A friend of a friend has a 2002 R6 that he wants to sell for 2200 bucks. Its a beautiful bike, never been dropped, lots of upgrades, maintenanced well (coming from owner). The reason its so cheap  because it has 35500 miles on her. In your guys opinon is this to many miles for a sportbike to be purchased? I don't want to buy it and then 2 months later have to part it out and try to make my money back. What do you guys think? Chef

I think it would depend on how it was ridden, 35k of hard riding is a lot, but 35k of gentle highway miles might not be so bad. I don't know much about that bike but I assume it is watercooled so it should last a good amount of miles.

It's a combination of how it was ridden, and how it was maintained. If the oil was changed regularly, and everything was cared for properly, even riding it moderately hard isn't going to be a problem. If the owner's style was to ride em hard, & put em away wet, then I wouldn't want it with a third of the miles on it.

If your friend's friend is a true friend of your friend and your friend is a true friend of yours then I would take his word for it and if your friend can vouch for his friend then that would be a plus.  It would also help to have it checked by a certified mechanic if you're willing to pay the extra dough for it or do it yourself if you are not mechanically challenged. Buying a used item is always a gamble. It's roughly 6K miles per year and depending where he lives that may be just an average per year driving.  I  live in NorCal and I already put in almost 9K miles on one of the bikes I bought 6 months ago.  Good luck with the buy.  Cheers.

35K can be a lot, I have a guy that has come to get some work done on his R6 ... at 22K he says he knows its getting worn.
He also has a 20K mile CBR600 that he says everything is breaking on it ...
The new crop of sport bikes, look pretty, perform like a gerbil on crack, and blow up fast. That way, the user gets hooked by looks, rewarded by performance and as it blows, they need more of it ... but in 1-2 tries they trade them in after 10-12K ... where the factory makes $$ selling to the same people over and over again, the dealers make $$ by stiffing them on the trade in and resale ... everybody wins ... except the ones who buy these year over year ... or the ones that buy em and have them blow up.
Cool.
Buddha.

It is kind of sad to thing that a sport bike would only last 35K. That seems like so little....

You should be able to tell mostly by how well it looks and runs now.  If it starts and runs easily, has sufficient power, shifts smoothly through all the gears, doesn't blow smoke (white, blue or black), if all the hoses and wires are not cracked, rotors are flat, wheels are round, frame is straight, it should be good for many more miles.

Sure, there is some small chance that a connecting rod is "about to go" or some other invisible time bomb thing.  But it's not terribly likely unless your friend had some warning signs and wants to unload it before it blows.

The biggest problem is there might be several maintenance things that need to be done.  New clutch plates, brake pads, brake fluid, battery, tires, coolant.  Might need to replace a radiator, or some engine gaskets or whatever.  There's where you get a discount.

buy it now and sell it in the spring for profit
if you like it..... keep it

Quote from: werase643 on September 09, 2008, 04:32:50 PM
buy it now and sell it in the spring for profit
if you like it..... keep it

Ditto!!!!!

i tried to reply, but somehow started a new thread. i'd buy it (IF i cared for an R6 kinda bike) with that many miles.

reasons:

high milage cars/bikes/trucks usually only get that way by having some maintenance done.

prices are cheaper for higher milage cars/bikes/trucks

generally you can find parts for higher milage things, because they're older, and cheaper again.

i'm cheap.

only ever had one sports bike, Kawasaki and that ran up to 88k miles before it just decided not to start one morning and went on ebay. I wouldn't of thought 35k was much personally. Got loads more than that on me GS. (allthough it has just had a lot of engine work after recent incedent).

If he is a good enough friend to shoot you straight I would go for it.  It is a sharp bike.  Ride it until spring and keep it if all is well.  If not you could resell it and make most of the money back.  If you buy it what happens to the GS?

Oh i'm definetly keeping the GS, I just want another toy to play around with. I think i'm going to get it, considering if i needed to rebuilt things here and there it wouldn't be that bad. I could always part it out if it craps on me and make my money back. I'll let you guys know what i do. Thanks for the imput. Chef