Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I am a long-time rider but have been bike-less for several years now. As I am again bitten by the bug I hope to have another bike within the next 6 months. I will probably buy something used for money reasons and have a question about bike age and parts that are available.

I'm not adverse to buying an older somewhat low mileage bike provided that parts are easily available. I have read that many dealers will not work on bikes that are more than 10 years old, so here's my question. Is there a model year that I should judge to be too old? I suspect that if I stick with the major brands this will be less of an issue, but are parts still readily available for bikes built in the 70's and 80's?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

JR

really depends on the bike i guess. For example, the EX250 is still the same bike (more or less) as it was in the 80's, and i am sure there are others like that.

i reckon the reason most dealers don't like to work on bikes 10yrs old or more is that parts can be a pain to get sometimes and they would rather people were ticked off that they wouldn't work on their bike than being ticked off that their bike is still waiting on parts 3 weeks later.

If you can just wait a little longer and save the money to buy a new one and save the trouble

I've experienced this first hand. The local PowerSports dealer will not work on my bike (see sig) because it is older than 10 years. I called the local Honda dealership and they had no problem working on it. I talked to a fellow local Super owner and he said there is another shop specializing on older Triumphs that doesn't mind working on older bikes. So call around to see if shops will work on your bike. Usually the smaller shops don't care, but it seems the large dealerships that want you to buy a new bike from them won't work on your old bike (go figure huh?). This forces you to wrench on your own bike. There is nothing wrong with that as long as your willing and mechanically inclined to do so. You learn more about your bike and how it works as well as saving a bunch of money doing the labor yourself.

As far as parts go, if the bike was made for a few years parts can be readily available through Ebay. Wear and tear items like gaskets, filters and such are still stocked by the manufacturer. If a gasket or such has been discontinued, a lot of times it is replaced by a newer part that also fits a different bike. Unfortunately for me, I have a low production bike that was only made 2 years even though the Magna line has been produced numerous years. Finding parts for my bike is a chore. You have to fight off other owners on ebay and usually pay the price for it. Also keep in mind that parts off other bikes will fit on your bike. The best advice is to find a bike specific forum. There are people on there that keep these bikes running and they know all the tricks.