Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I started riding about 28 yrs. ago. The first 5 yrs. I was a "bike only" guy and really racked up the miles. I also use to take 4K-5K mile road trips every summer.

I did some back of the envelope math adding up the miles on some of the more tired bikes I've sold and came up with around 400K miles.

I started riding 4 years ago and I have clocked in about 52,000 miles combining the mileage of the two bikes I've owned. Most of the mileage came from riding the Vulcan 500. It seems like the more power the bike has the farther I tend to ride so imagine how many miles I'll rack up when I upgrade to: Kawasaki Versys, Suzuki V-strom 650 or Ninja 500 (too many choices so little money).

If I get the Piaggio MP3 500 I'll probably average 20,000 miles a year compared to my current 12,000 since I would be able to ride in more weather conditions.

I've put about 3500 miles on my wee Ninja 250 in about 1.5 years of ownership. I need to find some time between work/school to get out and do some real rides, not just use as a commuter bike.

I've got about 500,000 street miles. However, I'd say about 400,000 were just boring commute miles and don't account for much in my book.

I prefer QUALITY over quantity and the last 100,000 or so of group riding the twisties has honed my skills much more than the prior 400,000...

I have about 21,000. I have only been driving motorcycles for 21 months.

AlphaZed wrote:I've got about 500,000 street miles. However, I'd say about 400,000 were just boring commute miles and don't account for much in my book.

I prefer QUALITY over quantity and the last 100,000 or so of group riding the twisties has honed my skills much more than the prior 400,000...

How many years have you been riding?

AlphaZed wrote:I've got about 500,000 street miles. However, I'd say about 400,000 were just boring commute miles and don't account for much in my book.

I prefer QUALITY over quantity and the last 100,000 or so of group riding the twisties has honed my skills much more than the prior 400,000...

Alpha, that's an interesting perspective, thanks for sharing - my experience is very different. Group rides I've been on usually have enough constraints - allowing for slower riders, keeping the group together, etc - to rule out challenging riding for skill enhancement. Group rides are an enjoyable social experience though. But commuting for me is riding on the edge - survival in heavy traffic, probably my best chance for speed (the LEO's just sit and watch ya go by in the a.m. rush! ), and those fun freeway on and off ramps....

Good point. I had it summed up well in one of my recent classes.

"I don't have 20 years of experience. I have 1 year of experience 20 times over."

I put 13000 on the vulcan, 1000 on the 1800 and like 3000 or 4000 on my dad's 250 duel sport (half of that was off road doing jumps and such)

I have absolutely no idea how many miles I've traveled on bikes in 40 yrs.
My 550 Honda had 106,000 plus, 17,000 on CD175 before that.
I've forgotten exactly how many bikes I've had.
I rode MX and Enduro's 150~200 miles a day off road, most weekends for 5 ys
I also worked as bike mechanic, shop foreman, service manager, so I rode other peoples bikes on a daily basis for years.
Quite probably in excess of quarter million miles on bikes. (possibly much higher?)
If I use bike for work its only 200 miles a week, but, I can easily do 225 miles on a Sunday just riding around although I don't ride much in the summertime, its too hot in central Florida (I refuse to ride in 'T' shirt, shorts and flip flops, plus I wear a full face helmet )
PJ