Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I was on craigslist looking at the goods and saw an SV650. Open 'er up and here's what I found:

Do not get tricked into buying this bike for 4300.00 dollars
the book value is 3400.00 and for the S model it is 3600.00

DONT GET TRICKED AND THE MILES DONT EFFECT
VALUE LIKE CARS DO THANK YOU

Now the first part may be true, but I'm not sure about the former. Wouldn't miles on a bike be the same as a car? It goes through just as much wear I would think.


The whole ad sounds like a scam if you ask me. The caps makes it lose credibility and there's nothing else on the bike except the price and the mileage. Not even a picture.

But I'm just curious about the miles thing.

Link to the ad

I'd think that miles would affect a bike more. We bought a used 87 sentra with a good 100K miles on it and pushed that sucker to 180K before it caught on fire while my dad was driving me to school.

When was the last time you've heard of a bike ever reaching 100K miles? I've read that ninja 250Rs need engine overhauls and replacements after 45-60K miles.

I've heard of some ST1100's and some Beemers hitting 6-digits without a rebuild, but for the most part motorcycle engines spin so much faster than car engines they end up wearing out sooner. Motorcycles would appear to outlast cars simply because most people don't put very many miles on them. I've had my Meanie for 15 months now and have put ~13,000 miles on it. I've had my Colorado for just four months and have put almost 11,000 miles on it. So, which one do you think will hit 100k first?

Motorcycles also have the "sitting factor". A bike with 1K miles that has been sitting in someones garage for 4 yrs., full of old gas and oil, is going to be a money pit compared to one that has been ridden regularly and has 20K miles on it. I'd take the latter bike over the former any day (and pay more for the higher mileage bike).

I have seen many stories over the years about Goldwings and BMW K-bikes doing 300k or better. Air cooled motorcycle enginges, generally speaking, do not have this capability, due to uneven heat dissipation and operating at a higher temperature in general. Air cooled bike engines often need valve work at arount 50 k, I have been told by mechanics. Tech editors in the various mags have alluded to this over the years, too. Can't verify by personal experience, never kept one that long.

As a data point, I had two air-cooled Kaw 750s that I sold after 70somethingK miles and neither of them had any valve problems. Another I took to 65K without a hitch. Of course, all of these were daily drivers and didn't sit in the garage long enough for the valve train to get dry.

That may have something to do with it--Katana 1100's were reputed to need valve attention at around 50 k due to the fairing retaining so much engine heat in the engine compartment. Nothing can be carved in stone, as usual.