Whats good mileage on a used street bike?

I'm looking to get a used bike and I only know how the deal goes with cars on mileage. I heard that come 30k most bikes start going downhill (30k = 100k on a car?), BUT I also had a grandfather who said bikes are like wine, the older they are the better; I'm assuming this means you've taken good care of it. Anything I should watch out for mileage or otherwise?





BTW- Looking at about $3k spending money on it and either Ducati (dream bike), ninja 650, or suzuki (would like a bandit if i can get a hold of one) ALSO This is in Hawaii don't know if the climate here changes much about the bike.|||depends on how it was taken care of,do a cylinder leak down test or at least a compresion test before buying.Check the brake pads,look at the outer edges of the tires and check the outside under edges of the pegs for scrapes. look at the frames bottom for scrapes. look at the base of the heads for oil indicating head gasket trouble. look for oil at cylinder base.|||If you're buying a bigger bike, high mileage is not such a prob. My '93 750 has 160,000 KM on it and still runs sweet. The 250 i traded on it had 50k and was about dead. As the other bloke said, watch the cheap Ducati's you may be lucky, or you may enjoy putting the time and maintenance into it. Bandits are dead simple engines and mileage shouldn't worry it too much.|||Mileage isn't a huge concern on the bikes you're talking about. They're made for miles. Even a 600cc sportbike that revs to 17000 rpms will last quite a while, but obviously not as long as say a cruiser that redlines at 5000. Assuming the bike has been cared for, you'll be fine.


That being said, I'd be wary of any 3000 dollar Ducati's ;)|||I have a VFR750 with 72500km on it,still pulls hard. Only gets serviced at the shop every 2 years ( tappets,timing, anything else he sees necessary ).I heard of a guy has a VFR800 with 200,000km and still going strong. Keep the oil %26amp; filter changed every 5000km and any bike will do this. Look after your ride and it looks after you, ride safe.|||i hope not my bike as over 70,000.. its never the mileage with any thing you drive but how it was taking care of... you can get a alomst bran dnew one with no miles that was used to drag race and be shot and finds one with 50,000 on it that wil be in better shape not the miles its the shape its in|||I faced the same question when I decided to buy a used bike. I looked for quite a while on Craigslist to see what was out there and what the going prices were. I was looking at the same price range as you. At first I was looking at bikes with around 30K too . . .





I decided on a Honda CB 750 Nighthawk . . . figured I'd find one from the 80's or 90's . . . I heard about a co-worker who had the exact bike I was looking for. When I ask him about it, his first words were "Do you want to buy it?" I ended up with a 2003 with 9000 miles and I paid $2500 for it which is about $1000 under Kelley Blue book. Check out the price before you buy. Use the Blue Book price as a bargaining chip . . .





I think I really found the exact bike I wanted just by being patient and knowing what I wanted and what I would pay.





Highly recommend Craigslist just for looking around and finding out what your local market is.





Hope you find the exact bike you want . . .