[Guest]

Talking to a friend today the topic of high mileage came up. What is considered high for this bike? I've heard of Gold Wings and Beemers going over 100000 miles, but we don't seem to hear a lot of EX 500's with real high mileage. With regular use and maintenance, what can I expect from this bike?
I have a little over 8900 miles so far. How many miles on yours?
TIA,
Rich

 

[Lacessit]

With a short first season, I've only clocked 3000mi; but I'm definately interested to hear what qualifies for high milage.

 

[Red-Leg]

There's a guy in Boston selling his EX with 60K.

 

[Guest]

29,000 kms on mine right now. Would have been 30, but my riding season got cut short by 3 weeks. Since I'll have a full April to Nov season coming in 07, I plan to get my bike well over 60k barring engine failure!

 

[longhaul747]

At a Concours Owners Group (COG) meet last summer a fellow had a 1986 Concours with a 150,000 miles on it. It looked pretty ratty and it has issues but going down the road was not one of them. Maintenance is of coarse a big thing when it comes to longevity but a lot of it is just pure luck. Most of the time the engine does not really wear out but some little part goes critical and ends up lunching the whole motor.

I would guess with great care and a fair repair budget you could squeeze 100,000 out of a Ninja 500 motor but no guarantee of coarse. I have heard of a few Ninja 250's getting 60,000 to 70,000 miles and that motor has a much higher resident rpm then the 500 motor.

 

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I had 20K on mine before I sold it. No problems.

 

[Guest]

I've got 37k miles, and besides the road rash/sitting outside for a year, it's in pretty good shape.

 

[Smoky]

Mine goes pretty good with 24,017 miles.

 

[damarble]

26k on my 91, and even though the rest of the bike is in tough shape, the motor still pulls great. I hope I can get another 20-30k out of it before I upgrade.

 

[a.lee.hagen]

I've got 33K miles on mine and it runs solid. I once read that one of the only reasons you rarely see bikes w/ high mileage is because they get wrecked before they have a chance to get up that high... And a bike's motor should be able to get just as many miles as a car's motor. Whether or not it's true is another story, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Jkrup47]

dunno what to expect, but hey i don't plan on getting rid of mine anytime so. so let the miles come

 

[eXce!!eNt]

A friend has 27,000 miles on his '88. It hasn't been well maintained and it really seems to be on its last legs. If the bike had been properly taken care of, it could easily last 10k more miles. But at that point in the bike's life, the cost of the required maintenance in order to get the bike safe and ridable would supersede the value of the bike itself.

How one handles the break-in procedure, follows the manual in regards to having the bike serviced periodically, and stays on top of changing the oil, and etc... really determines how long the bike will last. I know someone who has a 2003 R6 with 20,000 miles on it. I'm sure it could easily get to 40,000 without a hiccup.

My bike has about 8700 miles on it right now.

 

[MrSciTrek]

Since the oil & the transmission/clutch (right?) shares the same oil, then is that the weakest link to durability? Assume that the engine is not being abused & other maintenance is kept up.

No doubt more metal & other bits get into the oil from that.

--Does the oil get filtered every pass through the filter?
--How fast does the filter fill up & go to bypass mode?
--Synthetic oil oughta help- anyone here have a story on that?

I just went back to the magnet discussion forum from last November (I just added to it).
Seems that a strong magnet(s) in the right place(s) could be of some value.

Is the stock air filter as good as it ought to be for engine durability?
A gas filter might help a little... ???

Folks who keep the revs relatively low get more miles per engine hour (if in a higher gear), so low revs oughta help engine mileage.

 

[dragknee]

ive heard that the 500 engine is good for ~ 60-70K

 

[MrSciTrek]

What things go bad first?

 

[Mulcibre]

I've got 53k on the clock. Previous owner was a motorcycle courier, I got the bike from him 6000 miles ago. He knew his stuff, and the bike, while non-operational when I got it, now runs better than my last 500r, which had only 14k miles on it, but had all kinds of issues from the various PO(s)

The trick about the wet clutch: It is far more important to change the oil more frequently, than to have expensive synthetic stuff. Search the forum for oil choice, you'll find what you're looking for to get a quality oil change for 10$ from walmart.

keeping the carbs in good shape should also help a bit, and keeping up on replacing filters/fluids at their recomended intervals. Valve adjustments would help as well.

 

[redline]

ive heard that the 500 engine is good for ~ 60-70K

I have 64K on my 88 Ex and she still runs great.
Keep up with regular maintenance and oil changes and it still keeps up with those cruiser bikes. My wife just bought a Vulcan 500 LTD. Same engine as the EX

 

[dweese]

My kid brother has a 1975 Honda CB750F Super Sport with 81,000miles on it, never been rebuilt starts every time on the second kick. (YES I SIAD KICK) I think it realy comes down to how you look after them, treat your bike well and it will give you mile after mile of enjoyment.

 

[fog]

My kid brother has a 1975 Honda CB750F Super Sport with 81,000miles on it, never been rebuilt starts every time on the second kick. (YES I SIAD KICK) I think it realy comes down to how you look after them, treat your bike well and it will give you mile after mile of enjoyment.

No it's somthing else, that word, Honda.

FOG

 

[damarble]

starts every time on the second kick. (YES I SIAD KICK)

Getting off on a tangent here, but I think it's dumb bikes don't have kick starters any more. Say your starter goes or your battery is weak, that kick will bail you out. Besides, what more manly than jumping on your bike and kicking it to life?