Plan B Forum

I hope this link works without your being a BMW MOA member. Sorry, I won't give you my password.

https://content.digitalpub.blue-soho.co ... gin=reader

If it works, after you leave the first page by clicking on CLOSE, you should see a magazine page showing several members who have reached milestones in their accumulated mileage on BMW motorcycles this year. I'm not one of them as I've never kept track over the years. One lady has over 400,000 miles on the same BMW R1100RS. (I used to have a red one similar to it, but with only 90K) . She's not the only one with miles like that. She's just the only one to hit a milestone of 1,100,000 on BMWs this year. If that's not dependability, I don't know what is.

You may also be able to slide right and left to read the whole magazine if you like.

Here is what I found when I googled 'high mileage Harley Davidson motorcycles'.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/general- ... ley-1.html
and https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touring- ... leage.html
and http://www.v-twinforum.com/forums/harle ... -103s.html
and http://www.hdtalking.com/threads/high-m ... leys.7449/

Whereas 100K+ is the norm for a BMW, with little or no trauma, it just isn't for a Harley. Yes, there are a few high mileage HDs on their first engines without even a top overhaul, but even out of the millions produced, they are rare.

I was really impressed by Mr. Arizona and his truck, in the first H-D link above.

"My last Toyota truck had 356,000 miles on it when I sold it and was still completely original bumper to bumper - no rebuilds at all, just a clutch change at about 300,000 miles."

Completely original, bumper to bumper. Never changed a lightbulb, never changed shocks or brakes. Makes me wonder about the other claims.

snailgate.

Maybe he never stopped or drove it in the dark...

High milage Harley?

Precisely the point Gob.

Highest I have personally seen was 190,000 on a mid-90's Road Glide. It's not a Twin Cam-it is the last of the big (1340cc) Evos...only major repairs were a two stators, two or three drive belts, and several clutch cables. It also got a new clutch at about 100K, and a primary chain at the same time. (The old one was fine, but the owner just couldn't bring himself to reinstall a 100,000-mile primary chain.) Of the 190,000 miles, probably 160-170,000 were ridden 2-up, most loaded with gear. About 130K were darksided.

The 190K was this past spring...it is probably over 200K by now.

A dude this year ran the Iron Butt Rally on a Sportster Roadster...he tuned 200,000 miles during the rally. Engine is a rubber-mount 1200 Evo, internally untouched since new. (Clutch has been done twice, IIRC.)

Hey look Gob. There are two!

A guy down the street has a 2010 Road King with 30K miles and a bad camshaft. At least that's what he says. He's hoping to find another engine from a wrecked bike.

MGMcAnick wrote:Hey look Gob. There are two!

A guy down the street has a 2010 Road King with 30K miles and a bad camshaft. At least that's what he says. He's hoping to find another engine from a wrecked bike.

Twin Cams have all sorts of problems...the Evolution is a near-flawless engine.

A friend bought a brand new bike with the Evo engine in '96 or '97. I only remember because that's when we worked together. I don't recall which model. It developed a crack in the crank case when it had under 5000 miles. To their credit, HD replaced the engine, but it took them six weeks in the middle of riding season. They wanted to have the bad engine sent back for an autopsy before shipping the new one. You'd think they would have figured out how to make an engine that came out 12 or 13 years earlier.

I wouldn't start out across country on a Harley Davidson, even a brand new one. OTOH, I'd get on any of my road ready BMWs, with anywhere between 35 and 90K miles, and head out any time.

According to a Consumer Reports story, reported by The Motley Fool.

I know nothing about bikes but this seems to be inconsistent with your experience, MGM.

MGMcAnick wrote:A friend bought a brand new bike with the Evo engine in '96 or '97. I only remember because that's when we worked together. I don't recall which model. It developed a crack in the crank case when it had under 5000 miles. To their credit, HD replaced the engine, but it took them six weeks in the middle of riding season. They wanted to have the bad engine sent back for an autopsy before shipping the new one. You'd think they would have figured out how to make an engine that came out 12 or 13 years earlier.

I wouldn't start out across country on a Harley Davidson, even a brand new one. OTOH, I'd get on any of my road ready BMWs, with anywhere between 35 and 90K miles, and head out any time.

Then you're a fool.

Jarlaxle wrote:Then you're a fool.

That may be, but it has nothing to do with motorcycles.

I have no dog in this fight (never driven a motorbike) but I was reminded of this thread when I read this article in the Guardian. HD is in trouble and Trump's tariffs won't help.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... otorcycles

yeah, and they re going to target cranberries too.....

they say that they are targeting paul ryan and Wisconsin, but I really think that the point of a cranberry tariff would be to drive the last of the cranberry farmers off of cape cod and out of eastern mass....

land is valuable , and scarce, around them parts....

cran berry bogs or mansions? you guess which will survive in MA.....


petty and spiteful tariffs on things like Levi s and cranberries and Harley s will have the opposite of the intended effect, I think......

I live within fifty miles of 'bog country' so I'm aware that Wisconsin accounts for almost 2/3 of the entire US cranberry production (MA comes in a distant second with approximately 25%).  And since H-D is also HQed in Wisconsin, my state is getting a double whammy with these retaliatory tariffs.

So screw you, Mr. Bony Spurs.  Why don't you and our esteemed governor, the honorable Snotty Wanker, get together, go off someplace, and butt-fuck each other instead of your constituencies for a change?

-"BB"-

210,000 miles on a 97 Harley. It is a full-dress Electraglide, not a Road Glide. Next year, it's doing a 48/10 Iron Butt ride. Getting some service this winter: clutch, primary chain, front master cylinder, caliper, and rotor, fork seals, and replacing the (original) steering head bearing.

The 200K Sporty (2006 Roadster) lost the engine shortly after the Iron Butt Rally. A piece of foil from the seal on a bottle wound up in the oil tank...blocked the pump and killed the engine. Got a take-out from a wreck with ~10k miles, it's running again.

Jarlaxle wrote:... Next year, it's doing a 48/10 Iron Butt ride...

48/10? And this coming from a lifelong bike rider who once said "NEVER AGAIN." Imagine that.

Good luck.

What?

Jarlaxle wrote:What?

Not long ago you had a bike accident and you said "never again." And here you are now planning for a 48/10.

'What' more can I say?

I don't own an Electraglide. I ride a Sportster.