So many used bikes with low miles

[jcrawford]

And commuting on a bike back and forth to work isn't as straightforward as it would seem; you've got to gear-up, you are not going to have that cup of coffee on the ride in, and you have a limited cargo capacity. I usually rack up about 5K miles/yr commuting but sacrifices have to be made to do it.

My backpack can carry anything I need to bring to work. I find that I only need it once every few weeks. Love the commute on the bike but it does SUCK when you are in bumper to bumper and your bike is at 222 F. Sometime I go down the shoulder but not too often.

[SRTie4k]

I found out I didn't much like riding a sport bike with my first used 97 GSXR SRAD. So the first brand new bike I bought was an 08 Z1000, and I couldn't have been happier at the time. I rode 6k miles the first year.

I can't ride as often as I used to, but every month or so I'll set aside a full day to ride for about 6-8 hours. That gives me enough seat time to make me happy.

[Rusty the Scoob]

Riding is:

Harder
Scarier
Dirtier
More complicated
and less convenient

than it looks. And then there are the riders who buy the wrong bike and sell it fast. Or lose their jobs and sell it fast. etc.


Works for me! The more low-milage used bikes out there, the better.

[The Snowman]

Mine's for sale, want to buy it?

[DuncanMoto]

Also some of us have multiple bikes and live in the city, so low mileage is the norm. I tend to spread 4,000 miles per year over 3 bikes.

[jcrawford]

god damn cant wait till i can afford multiple bikes, though i could have for what i paid for the 2011 with full warranties etc

I need to focus on modifying this one now though, already have a list of mods that I want to hit this winter but will not be able to do them all at once due to cost.

2 tone paint job (blue/black, currently all black)
custom seats (blue)
Jardine Exhaust RT-One Dual Outlet
Fender Eliminator
Flush mount directionals
Small directionals for rear
HID Kit for Headlights
Frame Sliders
Sprockets for Gearing (not sure which way gives more power yet)

[jcrawford]

I had a 2008 with the Jardine exhaust and probably geared as well because the power difference between the bikes is QUITE noticeable.

[The Snowman]

Could've had mine completely set up for under $7000.

Oh well.

BTW, sprockets don't give more power. They alter the output of the power of the bike. Going up in the rear or down in the front gives more low end while going down in the rear or up in the front gives more top end.

[jcrawford]

yea i know i could have bought a completely modded bike for under 10k but there is something about experience that I like and I think that learning how to do all this stuff would be nice.

however I am not sure if I do these modifications myself (the ones i can) if that would void my warranty i bought or not so I might have a shop do it not sure yet.

[Garandman]

I bought a 2005 V-Strom in 2007 with 93 miles on it. Guy dropped it at an uphill stop sign the first weekend he had it, and never rode it again. Made monthly payments on it for two years and still owed $4,000 on it.

The 2005 Harley I bought in April had 1,180 miles on it - less than 200 miles per year. The 2008 SV650S purchased last Summer had 1,400.

Saw a forum post a while back:

The average Harley Davidson rider puts only 1,150 miles per year on their bike – you believe that?

I met someone that used to work as a marketing consultant for Harley. He said that in the study he was commissioned to do for HD, they found out after doing a pretty intensive survey, that the average Harley owner puts only 1,150 miles per year on their bikes. I didn’t believe him, but he said that for every new Harley owner that puts 10k miles a year on their bike, there’s 8 new owners that put about 600 miles a year. Simply put, a ton of people buy them, and never ride them. I still have a hard time believing it, what do y’all think?

Got me curious so I looked at Boston Craigslist and took the model year and mileage of the ten most-recently listed non-antique Harleys, BMW's, and GSX-R's in which mileage was listed. I subtracted the model year from 2011 to get seasons of use, and divided by stated mileage to get a seasonal average. There are all sorts of simplifying assumptions contained in this approach, but it was fast and easy and can be duplicated using other brands, models, or locations.

Of the first ten non-Antique Harleys listed the oldest was a 2002, the newest several 2006's. Lowest mileage was 1,400, highest 52,000. The average miles-per-season was 2,124.

BMW? The average miles-per-season was 2,324.

Then the first ten GSX-R's, the sport bikes HD and BMW owners both like to hate about. Average miles per season? 2,265.

[butcher bergs]

The single best modification to any bike is increasing a rider's skill set.

All that cool paint and loud exhaust will provide nothing if you don't have the skills to protect them in an emergency situation.


...and no, I am not a trackday elitest. Just stating the truth.

[Rossco]

The single best modification to any bike is increasing a rider's skill set.

All that cool paint and loud exhaust will provide nothing if you don't have the skills to protect them in an emergency situation.

But....but.. I thought putting Icon stickers on my bike made my faster

[Tunertype]

If you actually put miles on your bike for commuting and runnign errands like buying groceries and stuff then the incidentals like gear tires and maintenance pay for themselves in the improved gas mileage. (unless you bought a 700+ lb bike or one with 100+ hp).

I can see as low as 4000-12000 miles a year depending on your responsibilities. I can also see how you coukd put alot more joy riding. Most of the really low mileage bikes are probably people trying it out and not really liking it. Those 2500 mi in 5 years the first 1000-2000 were probably in the first year.

[nhbubba]

I put about 1500 miles/year on my last bike over 10 years. For the first 5 my daily commute was about 4 miles.
The next 4 of those 10 were when the bike was buried in my mother's garage while I was bouncing from apartment to apartment before we bought the house. Were I smart, I'd have sold it before tucking it away. But stuff happens.

It takes some really shitty cage mileage + really great bike mileage to cover the cost of sport-bike tires. And I don't know anyone that does grocery shopping on a sport-bike.

[Lxpony]

A lot of people think sport bikes are for them......until they ride it.....it ends up sitting in their garage....I know of a couple of friends like that......excellent deals out there on used bikes...just got to be patient and be ready when it comes on the market.

I know you arent referring to me!!

[Rusty the Scoob]

And I don't know anyone that does grocery shopping on a sport-bike.

My sportbike (if you can call an SV650 a sportbike) has been to the grocery store more times than I can count.

[scottieducati]

I can get 3-4 full bags of groceries with the ST2... or a 12-er of beer per case.... love it.

[OreoGaborio]

i cant even comprehend how people only ride bikes 1-2k miles a season.

Me neither!

Oh wait...

Street miles in '04 - about 15k miles
Street miles in '05 - < 10k
Street miles in '06 - < 6k
Street miles in '07 - < 5k
Street miles in '08 - < 4k
Street miles in '09 - < 3k
Street miles in '10 - < 2k
Street miles in '11 - < 200... and they're all on other people's bikes

[SRTie4k]

I see a TON of bikes circling Keene all the time, but whenever I hit the back roads around the Keene area, I see none of them. I've always wondered why that is, but I assume owning a bike is more of an image thing to most people - something to be seen on riding around town.

[BluGixxer]

Just like a lot of other hobbies or intrests, it losses its novelty after a short time, or untill something better comes along. Look at all the boats ,campers sports equipment , and the biggest is exercise equipment. People seee it , looks like fun, buy it, realize it takes more time effort and money than anticipated.
That's where the true value deals come in for people like us.
I waited about 2 months before I found my bike. The guy had a few things put on at the dealer ,exhaust, undertail, windscreen , and a few other goodies. The real bonus was he had just enough miles on it to do the first big break-in service along with a new back tire. He must of took about $4500 hit in less than 6 months. Showroom spotless when I picked it up from him.
My 05' 750 is No longer in shiny spotless showroom condition , I paid $7k for it in may 06' , and used about $6900 of it.
About 18K on it so far, 15 from me. 8k the 1st yr, 4k the next yr , then 2500 ,the last couple yrs I just havnt had the time or a good reason to hop on it. Hope that will change soon.

[Expat]

I put more miles on my track bike than I do on my street bike and I think my dirt bike has a total of about 12 hours on it in the past 12 years!!
I travel a lot with my job but like to have them available for when I want to use them.

[Garandman]

I haven't fired any of my M1's in over a year. At this rate I have a lifetime supply of ammunition!

Too many hobbies, too many kids....

[Tunertype]

I put about 1500 miles/year on my last bike over 10 years. For the first 5 my daily commute was about 4 miles.
The next 4 of those 10 were when the bike was buried in my mother's garage while I was bouncing from apartment to apartment before we bought the house. Were I smart, I'd have sold it before tucking it away. But stuff happens.

It takes some really shitty cage mileage + really great bike mileage to cover the cost of sport-bike tires. And I don't know anyone that does grocery shopping on a sport-bike.

I do you can get a few bags of groceries in a back pack.. you can even pick up a 20lb bag of dog food or potatoes if you strap it on the back with a cargo net. Cage gets about 25mpg.. my old bike got 55mpg at 4$ a gallon and 300$ for sport tires if you get them online and take your wheels off yourself.. you will have saved that in 75 gallons of fuel.. I drive about 15kmi a year for necessity which in my car would be 600 gallons. In the bike only 272 gallons. so if I drove the bike year round and got rid of the car completely I would save 1300$ and go through 2 sets of tires so I'd still be up 700$ in savings.

To save 300$ I only need to drive the bike about 3500mi. Now if we're talking about a supersport those only get about 40mpg so to save the 75 gallons or 300$ I would need to drive 5000 miles on the bike to pay for the tires still a reasonable amount of miles and tire life.

Or you could just drive the bike for fun 2000 miles a year and never use it for practical purposes this would cost you 265$ a year in gas and you would need new tires once every 3 or 4 years so it would cost 75$ for tires, add insurance and a yearly oil change and doing all the maintenance yourself and your at a yearly cost to own and occasionally enjoy your bike of 550$, not too much.

Now upgrade that to an avid fun only rider who puts 300 miles a week on saturday and sunday only and never rides his bike to work or to the grocery store and 6 mo a year you get 7500 miles. At this point you've spent 1000$ on gas, you need to buy a new set of tires every 1 to 2 years as well as do an oil change 2 times a year. Total cost to own is about 1400$ a year. It's all pleasure though. So figure how much you spend on Movies and Going out to eat. Eating out costs probably double what eating in does and you probably do it at least once a week and go to the movies at twice a month, plus buying CD's or video games or whathave you other types of entertainment costs the average person probably in the neighborhood of 1400$.(10$ a week wasted on food, 5 a week on movies, 12 a week on media).

Owning a motorcycle as a hobby is no more expensive than the average person probably spends on more mundane ways to distract themselves from this pit of despare we call life. Both activities waste about the same amount of time too.. 300 miles on your bike will take you 4 or 5 hours unless it's 100% on the highway.. going to dinner will take you 2 hours and the movies will take you 3 or 1.5 a week. Video games really do give you alot of bang for the buck as you can easily waste 12-100 hours beating a good video game for only 50$ so if you play video games it's really the cheapest entertainment, but if you don't, motorcycles are on par. (both video games and motorcycling takes a considerable initial investment though, but you can usually sell motorcycles for more used than you can used electronics and video games)

[soloithtz]

Um people getting older wanting something more comfortable, insurance, girlfriends thinking they are chick magnets, and constantly getting eyefucked by the cops are some of the reasons that pop into my head