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Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:20 pm
by paul246
RhadamYgg wrote:Well the Honda's I've owned (cars) we haven't sold until they have 200,000+ miles on them. We do standard maintenance, and sometimes a lot worse. The only mechanical problem that stranded us was a distributor on 160,000 mile 1992 Honda Civic.
Non-warranty/hidden warranty - Honda replaced the transmission on my 2001 Honda Accord. I won't consider that a mechanical issue because apparently it is a design problem and all the Accords of my cars generation had tranny problems.
Still, though my sister-in-law had a 1991 Shadow (car Dodge/Chrysler) and she had transmission problems - and they had to replace the transmission several (more than 3) times in order to fix the problem! Covered by warranty for the first 3, 4th was on her dollar - warranty completed.
My '99 Accord still has the original tranny and no problems, perhaps because its a 4cyl rather than 6cyl ??.
A co-worker has a Taurus that is on its 3rd transmission.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:49 pm
by High_Side
BuzZz wrote:I've never understood the prevailing attitude that many people have about bikes and mileage. It seems that once a bike gets 20-30k miles on it, a large percentage of folks think it's worn out.
We just lived this selling Jen's old duck. The problem is if you are selling a 5 y.o. Duck with 25K on it when there are multiple other copies of the bike out there with anywhere from 1.5K to 5 K. There are sooo many low mileage used bikes (especially ducks) out there that there is really no reason to buy one with higher mileage. Relatively speaking, people think it must be completely worn out.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:02 pm
by Grey Thumper
I've wondered about this too, and don't have a definitive opinion. Maintenance being a constant, it's basically comparing a machine that is (generally) far less mechanically and electronically complex to a machine where components are (generally) much better protected from the elements.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:34 pm
by JC Viper
I've known someone with an old Honda Goldwing that managed to get 200,000+ miles on the clock and that thing has been out in all types of conditions. He's a stickler when it comes to maintenance and does things when the manual suggests.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:16 am
by erbgottie
Also, how many people are willing to keep the same bike to be able to put 20k or 30k miles on it?? Not very many. IMO keeping a bike out of the weather (when parked) and being good about doing all the maintenance will keep a bike in good shape mechanically as well as physically.
If you don't have a garage like me, the cycle shell (best invention ever) keeps my RC saved from the weather:
As for cagers, I take good care of my Ford Ranger; I'm able to get my hands in it and it's very workable. Also, I drive real easy on it.............got tghe RC51 to have fun on, not the Ranger
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 11:47 am
by JC Viper
The Vulcan stayed out in all the elements and was never housed in a garage. the most I covered it with was an all weather bike cover that held up really well. The longest I've left the bike dormant was 3 - 4 months and when it started it up fine and did so until it got totaled.
40,000+ miles on that bike and it didn't need any serious maintenance, just the routine oil, spark plug change and I used seafoam to keep the carbs cleaned. Had the bike not been totaled it might be at 50 - 60,000 miles today.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:45 pm
by RhadamYgg
paul246 wrote:RhadamYgg wrote:Well the Honda's I've owned (cars) we haven't sold until they have 200,000+ miles on them. We do standard maintenance, and sometimes a lot worse. The only mechanical problem that stranded us was a distributor on 160,000 mile 1992 Honda Civic.
Non-warranty/hidden warranty - Honda replaced the transmission on my 2001 Honda Accord. I won't consider that a mechanical issue because apparently it is a design problem and all the Accords of my cars generation had tranny problems.
Still, though my sister-in-law had a 1991 Shadow (car Dodge/Chrysler) and she had transmission problems - and they had to replace the transmission several (more than 3) times in order to fix the problem! Covered by warranty for the first 3, 4th was on her dollar - warranty completed.
My '99 Accord still has the original tranny and no problems, perhaps because its a 4cyl rather than 6cyl ??.
A co-worker has a Taurus that is on its 3rd transmission.
Honda has a tendency to do internal extended warranties when things break more often than they would like. So, I'm sure it is just a percentage of the Accords from my generation that had the problems... And they just decided to take care of it.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:57 pm
by RhadamYgg
erbgottie wrote:Also, how many people are willing to keep the same bike to be able to put 20k or 30k miles on it?? Not very many.
You hit the nail right on the head (at least for me). I really like my current bike and I still want something else.
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:24 pm
by erbgottie
It's really hard to find a bike that you want to keep for a long time and are willing to ride the whole time. I'd say 75-80% of sport bikes are bought by hooligans and rode hard just to sell 3-5k miles later to another hooligan lol!! Sport Bikes are a lot like marriages today, you keep them for a while then see something new and get ride of what you got
Re: Longevity and reliability, motorcycle vs. cage
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:11 am
by JC Viper
I honestly wanted to get rid of the Vulcan 500 but whenever I would get a quote for a newer standard or sportbike it would be 3 -4x as much to insure. Even for a GS500E since fairings and NYC don't mix well. wasn't too pressed to get a new bike anyway as my Vulcan would outperform many larger cruisers. It went a year without any maintenance other than oiling the chain at one time and it fired right up without hesitation anywhere and oddly without choke. Spark plugs showed it was at the right mixture so that was odd.
Considering I have a pretty rare bike now I don't plan on ever getting rid of it and see what happens when it ticks over past 99,999 miles.