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I am looking at purchasing a 250cc cruiser. My question is how many kms on the clock is too high to consider in general? I have looked at a coulpe of bikes and one had 80,000 kms which I thought was too much, what do you guys think?

Thanks for the help.

My first bike was a 1985 Honda Rebel that had 45,000 miles on it, close to the km's you are asking about. The bike had been owned by a mechanic, he bought it for his wife. It was in sound mechanical and aesthetic shape and an all around good bike. I paid 500 us dollars for it, rode it for 2000 miles and sold it for $1000.

The questions really are; Who rode the bike for the 80,000km? How did they ride it? Did they wind the snot out of it and let it run out of oil? Or did they take good care of it?

Pay close attention to mechanical condition and don't pay too much for a bike that isn't worth it.

Thanks for the reply, I have 2 things working against me. 1) I only have 2K AU$ to spend which limits my choice dramatically. 2) I am not really mechanically minded. The bike with the 80,000 kms on the clock was a Yamaha Verigo 1994. He wants 2.5K AU$ but I think I can get him down to 2K. I took it for a test ride and it pured like a kitten, very smooth no noises unusual, the bike sounded quiet, no ticking sound at all. The acceleration was smooth and I could not fault the bike at all. I could only take the bike to 70km/h as I was in small streets. After the ride I looked for any oil leaks around the engine and could not find any.

Apart from a dead battery this bike is in perfect physical condition, the only thing that is putting me off is the high kms.

What should I do? The guy is an old guy who has had the bike for 12 months, he bought it from another old guy (who sells bikes on the side). When he got the bike he gave it oil change, new plugs etc, and did the work himself. The bike has no service books but does come with the manual.

Would you guys buy based on what I said?

Well, I don't think 80,000 kms is high on a bike. My dad put 460,000 miles (740,000kms) on his 1990 goldwing before he had the whole thing rebuilt, then sold after. My friends dad has 61,000 miles (98,000kms) on his shadow spirit and has done nothing but change the oil. Both those are honda's but I'm sure yamaha is just the same. The bad thing is you don't know how it was treated in the past, but if it runs great and doesn't have any problems, what else can you do? Personally, I wouldn't worry about the miles too much. Others might say differently.
You should, in my opinion, change the oil right after you buy it, even if the guy says he just changed it. There could be 12 year old oil in it or something. (And check the level beforehand)

yes i would buy it based on what you said personally.

As others said, 80000 km is fine as long as the bike has been well maintained. However, I would take it to a mechanic for a proper evaluation. It will cost you, but that's the only way to be sure.

one more thing: brand new Honda Rebel has MSRP $3200 US. $2000 AUD sounds like a lot of money for a bike with 80000 km. Make sure you check the blue book or whatever the aussie equivalent is.

My bike has 74k kms on it. It runs great.