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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> How many miles will it last?
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Message started by jedrake72 on 03/29/06 at 22:23:25

Title: How many miles will it last?
Post by jedrake72 on 03/29/06 at 22:23:25

Hi all. I'm just getting into riding and will be taking my MSF course in a couple of weeks so I have started looking for my first bike. Used bikes seem to be hard to come by around here but I found an 87 Savage 650 at a consignment shop for $900 but it has 30K miles on it. I don't necessarily NEED the bike to last all that long but I really don't want it to blow up the first time I get the nerve up to take it on the freeway. Assuming the engine has not been rebuilt, what do you all think? How will the bike hold up with this many miles on it?

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by Salad_Shaker on 03/29/06 at 23:46:07

See Max Morley's reply to Odometer Question further down the Rubber Side Down page.

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by jedrake72 on 03/30/06 at 10:05:43

I suppose a better question would be, what is the average life of one of these motors?

I'm sure that most any bike that gets good care and sees lots of highway miles can make it to 100K (I may be wrong here since I am used to the car world and completely new to bikes so please correct me if I am mistaken) but since I do not know anything about the history of this bike should I assume that it can make it this long?

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by vroom1776 on 03/30/06 at 13:15:26

out of the 1000 members or so on this board, there hqve been 2 catastophic engine failures before 20 k miles. There've been maybe 5 - 10 others that needed a rebuild of some sort (more often than not, a new cam chain tensioner) that were not the result of user/rider error (e.g. jetting too lean)... a reasonably reliable motorcycle. Just change your oil, and if you change your exhaust or air intake, ejet accordingly... we'll help ya' out!

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by Ed_L. on 03/30/06 at 13:16:42

At that milage you should replace the cam chain and tensioner assembly, they seem to be one of the first engine parts to fail and trash the engine. Beside that the rest of the engine is pretty tough as long as it has fresh oil in it. As long as it has been taken care of it's got a lot more life left in it.

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by Paladin on 03/30/06 at 13:40:51

jedrake72 wrote:

....87 Savage 650 at a consignment shop for $900 but it has 30K miles...

REFERENCE (http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=RubberSideDown;action=display;num=1134489980;start=5#5) Woodworker bought an '86, put 148,000 KM (over 90,000 miles) on it, rebuilt the engine to 695cc, and is going stronger than ever.

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by jedrake72 on 03/30/06 at 19:28:37

Okay, I think I can lay my fears to rest. I think I'll buy the bike, replace the cam chain and tensioner, put a good spark plug in it, fill it with synth oil and I should be good to go for a while.

Title: Re: How many miles will it last?
Post by SeattleSavage on 04/01/06 at 14:50:38

now your thinking, chain, tensioner, good oil, drive it another 20k and do the chain and tensioner again 8)