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I've been looking at a beautiful Vulcan 800 that appears well maintained and well loved. My only reservation is the bike has 36,000 miles on it. The owner has done most of the maintenance himself (the bike is his wifes, she has just bought a new one).

Assuming everything checks out with the records, and the bike rides as good as it looks would anyone caution against buying a bike with 36,000 miles?

I'll be using it mostly for cruising with friends , day trips, and maybe commuting to work, but I have been using my Rebel for that task.

Thanks for your help. If it was a car, I wouldn't flinch, I just don't seem many bikes with this many miles. Maybe their owners love them and keep them.

As long as it's not leaking or smoking and hasn't been in an accident, I wouldn't immediately dismiss a bike just because it had that many miles. I met a guy during Honda Homecoming who was riding a '97 Vulcan 1500 with 45,000 miles on it (my Mean Streak's engine is based on that one) and the only thing he ever did to the bike was paint it a different color because he grew tired of the original. The engine had needed no work other than oil and plug changes, and the tranny still shifted just fine.

Out of curiousity, what's the asking price? I think that will be a big determining factor.

ZooTech wrote:As long as it's not leaking or smoking and hasn't been in an accident, I wouldn't immediately dismiss a bike just because it had that many miles. I met a guy during Honda Homecoming who was riding a '97 Vulcan 1500 with 45,000 miles on it (my Mean Streak's engine is based on that one) and the only thing he ever did to the bike was paint it a different color because he grew tired of the original. The engine had needed no work other than oil and plug changes, and the tranny still shifted just fine.

Out of curiousity, what's the asking price? I think that will be a big determining factor.

Thanks for the advice! He's asking 3k. Seems reasonable, but then again, I'm not good at these things. He also has it on e-bay, but it's for sale here locally and he said I'm welcome to come see it anytime.

What year is it and what does Kelly Blue Book's website have to say? The $3,000 he's asking is about half the cost of a new one (before tax/title/docs/prep, of course) so it may not be a bad deal at all if it's relatively new and especially if it has any upgrades on it (those can really add up!). Also, be sure to look at the tires and brakes and see if anything will need replaced relatively soon. If you decide the bike is worth it, call him up and say you have $2,500 in cash but that's all you could come up with. The worst he could say is "no", and then you'll just have to call him back up the next day and say you borrowed the rest from a friend or relative!

36,000 miles... that bike is almost broken in.

As with anything used, make sure you check the compression. That should give you a better feeling about how that engines doing.

Thanks all! I'll be looking at it tomorrow. The bike does blue book around 3,000 (that's on the lower range) Hope it's still there! If not, I'm sure I'll find one soon.