High mileage high horsepower.

[NZsarge]

How far could one reasonably expect to get milage wise out of the latest 160-180hp bikes without doing significant engine work?
What's the biggest milage you've seen on such a motorcycle?

[imdying]

Depends on how it's ridden.

[Katman]

Depends on how it's ridden.

And how well it's maintained.

[R6_kid]

I've seen more than 60,000km on 600 and it still had good power. Sure it wasn't full power like it would be 2000km after coming from the factory but it was still really good.

Generally I think people who are serious about full power will be buying the latest and greatest anyway unless they find something they really love. The people that buy their bikes second hand generally understand that it's not going to be putting out max power, and i'm not going to get my nickers in a twist over a 5-10hp loss on a 150-160hp at the wheel 1000cc machine if it's reasonably priced.

[NZsarge]

Depends on how it's ridden.


And how well it's maintained.

Fair call, lets say the maintainance schedule is kept up and ridden moderately, not pamper but not continually getting thrashed either, just a bit of this and a bit of that....

[pritch]

I spoke to a guy who runs an engine reconditioning shop and has worked in the trade for nearly forty years.

He told me that they never see modern bikes. Even if they did there isn't too much they can do to them now due to they way they are made. I didn't ask but assume this means the modern bore linings etc.

[Katman]

Fair call, lets say the maintainance schedule is kept up and ridden moderately, not pamper but not continually getting thrashed either, just a bit of this and a bit of that....

If it always has a high quality oil in it and is not subjected to excessive punishment a large capacity engine could last a considerable amount of time without any major work needed doing. They are not a highly stressed motor under normal road riding circumstances. (I realise it's not a late model 180hp beast but...) I have heard of an XJ900 that had done 300,000 miles (yes, that's miles) before the head even had to come off it. And even then it showed no significant bore wear.

[MSTRS]

Fair call, lets say the maintainance schedule is kept up and ridden moderately, not pamper but not continually getting thrashed either, just a bit of this and a bit of that....

I've heard of some of the early '90s 1100+ performance bikes doing well in excess of 200,000ks...but I guess that's not what you are after?

[NZsarge]

I've seen more than 60,000km on 600 and it still had good power. Sure it wasn't full power like it would be 2000km after coming from the factory but it was still really good.

Generally I think people who are serious about full power will be buying the latest and greatest anyway unless they find something they really love. The people that buy their bikes second hand generally understand that it's not going to be putting out max power, and i'm not going to get my nickers in a twist over a 5-10hp loss on a 150-160hp at the wheel 1000cc machine if it's reasonably priced.

I should also say the the reason I ask is my bike is supossedly 150hp at the crank, if I mod it to say 160-165hp although not new R1 territory a 165hp per litre is fairly high.
I'm hoping to have this around 4 years or more or should I say I don't have an option but anyway I was interested to get peoples thoughts on what milage they though a semi high horsepower bike might be expected to achieve all going well.

[NZsarge]

I spoke to a guy who runs an engine reconditioning shop and has worked in the trade for nearly forty years.

He told me that they never see modern bikes. Even if they did there isn't too much they can do to them now due to they way they are made. I didn't ask but assume this means the modern bore linings etc.

Yeah my bikes motor is basically an '04 R1 motor and I think at that point they may have been casting the crank and block all in one piece.

[Blackbird]

Blackbirds have bullet proof motors. A few of the guys on the UK website I belong to have notched up around 200,000 MILES with nothing more than cam chain tensioner changes every 40,000 miles or so. Provided you keep the oil changes and other service requirements up to schedule, it's hard to thrash a big motor during normal road work. In the 65000 km which mine has racked up, I recently changed the cam chain tensioner, had the cam shims checked twice (no movement) and had the alternator stator rewound last year for $200. Pre-2003 Blackbirds and big Hondas in general used to have a weakness in this area particularly if you had accessories which drew extra power.

I'd imagine that many big motors are similarly reliable.

BTW, Mangell6 has a 2000 FZ1 and his must have racked up over 130,000 km by now and to my knowledge, he's never laid a hand on it other than oil changes.

[MSTRS]

The other parameter that is very important is - hot miles or cold?

[Katman]

According to my information the 04 R1 has separate cylinders to the crankcases. The 03 and earlier had the cylinders cast onto the top crankcase.

[yod]

Blackbirds have bullet proof motors. A few of the guys on the UK website I belong to have notched up around 200,000 MILES with nothing more than cam chain tensioner changes every 40,000 miles or so. Provided you keep the oil changes and other service requirements up to schedule, it's hard to thrash a big motor during normal road work. In the 65000 km which mine has racked up, I recently changed the cam chain tensioner, had the cam shims checked twice (no movement) and had the alternator stator rewound last year for $200. Pre-2003 Blackbirds and big Hondas in general used to have a weakness in this area particularly if you had accessories which drew extra power.

I'd imagine that many big motors are similarly reliable.

BTW, Mangell6 has a 2000 FZ1 and his must have racked up over 130,000 km by now and to my knowledge, he's never laid a hand on it other than oil changes.

:niceone: :banana:

[WelshWizard]

How far could one reasonably expect to get milage wise out of the latest 160-180hp bikes without doing significant engine work?
What's the biggest milage you've seen on such a motorcycle?


May not be as high as the 160 BHP but my old BSA A65 has done over a million miles in its life with one engine rebuild at 950000 miles Speedo now read about 20000 miles after the clock zeroed and this bike has not been pampered but has had regular service only recently decided to give her the benefit of a full restore where required

As for some of the later Jap bikes same should apply as long as they are maintained properly they should last, the higher the BHP the less they are likely to last due to the extra stress put on the components

[ManDownUnder]

Reliable bike, used daily, not thrashed, reasonably maintained... I'd say 150,000kms +

The RF I have at the mo should be good for 200,000. ONly things I need to watch are some of the moving parts (emulsion tubes in the carbs, and bearings in the alternator are known weaknesses)... but for $8,000 for 170,000km of motoring... I'd say it good value for money

[Katman]

The other parameter that is very important is - hot miles or cold?

I don't think that parameter is important at all. Todays water cooled motors are usually very carefully temperature controlled.

[Katman]

the high the BHP the less they are likely to last due to the extra stress put on the components

Only if you're actually using that extra BHP which under normal road riding conditions you're usually not.

[NZsarge]

BTW, Mangell6 has a 2000 FZ1 and his must have racked up over 130,000 km by now and to my knowledge, he's never laid a hand on it other than oil changes.
Sweet!

The other parameter that is very important is - hot miles or cold?

Yes indeed.

[WelshWizard]

Only if you're actually using that extra BHP which under normal road riding conditions you're usually not.

That depends on the rider, and even if they observe the 100kph speed limite that still allows a hell of a lot of leeway as to how they get to that speed

[Mort]

Modern engines are tested to almost unbelieveable levels - Like running on the redline for a week (168 hours)... Bikes used for a full season in BSB show no appreciable wear on major components. (Fair enough they have oil changed after every session).

If the bike is serviced regularly (according to schedule)with decent oil and fresh oil & air filters the engine will last for longer than you think. If you cheat on oil changes, thrash the bike from cold (regularly), race or trackday the bike without looking after it then you'll have problems at some point.

I think the engine will be the last thing to go on a bike. Its the other components (wheel, head and swing arm bearings, suspension, camchain & tensioner, chain sporocket, clutch and gearbox) that may suffer over time....

[martybabe]

A UK bike mag did a neglect test on a CBR600rrrrrrr something a while back.The idea was to run the bugger till it died with no maintenance at all,except bike parts ie chain tension brakes and so forth.

They put massive hard miles on it,it didn't die,so they stripped the engine down to inspect the wear and it was negligable,hardly any different to one that had done a similar mileage with the benefit of a full service record.

Although we're talking high performance engines here,there is still an amazing amount of reliability built in,I dont think a few more Bhp if moded well will make any difference on longevity. :drinkup:

[imdying]

Fair call, lets say the maintainance schedule is kept up and ridden moderately, not pamper but not continually getting thrashed either, just a bit of this and a bit of that....In that case, I'd be very surprised if it didn't smash its way past 100,000km with ease. Most bikes become road kill well before that though.

[imdying]

Having read the thread now, you don't have much to worry about, because you're in control. You're going to do say 60,000kms in the next 4 years, and you're the one who controls what maintenance is done.

I would be more wary of buying something with 60,000 unknown kms on it, people are notoriously tight, and often neglect even the most basic of maintenance.

If you can be sure the maintenance is done, you can be sure it'll do the miles.

The amount of power they make isn't too important, the stress levels are likely to be similar to bikes of 10 years ago, as the quality of metals and improved designs increase what is possible. In other words, even though they're making more power now, they're still using similar margins (%) of safety/reliability. That would be my guess, given that warranty and servicing periods continue to be increased, even though output is going up.

[dipshit]

That depends on the rider, and even if they observe the 100kph speed limite that still allows a hell of a lot of leeway as to how they get to that speed

I very rarely get full throttle on my SV1000. (and that's even after fitting a 1/5 quick-throttle) You can accelerate quite hard and travel along bloody quickly and still only be using a small amount of throttle most of the time on the road. 120kph is just idling.

You really don't need to screw the ring off a thou like you would on a 250 or 400.

[Forest]

I know of a K1200GT that has done 90,000km in two years with only the usual dealer servicing.

IIRC the engine is factory rated at 167hp.

[MisterD]

The usual adage applies, I would think:

You can have fast, cheap and reliable - pick two.