100k mile bikes...

[jsharp]

In the 70's and early 80's I worked I worked at Vetter corp with a guy who had the very first 1969 Honda 750 in the St. Louis area. He rode that bike over 100,000 miles with nothing more than routine maintenance. Lots of tires, chains, spark plugs, points, air filters, and oil and filter changes. The bike was still runnning reasonably well when he got rid of it.

We had many bikes around the shop with 50K+ miles. A number of Honda 500, 550's and 750's. A couple of GL 1000's, a GS750 and later an 1100, a 1000cc Z1, a water cooled Suzuki 750 2 stroke, some assorted BMW's, even a couple of Yamaha XS-650's we used to try to break fairings. All with tons of miles.

The most I ever put on one of my own was 56K on a '73 Kawasaki Z1. It was rebuilt about 35K miles though. It was running fine at that time but I decided it wasn't fast enough and the 987cc Yoshimura engines were just too easy too build up...

[ August 12, 2004, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: jsharp ]

 

[Ethan]

Blue636,

Nice to see you on this board too. I know what you mean about the sportbikes. One of my brother's fraternity brothers was going to buy a zx-10r for his first bike. My brother and I finally talked sense into him, he seems to have a superman complex. Sorry for digressing on the topic at hand.

The highest I've seen on a kawi sportbike (my bro's zx9r was around 40 or 50k miles. It still ran great though. I know the Honda VFR guys, now called the interceptor have a lot of miles accumulated on their machines, but not many Kawi guys.

I was looking for a spot to place a bypass filter on the 636. Have you ever tried to figure out a spot? The bike is so dang small that I can't really figure out a realistic location (not over the rear tire).

Ethan

 

[Propflux01]

My '83 Suzuki has a roller crank in it. Currently 56K on th eclock, air cooled 4 cyl, Pennzoil 15w-40 LL

 

[Blue636]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ethan:
Blue636,

Nice to see you on this board too. I know what you mean about the sportbikes. One of my brother's fraternity brothers was going to buy a zx-10r for his first bike. My brother and I finally talked sense into him, he seems to have a superman complex. Sorry for digressing on the topic at hand.

The highest I've seen on a kawi sportbike (my bro's zx9r was around 40 or 50k miles. It still ran great though. I know the Honda VFR guys, now called the interceptor have a lot of miles accumulated on their machines, but not many Kawi guys.

I was looking for a spot to place a bypass filter on the 636. Have you ever tried to figure out a spot? The bike is so dang small that I can't really figure out a realistic location (not over the rear tire).

Ethan

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Hey, Ethan. I haven't seen you on the Kawi Forums lately. I've never really considered putting a bypass filter on my 636, and you're right - the bike is too small to come up with something reasonable.

Someone who rides an SV650 here in Southern California has over 100k miles on it now... amazing considering it is a 2000 or 2001 model, I believe.

 

[1sttruck]

Miles I put on bikes:

65 Honda 250 Scrambler 2k ? (stolen)

70 BSA 441 Victor Special 2k ?

76 RD400 62k (traded in)

78 Suzuki GS750 40k (stolen - at least it blew up on whovever stole it)

81 Yamaha 750 Seca (65k sold)

83 Suzuki GS1100 (83k stolen - at least whoever stole wrecked it and bled all over it)

 

[1sttruck]

What's wrong with sports bikes ? I drove a BMW 750 triple in Europe for a few months and sport bikes are about all that I remember seeing. The odd GoldWing or 'cruiser' bikes were typically driven by Americans. With proper maintenance they take a licking and keep on ticking. On my Yamaha 750 Seca I did a 6 hr run fron San Diego to San Jose to have some shocks rebuilt, via Fresno to avoid as many CHP as possible. The bike had over 30k miles on it at the time. My Suzuki 1100 saw +120mph weekly, typically a few times a week, as it would do that in the 1/4 mile. I did many extended cruises at 110 mph, and passing it was common to hit over 130 mph. This was an '83 model, and the current generation are lot faster.

Maintenance was tedious though; synch the carbs at 3k, adjust valves at 5k, oil chain every tank of gas, oil change at 3k, replace chain at 10k, sprockets every other chain, rear tires at 8k to 12k, front tires at 12k to 20k, lube cables once a month, etc.

 

[cat]

90,000 miles on my kaw voyager and about 50,000 on my bsa lightning. no engine work on either.

cat

 

[Ethan]

1sttruck,

Nothing is wrong with sportbikes, just a lot of people seem to be buying way more bike than they can handle. Couple that with the fact that the performance of today's sportbikes are beyond what just about anybody will ever be capable of handling/mastering and the recipe made is one of many prematurely retired bikes.

Blue,

I'm on there here and there. I'm so busy with school (21 hours), work, a lot of philanthropy (tutoring children of spanish speaking immigrants amongst other things), two honors research projects (expressed gene identification on post traumatized smooth muscle tissue and formal write-ups on some new Alzheimer's related research). I haven't had a chance to ride in a long time. Heck, I haven't had much time to sleep, so I definitely don't want to ride sleep-deprived.

Ethan

 

[DNS]

quote:

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Originally posted by cat:
90,000 miles on my kaw voyager and about 50,000 on my bsa lightning. no engine work on either.

cat

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90K miles on a Kaw Voyager without engine work is no accomplishment. Getting 50K miles out of a BSA Lightning without engine work is almost unbelievable.

 

[Blue636]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ethan:
Blue,

I'm on there here and there. I'm so busy with school (21 hours), work, a lot of philanthropy (tutoring children of spanish speaking immigrants amongst other things), two honors research projects (expressed gene identification on post traumatized smooth muscle tissue and formal write-ups on some new Alzheimer's related research). I haven't had a chance to ride in a long time. Heck, I haven't had much time to sleep, so I definitely don't want to ride sleep-deprived.

Ethan

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You sound incredibly busy! Don't ride if you haven't gotten at least 6 hours of sleep before-hand. You don't want to make the mistake of enjoying your last day of riding because of it.

Good luck with your school work.

-Marc

Oh, and just to stay on topic I believe that SV650 I was talking about is still running strong. I'm not entirely sure but I will find out.

 

[Gene K]

My 1983 Yamaha Venture XVZ12 still dynoed 84 rwhp with 136,000 mi on a portable Dynojet at Daytona in 1993. By comparison my buddies 27,000 mi 1989 XVZ13 only turned 83 rwhp

. Same day, same dyno. I sold it with 164,000 mi in 1995.

All miles on my XVZ12 were run with Castrol GTX 20W-50. Oil changes every 3 mo or 3000 mi on the XVZ12. OEM Filters only.

Gene

[ September 05, 2004, 07:53 PM: Message edited by: Gene K ]

 

[blueglide88]

My 1988 FLHS went 146,000 miles before a re-build. It would have gone 200,000 if not for the fact that I tried to change the cylinder studs. I had the top end off to change the base gasket....and stripped a stud.I had the motor re-built at the factory. I highly recommend this. They did an excellent job, and gave me new crankcases because of the stripped stud! Anyway, I ran Harley dino oil for the first 100,000 miles and changed the oil every 2000-2500 miles. At 100,000 I switched to M1 15-20. The bike went thru many cam changes and was ridden hard. I did a top end at 120,000 just for the **** of it. The cylinders were just wearing out some of the cross hatching. Now that it's re-built, I'm using only M1 and after I hit 200,000 miles I'll report how its going! Tune back in 20 yrs.

 

[cos]

cbrworm,

How is the vibration on that CBR600F4i? I've yet to ride a inline four that doesn't have that high frequency buzz that get's thru the bars and numbs hands.

 

[pococj]

Two 100k+ bikes.

First was my '78 FLH; 125k miles before top end rebuild, 200k miles before complete rebuild. Used mostly Castrol GTX 20w-50, and changed every 2500 - 3000 miles. Filter was the cheezy drop-in stock unit.

Second is present '87 FLST; over 100k miles on it now, exact mileage unknown as it had wrong speedo on it when I bought it used, and also had broken speedo a time or two since. Replaced leaking base gaskets about 12k miles ago. No idea of what oil up to about 40k miles (mileage when I bought it). Since then I've run Mobil 1 15w-50 red cap, change at 2500 - 3000 miles, NAPA Gold filter. Cylinder walls still had crosshatching when I replaced base gaskets.

 

[Uneasy Rider]

quote:

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Originally posted by XS650:

quote:

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Originally posted by satterfi:
What the heck is a squid bike?

Something like this maybe?

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No, that's a Wiscowson bike

A squid is a person who rides fast, erratically and usually doen't wear proper riding gear. Usually on high powered sport bikes.

• 
  

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  I think there are more "Squid Type" riders on Haleys these days. Most of them are just taking care of a mid life crisis & have never even ridden a bike before. Anytime I see a Harley rider wearing a leather vest & chaps I just laugh my *** off! Like those leather vests & little toy helmets are ever gonna protect them an an accident. To me anyone that wears a leather vest & a Toy helmet is 100% pure SQUID!

 

[XS650]

quote:

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I think there are more "Squid Type" riders on Haleys these days. Most of them are just taking care of a mid life crisis & have never even ridden a bike before. Anytime I see a Harley rider wearing a leather vest & chaps I just laugh my *** off! Like those leather vests & little toy helmets are ever gonna protect them an an accident. To me anyone that wears a leather vest & a Toy helmet is 100% pure SQUID! [/QB]

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Your average Harley won't move around fast enough to qualify it's rider as a squid, those are just plain garden variety maroons.

 

[penzdude]

hey uneasy rider. if you're ever down in se virgina i can take ya to a few bars and let ya repeat yourself to some bro's of mine. i'm sure they'll be tickeld pink when ya tell em they look like squids because of their vests and shorty lids. some of em have been riding for over 30 yrs, and i'm sure thier probably stuck in their ways, but maybe if you insult em enough, you can get em to wearing full factory leathers and helmets with all kinds of graphics on em. oh yeah, the spaceman boots too. heck, it'll be fun! yee ha! xs, did you mean..moron?

[ March 07, 2005, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: penzdude ]

 

[Uneasy Rider]

quote:

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Originally posted by penzdude:
hey uneasy rider. if you're ever down in se virgina i can take ya to a few bars and let ya repeat yourself to some bro's of mine. i'm sure they'll be tickeld pink when ya tell em they look like squids because of their vests and shorty lids. some of em have been riding for over 30 yrs, and i'm sure thier probably stuck in their ways, but maybe if you insult em enough, you can get em to wearing full factory leathers and helmets with all kinds of graphics on em. oh yeah, the spaceman boots too. heck, it'll be fun! yee ha! xs, did you mean..moron?

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I would love to take you up on that. I relish every chance I get to point out to those vest wearing idiots just how stupid they look. While wearing real leathers, a quality full face helmet & riding boots, as I do... may seem odd to you, I can guarantee they are alot more comfortable & cooler looking than skin graft bandages.
P.s. How many beers do ya all have before you fire up the Harleys?? Yahoo! No wonder statistics show that those types of riders are more likely to be killed than those crazy sport bikers.

[ March 07, 2005, 11:03 PM: Message edited by: 59 Vetteman ]

 

[penzdude]

not odd at all. wear what you want. just don't flame others for what they wear, or ride. hey , here's an idea. since you live in mich, you can go to detroit. there is a little clubhouse there, not hard to spot, with outlaws mc on it. go in, tell everyone how funny they look, and write back on your experience. since you miss no opp to tell the hd riders how funny they look, you can knock out a lotta birds with one stone. tough guy.

ps, don't come in here with 11 posts and start crap. lots of hd riders here as well as sportbikes. we all ride. there's already enough of the hd bike foriegn bike crud as it is without getting in to the clothing aspect. i'm done. ride safe.

[ March 07, 2005, 10:24 PM: Message edited by: penzdude ]

 

[rugerman1]

Topic: 100k mile bikes...

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