Bike engines and mileage. . .

Well… it’s 17kg heavier than my ZX9 :slight_smile:

my 7r has 31k so don’t worry like bob marley!

My other half, Paul, managed to get just over 102,000 miles out of his GSXR1100 before it finally chucked a con rod and mullered itself - it was carefully maintained mechanically which probably contributed to its long life. It may even live again if he can find another cheap engine to drop into the chasis :wink:

I purchased an immaculate 1986 GSX-R 750 in 1996 with 20,000 miles on it. Then used it to commute 3,000 mile per month 11 months of the year for 5 years before it was written off in a crash. It had done approximately 180,000 miles by that day, and was only just becoming a pain in the arse-the electrics were playing up due to corroded terminal blocks, and wheel bearings were going regularly. Had it serviced once a year (only so they could check and adjust the valve clearance). I only ever used Tesco car oil in it which I changed every month or so, along with a genuine Suzuki filter. I think it lasted so long as the oil got hot enough to boil out all the water and contaminates from the oil. And it was still running on the original exhaust system-no rot there.Similarly, my Fireblade has 80,000 odd miles on it (purchased with 74,000 miles on it), and on a recent track day at Oulton Park, it was fine. Saying that, it is dead at the moment with an electrical problem, but nothing remotely terminal.

Have an Aprilia RSV with 22,000 miles-see no reason why that won’t cover 100k at least.

Still, peoples mistrust of anything with more that 30,000 miles on the clock make for nice bargains for me.

Interesting stuff folks - I’m also not scared of mileage - a well cared for engine should be capable of doing the kind of mileages outlined above - however I’ve got hold of a cheapo ZX7R (20k on clock) and am a bit concerned as bike has not been cared for - I’ve got bills for the first crucial services but nothing for valve clearance checks - I took the head off last night and measured the clearances - three valves appear out of clearance - the valve that is most out of clearance is out by 0.04mm (intake valve measuring 0.13mm - tolerance range is 0.17mm - 0.25mm). Don’t know if a valve this out of clearance has caused damage or not (don’t know how long it’s been out of clearance) - guess I’ll have to do a compression test to check for valve sealing issues after reshimming to correct tolerances?

Just had a the 24K service completed. No problems at all apart from the centre stand had seized. Valve clearances a ok.

Have to agree about the 30K bargains, if you are only doing a couple of thousand miles a year grab yourself a bargain with full service history and save yourself some money.

I did 150,000 km on my old Honda XL250R. I rode the bike like all 17 year old’s and it got serviced once in a blue moon. Was still going strong when it was sold. I rally dont know why people bang on about high mileage bikes. I always remember a dealer telling me that my R6 was “high mileage” on 6000 miles, I asked him why he had sold me such a sh*t bike that could only do 6000 miles. He spluttered a lot. Prat.