engine life

[gsJack]

Its the very lucky bike that can go 75K...GS jack has one in here that made the 75K mark...but his bike was a long distance only bike, no commutes, no traffic, no shopping runs...I think. If subjected to daily use as a commute bike 40K is what I tink it will make. The top end goes at 40K, the whole motor I guess will make 100K+. In fact if you rebuild it right at 40K the bike should make the 100K mark easy. The ring seal, valve guides and seals are really what go at 40K.
Cool.
Srinath.

Time for an update.  About a month after Srinath posted this in June 03, I was hit from behind and my 97 GS was totalled and I bought my current 02 GS in Sept 03.  I got a fair settlement from insurance and then bought the bike back from the ins co for $100 and fixed it up for another $250 and used it a little more and parked it with about 80k miles on the clock.  Last year my son put it back in service and was using it as a freeway commuter and with rather high oil consumption he ran it up to about 88k miles and then replaced the engine with a low milage used one.  At that time one of the exhaust valves was down to a minimum shim and would have needed some top end work to run it much further.

So my 02 GS which I bought with about 4k miles on it now has over 57k miles and runs like new and I expect it to do at least the same 80-90k miles the 97 did.  Both have followed the same pattern of wear.  Oil consumption picked up around 50k miles to where it went about 1500 miles after an oil change till adding the first pint and then about a pint every 500 miles after that till changed again.  I kept both bikes stock and rarely redlined either, did my hard running in the 7-9k rpm range so oil consumption remains controlled.  A high milage air cooled engine is going to push a lot of oil at high rpm after 50k miles, they're fit up rather loose to start.

I really only took about 6 trips with about 1500 miles per trip on both bikes to go to the mountains to play.  Most of my riding is done on the twistiest back roads I can find here in NE OH and nearby NW PA usually pushing hard but rarely going over 9k rpm.  But I never use that ten cent a quart K-Mart oil that Srinath uses.   

[vyrolakos]

In the UK, these bikes sell for about £3500.00 brand spanking new.

So allowing for 10 - 12K miles a year (considerably higher than the 'average' yearly mileage, which is about 3K miles a year in the UK - according to the insurance companies), you get about 4 solid years of good riding before needing a major engine service.

Sure, if you are a heavy user and do something like 50k miles a year, then you are going to be hit more often with servicing costs, but that would be expected with those kind of miles being done. Most 'average' riders (5 - 8K miles a year perhaps?) are going to go a long time between major engine work!

As long as you aren't after bling or pure horsepower performance - for the price and real capability, these bikes are hard to beat.

[yamahonkawazuki]

WOw, that's got to be a record revival ! I love http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html



Duration calculation results
From and including: Friday, June 27, 2003 at 8:38:34 PM
To, but not including : Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 5:00:28 AM

The duration is 1720 days, 8 hours, 21 minutes and 54 seconds

Or 4 years, 8 months, 14 days, 8 hours, 21 minutes, 54 seconds

yes indeed. man if i could remember where i had my first 97's pics hosted at, id resurrect another thread, btu kinda pointless to do so now. but teh elusive john speaketh in that one

[Jackstand Johnny]

My 89 has abot 47,XXX on the engine. It leaks oil, but it still runs fine. The shifting could be a little less "finnicky", but I've been seeing people on here with newer bikes that carry the same trait.

[mullethunter3]

when i sold it, it had close to 7k. i miss that bike, and am in search of another

I don't ever want to sell my bike. It would be too sad. If he needs a rebuild, he'll get one. Mine's got 37000 on it this week. I bought it at 34K, I think. And I believe the engine was rebuilt around 30K.

[DoD#i]

My 89 has abot 47,XXX on the engine. It leaks oil, but it still runs fine. The shifting could be a little less "finnicky", but I've been seeing people on here with newer bikes that carry the same trait.

Careful. First they start leaking oil to mark their spot - then they want to ride in the back of a pickup truck. 

It wants to be a Harley or a hound dawg.   

[TreeFiddy]

So if it's burning a considerable amount of oil, and there are no bad noises coming from the engine, she'll be right? 

1990 GS with ~35k miles. Pretty sure it's had an easy life.

How much $$$ in parts are we talking about here for a top end rebuild?
DIY possible?

[fred]

My '94 is way up over 84k miles and still going just fine. It burns some oil, but that seems to be expected for these bikes. I don't see any reason why this bike couldn't keep running long enough to roll the odometer back to 0...

[qwertydude]

I wonder if the oil cooler will help with mileage. I did my test to see what difference the cooler made and it was surprising. With the cardboard over the oil cooler the oil temp during city riding was about 190 with it off it's around 160. This is at 90 degree weather in stop and go city traffic. On the freeway it's still about 160, that oil cooler really helps stabilize oil temps so maybe it'll last longer.