I have an 09 Fat Bob and I've got 34000+ miles on it now. I'm wondering at what point the mileage becomes a factor in trade in value or sale value. At what point do you start thinking of trading in before value takes a big hit? Or do people who really ride their harleys just ride them forever and say screw trading it in?

 

If you like your bike and it's running well, why trade it in? I wouldn't trade mine until something I like better comes out. Only reason I would trade mine, is if it started nickel and diming me, leaving me stranded, etc..

 

I think not only mileage plays a part but the economy and the HD dealers willingness to be fair both on the trade price and on the new bike price. I traded off my heritage softail about 8 months ago. It was loaded . It had 30,000 miles on it and ran great. I figured I would get about 12,000 for it. I was wrong. I got 9500 for it . Fortunately for me it only had 4000 left on the loan so I got a strong down payment for the dyna and a low payment for 3 years. The glory days of buying a harley , fixing it up and getting a higher trade for it are long gone. You are lucky to get back 3/4 of the bikes value on trade. And I think that is considered a good deal. If I hadn't gotten such a good deal on my 2011 dyna I would have felt screwed.

 

I wouldn't worry about value depreciation on your bike. With the kind of miles you are racking up, any newer bike you trade in for will depreciate even faster. Your bike already has more miles than most people are looking for in a 2 or 3 year old bike and I don't think it will depreciate much more after a certain point is hit.

 

I would think that anything over 10K is going to start having a negative impact on both the resale price and the ease (or difficulty) in finding a buyer that isn't bothered by it. Once it's over 25K or 30K, I don't think any additional miles can do any more damage to the resale value. Once it subjectively becomes lots of miles in the mind of the average buyer . . . it's just lots. So 30K is lots and so is 90K. My 2010 has over 24K on it and by spring time it'll also be "lots" . . . but I do enjoy riding it . . . . a lot!

 

some people even like to buy high mileage bikes, my dad used to ride alot he had 50K on a two year old low rider and traded it in. He was at a poker run and seen his old bike and the new owner was showing off his miles like he put them all on it. lol

Hey to each his own, people are more entertaining than cable tv

 

if you are going to trade in a bike, strip it down and put it back to stock because you wont get anything extra for all the goodies you put on it. then you can sell the add ons on ebay and get almost all your money back from them. jackyl

 

There are an awful lot of reasonable priced low milage FBs out there if you look around. I recently picked up an '09 with <3,000 miles for just over $10K, and I see them advertised with <6,000 miles in the $11-$14K region. I would think a similare aged bike with 30K+ miles is going to be a tough sell vs some of these bikes.

Things might be different in the Spring...