Selling high mileage bikes?

[Gary856]

How do you sell a bike that has over 50k mi, 70k mi, 90k mi or more? How do you price them – next to nothing? Who would buy them, and why did they buy them?

 

[banshee01]

How do you sell a bike that has over 50k mi, 70k mi, 90k mi or more? How do you price them – next to nothing? Who would buy them, and why did they buy them?

Commuter bikes. I would say they are proven reliable for this many miles so why not that many more to come. Price next to nothing yes, you received your money worth on the bike already.

 

[ST Guy]

Mine was in the mid 80,000 miles as I recall. I just gave it away.

But seriously, you just have to figure out what the market will bear and go with that. If you can document good service and good condition, that will help sell it. But if it's high mileage AND high years, it's tough. If my ST had been running, I might have gotten 1500 for it. Maybe. But it was 26 years old and not running. She still has plenty of life in her but I didn't want to put the effort into getter her running again, so giving her to a good home seemed the best option.

 

[budman]

Some may hold more value as parts than actually rides.
Depends on the model.

Personally I don't buy nor recommend to friends to buy high mileage bikes. My threshold is well below 10K miles, but I am spoiled.

 

[tfkrocks]

I bought a 2009 street triple R with 47k mi and cosmetically not great for $3k off of BARF. Didn't have issues with it. Sold it at 60k mi for $2.9k to a rider on CL who wanted it as a track bike.

I replaced it with an NC700X with 96k mi for $2.6k as a commuting/touring bike. I figured that a DCT probably wouldn't have been abused and it's a Honda.

I feel like I paid a fair price on both bikes. They had good service records so that made me feel comfortable about buying them. Lack of service would be a huge turnoff for me though.

 

[Marcoose]

How do you sell a bike that has over 50k mi, 70k mi, 90k mi or more? How do you price them – next to nothing? Who would buy them, and why did they buy them?

Situation: My nephew and I dream of riding together the NorCal roads, uncle-nephew thing, 2+ weeks out there, bonding, etc. He's a super sweet kid. Maybe my brothers would join too. If that ever happens, I'd be looking for buy-sell, short-term, comfortable, reliable, well-maintained, slow, cheap motorbikes. We wouldn't care for looks, farkles, mileage, dirt, imperfections. I think it'd be a much better deal than renting. So there, I'd be the type that would look at your high-miles motorbike.

GLWS

 

[sjuels]

Situation: My nephew and I dream of riding together the NorCal roads, uncle-nephew thing, 2+ weeks out there, bonding, etc. He's a super sweet kid. Maybe my brothers would join too. If that ever happens, I'd be looking for buy-sell, short-term, comfortable, reliable, well-maintained, slow, cheap motorbikes. We wouldn't care for looks, farkles, mileage, dirt, imperfections. I think it'd be a much better deal than renting. So there, I'd be the type that would look at your high-miles motorbike.

GLWS

I were in the same situation; family coming out for a ride, and the worst thing that I could imagine happening was that a bike was down, getting fixed, waiting for parts etc.
So, I rented a couple of bikes from Wolfgang at Dubbelju, and had an amazing trip, with no bike-issues.

I have bought several high mileage bikes (cheap) and have put significant effort into bringing them up to par with newer and reliable bikes.
If it is worth it - I don't know, but I get significant Zen and satisfaction out of bringing broken things back to life.

/Soren

 

[Marcoose]

I were in the same situation; family coming out for a ride, and the worst thing that I could imagine happening was that a bike was down, getting fixed, waiting for parts etc.

I excel in planning. It says on the very first line of my CV. :laughing My bikes are never down because of small details. YMMV.

 

[HadesOmega]

I've got my ZR7 up for sale right no 57k on it and no wants to buy an old bike At least for $1200. Really the only prices you can go off of with these older high mileage bikes is whatever is on the used market with similar conditions. =/ I hope someone can ride this bike it deserves to be ridden =(

 

[ocoas]

It all depends on the bike.

I sold my HD with 89,000 miles for double what I paid for it 20 years earlier.
It had been taken care of, never been down, original motor, trans. The only mod was jets in the carb.

I had three people who wanted it.

 

[RickM]

Recently sold my 94 vfr with 80k miles for 1700$. Wasn't expecting it to sell so soon. Sold in 4 days.

 

[davidji]

I've sold a couple of bikes over 50k miles, and I priced them well below similar bikes with lower miles. Good price or not (unless it's practically a give away price), they may not sell fast, since you have to find someone who would want that bike at a good price, rather than someone who will take it if you're practically giving it away.

 

[JMardy]

I recently traded for a 2010 KTM 990 SMT with 78K miles and the thing is fantastic. Transmission is silky smooth. Bike runs great. It really all has to do with how it's been maintained.
If you rode the thing and had to guess the mileage, I bet you say under 20K.

Has shit resale value but I don't care.

 

[Sharky]

Recently sold my 94 vfr with 80k miles for 1700$. Wasn't expecting it to sell so soon. Sold in 4 days.

I sold my GSXR1000 with 115K and a salvage title for $1900. In my mind I would have just kept it for less than $1500 because the bike was still a fantastic running and all around bike. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the motor. 150hp sportbike for the price of a beat dual sport sounds like a good deal to me.

 

[Frisco]

I sold my nicely farkled and meticulously maintained SV1K to a BARFer at 53 K miles. It’s had a couple owners since. Recently, friend of mine sent me a vid of his kid at a track day on my old bike! It currently has 89K miles and still runs like a champ. Modern bikes, if well kept, are good for big miles.

CJ

 

[Climber]

It really comes down to how much the buyer trusts that the bike has been well maintained throughout it's life.

Regular oil changes don't make a huge difference on a bike with <20k miles, but once you get over 60k the way the bike has been maintained has huge ramifications.

Each situation is different and buyers have to make their own judgement calls depending on what is asked for the bike. If the bike doesn't look well taken care of on the outside, it's probably not well taken care of on the inside.

 

[Pushrod]

The takeaway? Buy from an old fart who is a better rider and faster than you are.

 

[davidji]

The takeaway? Buy from an old fart who is a better rider and faster than you are.

Nah, buy from me.

The bikes I've sold with over 50k miles seemed to hold up pretty well. Saw the Versys at my gym a couple of years after I sold it, still commuting for the next owner, with nearly 20k more miles.

The FZ1 came up for sale a year later (buyer getting deployed overseas I think) with 10k additional miles, and still solid according to description. Asking $500 less than I did, and sold in a day or 2. A lot of awesome for $1800, and yeah I was tempted to buy it back.

But I'd rather move forward and ride new to me stuff, not go back to the same bike or even same model.

 

[mrmarklin]

How do you sell a bike that has over 50k mi, 70k mi, 90k mi or more? How do you price them – next to nothing? Who would buy them, and why did they buy them?

It depends on which Harley it is.

My Springer model is actually having mild appreciation, considering it’s ten years old with 50k. But it’s always had dealer maintenance.

As with anything it’s about condition, mostly and cosmetics help a lot with that.

 

[needles]

I'm going to be in the same boat soon - I've got a VStrom 1k with 117k on the clock. I treat the bike better than I do myself... it's in great shape but it's got lots of stories to tell.

I may just keep it or find it a good home w/o a financial transaction.