Average mileage?

[Ellyt247]

Can anyone tell me what you would class as average mileage? I'm still getting use to riding so wouldn't really know. I've got a rough idea for a car but I assume it's not as much as that.

 

I'm asking because I'm looking into buying my next bike but want to make sure it has decent mileage.

 

Thanksa

[Bender]

Condition and servicing are as important I do however try to keep any purchase to a low a mileage as budget allows. 

[husoi]

How long is a piece of string?

I bought my shadow 86' with less than 15k miles

My ST1300 was less than 17k and is an 08.

 

Some guys get the bikes and ride them only once in a while.

[bonio]

Depends on the bike, but mileage is usually less of a concern on a bike than on a car - the engines are usually designed to go on until the end of time - as long as they've been serviced ok. So like @Bender says, top things to look out for are general condition and service.

If you don't know what you're looking for then the next best guideline is to buy from an older person who looks as if they're comfortably off. If they keep their garden and their garage tidy, more chance they've looked after their bikes too. You'll miss some good bikes this way, but you'll miss most of the dogs too.

As for mileage on a 600cc+ bike, anything under 30k wouldn't worry me at all. Most bikes will happily do twice that and be fine except for the suspension which might need servicing. 

[dynax]

7 hours ago, bonio said:

 If they keep their garden and their garage tidy, more chance they've looked after their bikes too.

 

Not always true, my garden is an absolute jungle because I hate gardening and prefer to spend the time on the bike

[Bianco2564]

My 2001 R1 is on 41k miles, bought it 5 years ago on 28k , only gets ridden on dry days now.

My 2003 Silverwing scooter is on 64k miles,  Had this 2.5 years, was on 49k when bought, this is my daily work hack.

Other end of the scale is my 1970 Honda SS125 on 8800miles.

When I sold my 1993 Exup a while ago, that had covered 74k miles

 

Treat the bike on condition and service history, try not to get hung up on mileage.

A well looked after bike will have plenty of life in it.

 

I think there is just some psychological block on mileage on bikes, anything over 30k is considered high, same with cars 100k seems to be the pivot from low to high mileage irrespective of age.

[bonio]

1 hour ago, dynax said:

 

Not always true, my garden is an absolute jungle because I hate gardening and prefer to spend the time on the bike

I didn't say it was always true. You trying to agree with me?

[Stu]

Average mileage for a motorcycle each year is around 3000 miles 

 

[Fozzie]

From what I see on for sale ads online in the comments if it's a 600-1000cc bike, 40k seems to be the number that makes people start asking more questions around the condition. So that's probably the start point for higher mileage. This is especially true for the sports bikes, which generally get more of a thrashing.

 

But it is dependent on the bike, so if you have a bike in mind, check the dedicated forums for them. As it's more about state of tune and how they're often used, for example a CBR600F will be expected to last longer than an R6, but the R6 has more power and spins to a much higher RPM for it. So a 40k R6 will raise more eyebrows than a 40k CBR600F. But even so, 40k will still raise questions a 30k bike wouldn't in either case.

 

[onesea]

Play the mileage game on a comparison website I found up to 6k made little difference so I always use that…

[S-Westerly]

7 hours ago, Stu said:

Average mileage for a motorcycle each year is around 3000 miles 

 

My bike is just over 3 years old and has 10,000 miles and a bit. That said I'm only able to ride it for about half a year as the other half I'm away. I think if I was home for a full year I'd probably do about 5000 miles and there'd be no commuting in that.

[dynax]

9 hours ago, bonio said:

I didn't say it was always true. You trying to agree with me?

 

No I just mean you can't always judge someone by the state of their gardens, and usually if they have money they will probably have a gardener to do it anyway

[Six30]

10 minutes ago, dynax said:

 

No I just mean you can't always judge someone by the state of their gardens, and usually if they have money they will probably have a gardener to do it anyway

my mrs bush is in a terrible state..... how much is a gardener nowadays ?

[Bender]

35 minutes ago, Six30 said:

my mrs bush is in a terrible state..... how much is a gardener nowadays ?

I've got some deforestation weed killer, just give her Bush a good soaking with it and it should die right back  

[Hoggs]

I bought my 2001 Ninja in 2016 with just under 15k on the clock. It has over 50k and is still going OK...ish

 

my 2008 750 i just bought has 13k on the clock (laid up since 2013) and here's the thing... BOTH OF THEM SUCKED FOR THE FIRST FEW HUNDRED MILES! 

 

Its easy to be alarmed at high milage but very low milage means occasional riders or the bike has been stored for long  periods of time which comes with its own set of problems - cracked tyres, cracked rubber pipes, old fuel gunk etc

 

My initial MPG on this one was like 30 which made me cry but giving it some longer rides out its averaged out around 50 which is much better (especially having to spend more on E5 lol) 

 

I guess my point is milage isn't the whole story. or something. 

[MikeHorton]

I'd agree with Hoggs. I use mine every day for commuting and pleasure and spend a lot of time keeping it on good order. Still got a good trade in on my tracer 900 gt had 18k miles on it but was in great condition. It was only on the showroom for 2 weeks and gone. It's all about how well it's been maintained 

[rob m]

Bikes are capable of much higher mileages than people think. I've said it before but engines aren't made of cheese and if they're maintained well will go on for mega miles. If they are well maintained that is. I've bought bikes with low mileage (-20k miles) that have been dogs because they've mistreated but once I've sorted them out have gone on to much higher mileages because I've kept on top of servicing. I'd happily buy a high mileage bike if I was confident it had been looked after.

 

This guy has turned 500,000km on his BMW K1200S (Same bike as mine):