bikes, how many kms is too much? Do they require major service after a certain amount of kms? What is the general amount of kms a bike engine can take?


Thanks
 
It is just as wrong to go strictly by the odometer reading with a motorcycle, as it is with a car.

You can have one with 100,000 km that has been well taken care of and with no issues whatsoever, and you can have one that has been trashed or neglected with 5,000 km on it.

I know of a Honda CBR600F4 (not sure if F4"i" but it's almost the same) that had something like 260,000 MILES on it.

Most motorcycles are crashed or abandoned and given up on for whatever reason, before they actually "wear out".
 
Before Buying into anything said, Ask For a picture of their odometer. There is more to a bike than a running engine. Any bike bought you have to be sure all bolts and fasteners are torqued. Most get rid of bikes with ?? on the bike because they don't want the headaches associated with keeping the bike safe and running properely.

Really, you have to have ask yourself, what lengths are you willing to go to get and keep your bike operating? How much are you prepared to pay a bike shop to know your bike is safe and operating properely?
 
Before Buying into anything said, Ask For a picture of their odometer.

The odometer means very little, especially given the ease in which an odometer can be swapped out on most motorcycles. Mechanical condition is more important, and that is seldom dependent on the number of km or the age of the bike.

That said, most bikes do have a model-specific Achilles heel, whether potentially serious in nature or simply a minor nuisance. On many older Suzukis and some Hondas it will be the stator. On others it will be lower frame rot, and on others it may be a tendency for frame welds to crack. You just have to do your research on the specific bike model(s) you're considering so when you actually do go to view a bike, you have an idea of what areas of the bike merit particularly close scrutiny, and what any repairs may potentially end up costing.
 
The odometer means very little, especially given the ease in which an odometer can be swapped out on most motorcycles. Mechanical condition is more important, and that is seldom dependent on the number of km or the age of the bike.

That said, most bikes do have a model-specific Achilles heel, whether potentially serious in nature or simply a minor nuisance. On many older Suzukis and some Hondas it will be the stator. On others it will be lower frame rot, and on others it may be a tendency for frame welds to crack. You just have to do your research on the specific bike model(s) you're considering so when you actually do go to view a bike, you have an idea of what areas of the bike merit particularly close scrutiny, and what any repairs may potentially end up costing.

Sound advice.

I've always preferred bikes that were actually ridden on a regular basis. Although I'm generalizing, riders who rack up the KM are more prone to maintaining their bikes vs the odd weekend warrior ("I should probably do [maintenance item X], but I barely ride...").

I ride a decent amount (about 30-45k a year) and it always sucks selling my bikes, most buyers see them as "high mileage" rather than "used as they were intended to be".
 
I am not too familiar with purchasing a used bike and would like the community's advice.

With regards to buying a used car, I tend to gauge the condition of the engine by the amount of km's it has run. Personally, I consider cars with around 250000kms and above to have potential problems. Obviously, the year of the car has to be considered as well.


So for used bikes, how many kms is too much? Do they require major service after a certain amount of kms? What is the general amount of kms a bike engine can take?


Thanks

I am in the 4th season riding my bike (07 SV650 - I am the only owner), and I have done all the scheduled maintenance on schedule. I just had 48 000 km service done. Everything is running well and fine with no issues. I have almost all maintenance history (I had one service done in Calgary, I think at 12K or 18K and I don't have the receipt).

50K with all maintenance done, and for the most part, with maintenance records. The bike has never been abused, so I would say it's in great shape.

How many kms can an engine take? I have a co-worker with a dl-650 (same engine) who had over 90K at the beginning of the season. The only repair he had to do that wasn't routine was with his swing-arm bearing (this season) because it went kaput (after 90K). The engine still runs strong.

I would not be concerned with a bike in sound mechanical condition with maintenance records even if it had 60 or 70K, especially if it is relatively new. I would be looking closely at the clutch though, among other general, wearable items.
 
Keeping this short because I'm on my phone. I finally agree with Turbodish on something, the odo means almost nothing. When checking a used bike, my order is cosmetic condition, overall mechanical condition and then engine condition.

So if a bike is all scratched, rashed, held together with zip ties, dirty I just stay away. It's an obvious sign the owner did not care enough to fix it properly after a spill and clean it before the sale.

Next, if the forks are leaking, if there are oil spots around the engine, if it has trouble starting or if it has a rough idle, these are definite signs of neglect.

If the bike passes these tests, then I do a compression test on the engine. They can have a LOT of miles and still be within spec or low mileage and have a busted piston ring or burnt valves.

Now I am not saying buying a crashed or abused bike is never a good idea. It always depends on the price. Although since you are new to bikes it's better to start on something in good shape.

Edit: Corrected spelling mistakes. Typing on a touchscreen...
 
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Obviously a bike with 5000. -10000km will have a much smaller probability of having something wrong than a bike with 50000kms. A bike with 5000 km only needed one or 2 oil changes as maintenance. Bikes with higher mileage .....say past 25000 have needed valves checked/adjusted, suspension oil replaced, cables lubed/replaced replaced, etc etc. There is a reason why alot of folks are selling at 23000-24000 kms, that's because the valve adjustment is required and they don't want to deal with it. Do you think they changed the fork oil by then? How are you going to verify these have been done? A couple year old ninja 250 blew up on this forum because of no valve adjustments a couple of weeks ago with 30000km.
A motor in a sportbike will have different priorities than a car. We considered one live on International Transport trucks (Navistar) to be 1.2 million miles. A car is validated to 300000 miles at many big OEMs for major components, 100000 miles for less important components. Do you think the engineers designing a sportbike engine would give up some reliability for An extra 10hp? There is a reason the warranty is much smaller on a sport bike compared to a car.
 
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This thread is full of sound advice. If you are not an m licensed rider, you are new to bike ownership, and you are not mechanically savvy and require time to learn about maintenance a newer bike with less than 10 000 on it should be your target. This should give you a window of 15000 km to get you acquinted and on track with what you need to do keep your bike operating.
 
You can also look up owner's manuals and service schedules to get an idea of what a bike needs done, and which bikes are more prone to abuse by owners via neglect (look at an aprillia supermoto vs wr250)
 
This thread is full of sound advice. If you are not an m licensed rider, you are new to bike ownership, and you are not mechanically savvy and require time to learn about maintenance a newer bike with less than 10 000 on it should be your target. This should give you a window of 15000 km to get you acquinted and on track with what you need to do keep your bike operating.
Lol, the MTO removed me my licensed and ask me to start everything over because I haven't had 2 years on a out of province M license....My VFR is actually my third bike, been riding for 5 years (m2 licensed) and did nearby 60 000km's (moving during summer and broken neck in the middle of the summer don't help...) so....what you're saying is full of ********! Just saying that: "if you have less than 10 000km's you're still a new rider and never had big maintenance to be done" would be much better....

this thread is full of good advice, but I'd like to add something (which is not really an advice) , a motorcycle engine cost between 300$ to 500$....so you can easily change it when it dies!

EDIT :How come the full word of: "BS" is censured? I never knew it was a bad word in english....:confused:
 
Lol, the MTO removed me my licensed and ask me to start everything over because I haven't had 2 years on a out of province M license....My VFR is actually my third bike, been riding for 5 years (m2 licensed) and did nearby 60 000km's (moving during summer and broken neck in the middle of the summer don't help...) so....what you're saying is full of ********! Just saying that: "if you have less than 10 000km's you're still a new rider and never had big maintenance to be done" would be much better....

this thread is full of good advice, but I'd like to add something (which is not really an advice) , a motorcycle engine cost between 300$ to 500$....so you can easily change it when it dies!

EDIT :How come the full word of: "BS" is censured? I never knew it was a bad word in english....:confused:

meds running low? my bad I thought m2 riders couldn't ride at night which is limiting.

This thread is full of sound advice. If you are not an m2 licensed rider, you are new to bike ownership, and you are not mechanically savvy and require time to learn about maintenance a newer bike with less than 10 000 on it should be your target. This should give you a window of 15000 km to get you acquinted and on track with what you need to do keep your bike operating.

There fixed. A new rider should spend more time riding than fixing or repairing another a-hole's bs maintenance care. My 2 cents
 
I know of a Honda CBR600F4 (not sure if F4"i" but it's almost the same) that had something like 260,000 MILES on it.

[video=youtube;gs8I8fYNNG0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs8I8fYNNG0&feature=channel_video_title[/video]
 
Once a bike hits 21,485 kms, it is ready for the scrap heap
 
this thread is full of good advice, but I'd like to add something (which is not really an advice) , a motorcycle engine cost between 300$ to 500$....so you can easily change it when it dies!

:

that would depend on what bike, and what year bike. Something like a 2008 Cbr1000 is going to cost you more that a 2005 CBR600 engine.
 

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