In my september issue of Sport Rider, in the Mail Box section on page 22, a guy wrote in saying he put over 288,000 miles on his 99 Yamaha R1. He says he went through 19 chains, 63 front tires, 70 rear tires, and over $1800 worth of oil. He says he didn't have to change a valve shim until 160,000 miles. He offered to send copies of all the maintainence records to Sport Rider if they wanted. If its true it shows that modern well-built sportbikes have the ability to last just like your car if properly maintained. I know my bud regularly runs his bikes up to 100k miles running strong...and thats with lots and lots of abuse...he's a complete animal on his machinery lol. Kinda makes the oil threads useless, considering 99.99% of us will trade our bikes off wayy before they're even close to worn out, regardless of the type of oil we use And makes those low mileage half-priced used machines even better deals eh?

WOW! I know a guy that has a 99 R1 with 51,000 on it and thought that was alot. WOW!

If that is typical of all bikes in the past 10 years, it sounds like they would last many of us a life time. That guy put 28,000 on/ year! I only put 6,000 on last year. I would imagine it starts to get hard to find some replacement parts for a bike after 20 years so I guess I better get riding.

* Last updated by: Rook on 9/2/2009 @ 7:42 AM *

Kinda makes the oil threads useless, considering 99.99% of us will trade our bikes off wayy before they're even close to worn out, regardless of the type of oil we use

You got that right Bad!

I don't know if the website is there anymore but some dude had over 200,000 miles on his CBR 900 including the occasional track day. He claims his secret was Castrol GTX 10W40 changed every 2000 miles with filter changed every other time at 4000 miles. He claims most owners change their filter way too soon. At 100,000 miles his dyno report tested within 1 hp of what it had when new. On the other hand I've seen kids trash sportbikes in under 10,000 miles, constantly bouncing off the rev limiter, smoky burnouts, clutchless upshifts under full power that sort of thing. I always figured a ZX-14 was good for a minimum of 100,000 miles if ridden sanely. There are many Honda Goldwings out there with over 300,000 miles and still running. Personally, the highest mileage I've seen is on a buddies Yamaha FZR 1000 with just over 150,000 well used miles. It smokes like a chimney but he's still riding it and I have to work to keep up with him!

Kruz

* Last updated by: Kruz on 9/2/2009 @ 9:34 AM *

At 288K, I would like to see the condition of the bike. Guy never mentioned how many air cleaners he went through. I'd take a peek at those receipts. 288K on the same set of wheel bearings? Engine ever come out of the frame for any reason? I know you don't have the answers... Just saying.

Fresh oil and clean air will get you there, I agree with that much.

There's a reason why there are very few sports bikes with high mileage-
people crash them and total them usually well within 3-4K miles on the odometer.

Doesn't happen often on the zx14 forums but on all the 600 and liter bike forums
there are newbies that get to enjoy these bikes for a only a few weeks before they
wreck them. The lifespan of a brand new motorcycle is usually ridiculously short.

There's a lot of truth to that statement, also don't forget stolen. Kids leave their 600's parked outside their apartment and guess what? .....they're gone! The Brits have a system where you have to start out with smaller displacement bikes and work their way up as their experience grows. They're crash rate is much lower I suspect. U.S. is one of the remaining places where a 17 year old with absolutely zero riding experience can plop down $11,000 and drive out on a 170 rear wheel HP ZX-10R. Often ends in tragedy, the learning curve is very, very steep. I have heard of many new riders who were killed or crippled on the ride home from the dealer.

Kruz

I also have seen a bunch of CBR1100XX's that have over 100K miles on them with no major work having to be done. Very well built bike. A fella' in the U.K. who uses his XX as a messenger vehicle has over 200K on the clock.

I was really concerned that the ZX didn't have the build quality to last 50K, but I'm begining to think differently.

I work with a guy who has 65,000KM on his Harley......... Yup, he is on his third rebuilt Motor. Maybe his case is not the norm, but I will be sure to show him this thread. Tee He.

* Last updated by: Romans on 9/2/2009 @ 8:25 PM *

Kids leave their 600's parked outside their apartment and guess what? .....they're gone!

In my neighborhood, a busa, an Ultra Classic Electra Glide, another HD, and one other sportbike sit out every day, every night.

They are just lucky this is a good neighborhood, but the longer they keep doing it, the more likely it is one of them is going to get pinched. Even here.

Mine sits in the back of the garage, with a wheel lock on it, the alarm on at night with the pager beside my bed, and two cars parked between it and the garage door. To get it, they'd have to move the cars all the way out to the street first, just to get a pickup truck in there.

Not happening.

But anyway, I rode the wheels off my old ZX11, toured western Europe with it for 24 days, and still never got over 20,000 miles on it. And I did finally wreck it, so I guess I'm part of the statistics for sportbike lifetimes.

If you think about it, how many guys do you really know who've actually worn out an engine on a bike? I don't mean blowing it up from lack of oil, bad engine mods, neglect, abuse etc...but just plain wore them out? Like Big K and a few others mentioned, most bikes never make it to the point of wearing out. They usually get parted out first. I've owned many, many, many diff dirt/street bikes, quads etc. Never wore any of them out...new or used. I've only met one guy in my life that actually comes close to wearing a bike out, and even when he puts over 100k miles of mega hard, rev limiter, clutch-dropping, wheelie ridin' abuse on a machine, its still always been everything else wearing out BUT the engine that ends up being the reason he gets another one. That and he wants something higher tech And he never buys new, just older used. So far the bike thats fared him the worst over the long haul has been his gsx-r1100. The best was his older zx-10. He also had a v-4 honda that rocked right past 100k running awesome...it got parked and parted out after he found out it needed a new radiator and he couldn't get a cheap replacement, so it was more cost effective to part it out. But the engine ran awesome...I personally rode it and followed him on many rides, no smoke, no nothin' but a strong running bike. I know my bikes are prolly going to outlast my riding days at the rate I put mileage on them, if they go it'll be because I'm bored with them and want something new, just like most guys
But never underestimate a modern machines ability to rack up the miles

B, What year Honda V-4?

1. Honda = The leader [but lost it's styling]
2. Kaw = Performance Leader
3. Yam = Quality that would make Honda shiver
4. Suz = Someone had to be last

And that means the same list with less problems per; that have gone through my hands being on the line, watching the brands evolve since 1975 and the intro of the GL. Imagine watching each year go buy, someone needed one serviced down the road. You watch that engine family move from flat-4 to flat-6 and never a major recall from a design perspective.

You wanted engine failures? Triumph/Norton/BSA... Shall I go on? Turner [Triumph engine designer] and the rest now compete with, 'teams of designers' they didn't see it coming. Britten was a rarity.

<<< Put this one in your friend's hands, BnB. See if it stays together.

Hubster my buds V-4 was a honda sabre 1100, same motor as the magna just hotted up abit. That was one sweet engine I don't believe he had any oiling mods done to it, and I don't think he had any of the camshaft probs some of those V's were known for. If he did, you couldn't tell from riding it. Watching him put 25k ridiculously hard and abusive miles a year on bike after bike, brand after brand, for 100+k miles, has convinced me of how tough the japanese machinery really is

I believe it. 65,000 on my 2000 cbr600f4. There was no measurable wear in the engine when I took it apart, except for the gear dogs. City riding will put the wear on our crash type transmissions. Rest of the bike is bulletproof.

BnB, That engine family was a rocker and cam eater like the old CB450/350 Honda; if you can remember that far back. Took a special tool to load the cam to get the lash correct on the early Sabre. Now, if they found the process to eliminate that decomposition off the face of the rockers, it has to be a later model. I know manufacturing piston rings made Honda what it is today. Sure would not be the rockers and cams. Yeah, look at things now. No valve adjustments needed well past the first inspection. That says a lot, knowing what was the early pouring and finishing of metallurgy back then. And they still kept running too. You cant' kill a CB750 SOHC.