Fear

Whats high mileage on a bike? Im looking at some early 90s bikes with around 24 thou miles on them. Is a bike at this mileage still reliable or does it fully depend on the previous owners?

Mr.6

It all depends on the previous owners and how well they maintained it. It also depends on if it was put through its break-in period properly, but with 24k+ on the bike, im sure it was broken in properly. Long-answer-short, im sure bikes can accumulate the same amount of miles as a car could, they just require more maintainence then cars do (which is why u always do pre-ride checks).

Del La Sol 1320

depending on how its been maintained 24k wouldn't worry me too much... super sports its not odd to see 50k, sport tourers 80k+ is usually no prob

i'd just make sure there is no unusual engine noise and make sure the transmission is smooth

xshanex

24k isn't high mileage at all and most bikes should do 100k if they're not beat on and well maintained. Its a common misconception that bikes don't last long but in reality they should last quite a while. Ask the previous owner for maintenance records and check for obvious signs that it was beat on like bad steering head bearings, blown fork seals, rubber on the undertail from burnouts, engine blowing smoke on throttle, fried clutch, frame cracks and dings, and aftermarket parts that indicate an earlier wreck. Either way have a knowledgeable person check it out or pay a shop to have a tech look at it. You can't catch everything as I found everything wrong with my bro's katana before he bought it and still 2 days after he got it a fork seal blew when I was riding it. Some models are hard to kill like kawi's and honda's while some more popular models like gsxr750's either due to their popularity by certain types of riders and the riding they do or how they were built "seem" to have thing go wrong with them more often than some other models. Even a poorly maintained bike that hasn't been babied should last at least 50-60k miles with normal maintenance. There's always exceptions though as people love to beat on their bikes and you may come across a bike that was broken in by doing burnouts, redline shifts in every gear and 1/4 mile runs for the 1st 600 miles. Keep in mind that while mechanically an older bike may be good to go it's suspension may need a rebuild or freshening up after some time

VAbeachTegNout

make sure u check the bearings in the front, and the brakes and the tires... those are the problems i just had with mine (93 honda cbr f2) with 25k miles.

but she runs strong, just needed some TLC, and a tire, and an oil change, and valve adjustment and....

well u get the idea haha