Motorcycle engine life?

[mark247]

I was just wondering whats the highest amount of km's you have seen on a motorcycle without it having had an obvious rebuild? I have seen an old 1980's Kawasaki 250 ( i think ) which looked shagged but was still being ridden with 110,000km on it. Whats the highest km's you guys have seen?

Cheers people.

[Finn]

Ixion told me his bike has been to the moon and back 3 times. Personally, I find this hard to believe as surely it would of burned up at re-entry.

[Disco Dan]

My GSX has 102 thou on the clock and still runs like new....

The more you look after it, the more chance the engine has of going longer!

[SuperDave]

127,000kms on my old ZXR250. I don't think it had much engine work done but maybe I'm mistaken. If aff-man sees this he might correct me since he owned it a few years before I did.

[mark247]

Yeah my GB400 is getting on, nearly at 70,000km and it burns a bit of oil ( probably 1L every errr 2000km. I dont know if thats heaps or if thats not much because i cant compare it with anything, i just top it up a little bit every 10 days or so so it stays right topped up. I hope it makes it to 100,000km!

[ManDownUnder]

I had a GPz 550 (A1) with an estimate 160,000 kms on it. Speedo cable broke at about 130,000 and I errrr... didn't fix it too quickly.

It was my daily commute (as is my RF900). The RF's going to hit 80,000 today and she's not missing a beat

[Sanx]

My dad's old FJ1200 covered over 80,000 miles - 128,000 kms. Was still running well when he sold it.

[xwhatsit]

Yeah my GB400 is getting on, nearly at 70,000km and it burns a bit of oil ( probably 1L every errr 2000km. I dont know if thats heaps or if thats not much because i cant compare it with anything, i just top it up a little bit every 10 days or so so it stays right topped up. I hope it makes it to 100,000km!

I'd do the camchain and tensioner before then, Mark, as you did mention that it's a bit rattly.

A nice uncomplicated engine like yours and mine apparently should last forever, as long as you remember to change the oil and do all the other maintenance good things. I blame eight previous owners and a long history of abuse for my engine problems.

Ask Ixion about the BMW boxers. They do ridiculous amounts of kilometres.

[Kwaka14]

I have a mate with a Suzuki 750 ES with 295000km on the Clock and a Bandit 1200 97 with over 200000 on the clock.... Both still as quiet and smooth as new (benefits of regular servicing)

[mark247]

I'd do the camchain and tensioner before then, Mark, as you did mention that it's a bit rattly.

A nice uncomplicated engine like yours and mine apparently should last forever, as long as you remember to change the oil and do all the other maintenance good things. I blame eight previous owners and a long history of abuse for my engine problems.

Ask Ixion about the BMW boxers. They do ridiculous amounts of kilometres.

Yeah i will get the chain and tensioner done, when i need the money. I dont think its as bad as i said, because i have listened to other engines since and mine is not exactly louder and any other i have heard. But when it does start getting noisey, i will get it done certainly.

[scracha]

My Xj550 had over (I say over as the speedo wasn't working for a year and a half till I replaced it) 170,000 MILES. As it drank so much oil I never bothered changing it in the 4 or so odd years I owned it. I couldn't for the life of me blow it up. Even the security guards at Lucent Tech looked at it distastefully when I used to bring it to work. Never failed to start. Some crazy restoration nutter bought it for more than I'd paid for it (300 pounds!). Ugly bike though, who let the dog out.

[Blackbird]

Some of the early Blackbirds in the UK have now racked up around 200,000 miles with only routine servicing and new cam chain tensioners. Big engines are hugely understressed for much of their lives on the road.

[mark247]

wow... some of these numbers are making my 66,300 look very small...

[BigG]

I'm looking at a GXR600 on trade me done 65k it seems like this aint a bad mileage, what do you reckon

[Bass]

There was an article in a Ulysses magazine about 8 months ago, from someone who went to the last Aussie Ulysses AGM. He ran into a guy there who bought a beemer on the day that he retired in 91 (I think it was an R 100 but don't quote me). He had looked at replacing it recently when it tipped over 500,000 km but decided that the modern stuff was too complicated and so spent the money giving the beemer a complete overhaul - ready for the next half million.