Okay, got a question for anyone that cares to respond. my '97 gs has 3,319 miles on it. ive yet to take it on the road . (at least till forks come.)
if former owner took care of it. which dealer said., dealer sold it new., what kind of life can i get out of the engine, clutch, if i take care of it. (which i may or may not depending if i end up racing this thing.) im wondering whats the average life-span in miles for these bikes.
i had an old bmw,w/close to 200 thou. on it. i seeeeriously doubt i can get that on this. thanks keep up the good work!

with good maintenance and regular riding (nothing's harder on a bike than sitting still) these bikes'll go 75-100k.  If you race....maybe you could go a season or two without having to tear the engine down.

I have a 96 that I bought 2 years ago with only 234 miles on it. Since then it now has 13600 miles on it, with the only thing being replaced is the oil,filter & tires. And it still runs like a bat out of h*ll. :lol:

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.

Lot of sources quote 40K miles for one that's thrashed, 90k for one that's cared for.

Only 40k?  That seems awfully low.  Are most motorcycles so short-lived?   I'd always assumed that modern motorcycles lasted at least as long as a car, if not longer.

Motorcycle engines are generally stressed much more than car engines, so they don't last as long. Modern 600 cc sport bikes make 100+ hp, and rev to 12 to 14 thousand rpm. Typical 2.4 liter car engines make maybe 140 hp, and rev to 6 or 7,000. Guess which one wears quicker!

Car engines are typically designed for 2% of their life at max hp. I suspect most bike engines spend considerably more of their life in the sweet spot of the rev range with the throttle open.

Weight and vibration are much bigger issues on a bike, so parts tend to be trimmed closer to the limits on the bike.

You'll know it's wearing out from oil consumption and loss of power. It will keep running for quite a while usually as those two factors get slowly worse. You decide when you want to rebuild, and whether it is worth it.

The oil burning may not be very visible in the exhaust. If you start having to put in a liter in less than 1,500 km, it is probably time to look at a rebuild.

If it's not burning oil, and the power seems OK, keep riding it. Old engines don't usually fail in a big way.

The first rebuild is usually just the top end: New valve guides and seals, the valves and seats re-faced or replaced as necessary, new head gasket and a valve adjustment. Measure the cylinder bores and pistons for roundness and wear, ands see whether it needs to go up to the first over-size pistons, rings and bore the cylinders out. Maybe you can get away with having the cylinders honed, and new rings. That is about it. Might as well clean and rebuild the carbs while you're at it. Cost will depend on whether you need new pistons and cylinder boring. Costs will vary widely between shops, but maybe as low as $400 Can. without new pistons or cylinder boring.

A bottom end rebuild is more serious. The cases have to be split, maybe the crank journals turned, new conrod bearings, new crank bearings, new cam chain, maybe some tranny work to restore the shifting. Every wear part in the engine should be measured and replaced or re-worked.

Again, if it is running fine, just keep riding!

Typically it will start fouling plugs. My friends GSXR with 70K miles carries plugs everyehere. And changes them every 100 miles or so. But he does clean and re use them so its not a loss.
Cool.
Srinath.

reminiscing ( when i first got my first gs) 

How many k's (oops miles) has yours got now?

Come on!

My GS has over 43,000 miles on her, and burns the same amount of oil it did right out of the box.
I don't ride it like a Grandma - 40k miles is easy to achieve with proper care.

the great thing is if your motor does go south, you can pop a new one in for almost nothing

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

Quote from: galahs on March 13, 2008, 02:54:33 AM
How many k's (oops miles) has yours got now?

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

My 89 has around 8000 miles on it.Those miles are correct.

My 94 was at the 28k mark when I got hit.  Engine was still running great.

Quote from: cd on March 13, 2008, 04:27:32 AM
the great thing is if your motor does go south, you can pop a new one in for almost nothing

this is one of the best things about this bike.  there's not a lot of things that can go wrong with it and everything that CAN go wrong is very cheap to fix. 

Quote from: Toecutter on June 27, 2003, 01:03:59 PM
Only 40k?  That seems awfully low.  Are most motorcycles so short-lived?   I'd always assumed that modern motorcycles lasted at least as long as a car, if not longer.

Well, the gsxr is a modern bike. Its average lifespan is 1.5k miles or 2 months, whichever comes first, before it gets crashed, stolen, or stolen and then crashed.

In all seriousness though, more revs = more wear. Motorcycle engines rev a lot higher, so it follows that they'll naturally have a shorter lifespan.