New rider, wondering how many miles on the engine is normal

[Teecegirl]

Hi everyone,

Just got my GS500 yesterday and have put 60 miles on it already!  Needless to say, I LOVE this bike.  

This may be a dumb question, but I'm new to motorcycles so I truly don't have a clue.  I was wondering how many miles people normally put on bikes.  For instance, with a car, you're pretty much guaranteed at least 100,000 miles if you take care of the car.  So what is the norm with a motorcycle?

[Mat]

got 70,000 out of mine before i had any major problems

[SPARKPLUG1977]

Even after major problems, a motorcycle engine rebuild is a much easier prospect than a car engine.  Especially if the engine is a little oil cooled parallel twin.  I don't know how long until you'll need to rebuild. I'm still going strong.

[cernunos]

I know from reliability testing we used to conduct on drive-trains when I was with the auto industry that you can expect at least 100K miles or more MTBF (mean time between failure) on the average automobile engine. A dedicated truck engine ( I'm talking real truck engines, not auto engines in trucks) will have a 500K MTBF. Very small prime-movers (that means the engine) have very low MTBF; weed-eaters, lawn-mowers, snow-mobiles et al have MTBF ratings in units of time eg hours. One of the things I found interesting was that motorcycle engines seem to fall into the lower end of MTBF. During the '70's and '80's NAAO was studying various small powerplants for determination of suitability for adaptation into automobile useage. Various motorcycle engines were being studied and the results were not too encouraging. I'm surprised that motorcycle engines aren't equipped with hour-meters, as are airplanes etc., instead of odometers. The average motorcycle engine could be thought of as having an MTBF of around .25-.50% that of automotive engines. This analysis was constructed using weibull-theory around any failure causing a shut-down of the prime-mover. So it wasn't just whether a con-rod broke or a cam-shaft failed, it included failures of basic ignition components, fuel-delivery systems, lubrication useage etc. Of course this was some time back but just thought I'd throw my Abby Normal .02 in to the discussion. Sorry if I bored anyone. Love the bike, the forum and all of you.

C.......

[Teecegirl]

Thanks for all of the replies.  Very useful info!

[The Buddha]

I am chasing Mat with 45K...so far issues...oil useage. A quart in 250...but consistent high rev flogging is to be credited for that...
Cool.
Srinath.