What to make of old bikes with low mileage

[ice.shark]

I'm looking for my first unrestricted bike (currently on a 125). There are a lot of low-mileage (below 10k) 20 year old bikes> Are they a good buy?

How much should I be spending on a first motorbike? I saw a 2000 bandit with 18k on the clock for 1600 squid from a local dealer. The cheapest bike I've seen from them was £3000 so that kind of surprised me (but the bike looked OK).

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Best to buy on condition rather than mileage. A 10k thrash toy will be in poorer condition than a 30k one that's been maintained and used on the motorway.
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[Rogerborg]

on buying on condition.

Low mileage can be legit. Bikes do sit around unused. I bagged a 10 year old GPZ500S with only 4,500 miles on it - it still had the original tyres on it.

If your budget is around £1600 then I'd forget dealers. You're paying the £500 markup that they need to make on the bike. Private sellers might ask the same, but they're more likely to crumble when you waft a wad under their noses.
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[Clanger]

Some people might not use the bike as often as you think they should. Mileage shouldn't be a factor really, take a mechanic with you to check the bike over, or find a mechanic to 'find' you a bike for a small fee.

I had my bike 'found' by a local mechanic for a £50 fee. It was definitely worth it. Bike was delivered to his shop and he gave it the once over before I rode it home.
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[ice.shark]

[Rogerborg]

[Pete.]

[John933]

You would be surprised how many bike of the type you are looking at are second or even third bike's in someone's garage. So the low mileage could be genuine. Funny enough my first bike was a ten year old bike. Still got it in the garage as my third bike. It's now a high mileage bike that's not worth any thing to sell, So I'm going to keep her. at 23 year old, it's getting to be a classic.
John933
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[Astandane]

I managed to pick up 27 year old ZX400 at the end of December last year for £795. Under 27,000 miles...I had a few niggles. A carb block and some loose wiring, but all easily solved.

Think about it like this; are you going to be on that bike for a very long time? If yes, just think about how prepared to are to keep it going. Not saying it will fail, but it's worth thinking about.

Just go with your gut really, and perhaps google advice on what to look for on buying older bikes
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[Andy_Pagin]

An awful lot of bikes are purchased as weekend toys by well off midlife crisis blokes, do rediculously low annual mileages and are lovingly maintained. Get one of those second hand and you've effectively got yourself a brand new bike for peanuts.
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[Rogerborg]

[Teflon-Mike]

Bikes are more like golf clubs than they are cars; some folk never run out of enthusiasm for thier hobby, and thier equipment gets hard regular use till it breaks or something better comes along' others cant find or make the time, and it gets slung in the back of the garage until the missus want a new freezer and they have to make some space.

Meanwhile as mentioned; some folk wont take thier bike out very often; when they do, making time for it; might do a trans-european tour, and crank up, I dont know, five six thousand miles in a fortnight; but all gentrly trundling along enjoying the scenary. Easy to do when riding is the 'thing' you are doing. I've cranked up over 500 miles in one day, just aimlessly pottering about, without even breaking any speed limits!

Another chap, though, not getting out too often; when they do, likely to want to make the most of it; and has the throttle against the stop before the tyres are warm; fifty miles later they return home, having thrashed the thing mercilesly for barely an hour.

Next chap? All weather rider. Does his miles commuting 200 miles a week to and from work. Bike gets very dirty, and dodging half awake car drivers all the time, brakes and suspension and chains get hammered; so first Saturday after Pay-Day is 'Maintenence Day' and thing gets new lovingly greased, oiled adjusted and all necesary consumeables replaced. Might not get cleaned anywhere but near where spanners are applied; but, gets looked after well mechanically.

Next chap! Another every-day rider; but, with an if it ent broke dont fix it philosphy; cranks up 200 miles a week, 1000 a month, and come pay day, all he does is polish the shiney bits and head out to the local ride-out.

THEN you have the tinkerers... bikes dont get ridden very often, they are more a big-boys mechano kit; they get toyed with in the garage; some make it to the road; but general tendancy is they sit there for long periods waiting to be taken to bits; in bits of in varying states of completion; until owner looses interest, either through more frustrating problem with the thing, shear boredom, or there being nothing left to tinker with. Guilty mi-lud!

Cars? Take up more space; tend to more often not be owned by 'enthusiasts' using them as a hobby persuit; but as a domestic applience that takes them to and from work and to and from teh shops; and more often gets used pretty much the same way, with pretty much the same degree of dissinterest by all its owners. Gives rise to a greater corrolation between age, mileage and condition.

This does not apply to motorcycles for reason mentions; so you buy on condition and condition alone....

BUT; bear in mind, wear and tear comes from how much use the bike has had; how hard that use has been; how much and how well maintenence has been done; THEN from natural age degredation. Metal rusts. Rubber Perishes. Oil and grease leak away.

Old Age, low miles bikes, are most likely to have been laid up, deralict for a good portion of thier life. They may look pretty good, and have little obviouse sign of wear and tear; but there is a phenomina I call the 1000 mile 'resusitation threshold'....

Take a deralict; scrub it up, pump up the tyres, put in some fresh petrol, tickle the carbs; tap the lamp lenses.... easy enough to get one looking very like it will pass an MOT... and in fact, they often can.

BUT, you dont know whats 'gone off' with age, until you have cranked up about a 1000 miles on the thing. Thats the sort of distance it takes for things like gummed piston rings to 'show' with oil blow-by and rough running; for fork seals that held oil well enough to wheel the thing out the van into the MOT mans bay, and even ride it home after, to actually 'go' under the sustained stress of being asked to work for a living again. While electrics tend to give most grumbles; ten years in dry storage providing home for the spiders; use sees vibration and hardened old connectors start to crack and stuff like that.

So beware the very old bike, with No MOT or a recent MOT but no priors, and few miles since that recent test. Could still be a bargain if you are mechanically minded; but DONT expect it to be devoid of Trouble; use will reveal the niggles; and beware buying on the shiney bits. Shiney bits is easy to make shiney. Thems not the bits that will cause niggles. Its whats behind them that will give you grief; but old bikes can, with a bit of lick and polish be made to look and sound fantastic... only to fall to bits 1000 miles later!

Risks is there whether bikes young or old; high miles or low.... but if you go looking at older bikes, know what sort of stuff is likely to be more easily hidden or overlooked.

As a tinkerer... something I probably look foreward to... doing stuff to an old bike makes it interesting to me... but for a ready-rider, i just want to get on and ride? I'd rather buy one I can see has been in some sort of regular use, over one that obviousely hasn't, and I would rather see honest neglect and abuse, I can live with or put right, than shiney bits hiding uncertainty that could be a show-stopper if I broke myself to buy it.
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[Polarbear]

[Doovy]

I've just bought a 20 year old Yamaha RXS 100 with just 12,000 miles on the clock in excellent condition.

So.. low miles, and looks and runs well! Winner
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[dydey90]

There's a CBR600F on autotrader for £450... Needs a bit of electrical work by the look of it though.
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[noobRider]

My 20 year old bike is my first big bike. It's had problems and needed a bit of sorting out initially, but nothing awful, and I've put a lot of miles on it in the 1 year+ I've had it. Of course it has just shat it's transmission onto the road this week so ...
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[chickenstrip]

[Furrybiker]

My VTR is 2001 reg it had 7000 miles when I bought it it in 2009. Looking at the pile of paperwork it had a full Honda service history.

The previous two owners had each lost about a pound per mile in depreciation on the buy to sale prices.

It has various trick bits and looked like new, dont think it had ever seen rain.

£1700

[J.M.]

My experience with a low milage older bike (1997) was unfortunately bad. Less than 10k on the clocks before purchase, but the thing drinks oil.

Having said that, I put around 3000 miles on it, and it hasn't developed any more serious issues.

Then consider the other bike (1998) that I have, with just shy of 30k miles at purchase, that runs spot on!
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Bought the 954 for 7k miles on it. It now has double that. That they other and I quote "I don't know how it goes up the top end". I can confirm extremely well.
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[trisers]

[Marmalade]

I bought a low mileage pan euro for less than £900, it's a 89 model and now on 98,000 miles i've had to do the grand total of fuckall other than service it.
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