Is there a certain mileage range to look for when buying a used Sportster. Thinking about buying a 1200 and would like to know how many is to many ? Thanks

 

I'm in the same boat.. interested in replies.

 

Can't speak for anyone else, but I bought my '99 last September with 15,700 miles on it. It was and is in great shape mechanically, it now has 21,890 on it and has not let me down yet. I think it is more about how the bike has been treated/maintained as much as how many miles it has on it. There was one there with 11,000 miles that wasn't in as good shape as the one I wound up buying.

 

Agree. It depends on how well maintained the bike was over the course of the miles on it.

If it were me, I'd want to see some maintenance records for a bike with over 10,000 miles on it. If someone owned the bike for that many miles they should have some records. If they don't, that would be my indication that I might want to pass on the deal. Might be the guy who thought all he needed to do was put gas in it. Gotta draw the line somewhere. I just picked 10K as a nice round number.

 

www.kbb.com has a motorcycle section that details the average miles that should be on the year bike selected. you can then adjust the sales price up or down based upon the mileage on a typical bike.

 

Wow on the chrome-age there phone. Looks really good.

 

thanks much

 

I bougth a 96 1200 with 7,000 miles on it in Aug 02. Traded it in Oct 05 for a Street Bod. The sporty had 57,000 plus miles and still looked good and ran great. I did have to replace a rear rocker cover gasket 2 years ago but that's all. I changed engine oil and primary oil every 2,000 miles. I was changing oil every other month. I used Quaker State 20-W-50 Blend in the engine and Coastal 75-90 gear oil syn blend in the primary. Still running the factory clutch. The bike was not abused. In short, don't dismiss one just on high mileage. Pay close attention to the small details. Washing a bike will not remove negelect.
Good luck,
Joe

 

I don't know why it is but Harleys seem to be the easiest to find low mileage used bikes. Three weeks ago I bought an 05 1200 C with 1300 miles on it! ! It's going in for its 5,000 mile maintenance next week.

I think when alot of people are thru putting their kids thru school and decide at last they can afford their dream: owning a Harley, they buy it and then realize for one of many reasons that it was not what they thought it would be and the bike just sets before they finally decide to sell it.

That might be reaching but there has to be some reason there are alot of low mileage, used Harleys around. It seems there always has been.

 

Exactly...

It seems that more and more frequently people are purchasing Harley's just so they can say; "I own a Harley".

They buy the bike, and a thousand dollars worth of HD designer leathers, and then spend 99% of their time doing nothing more than washing/waxing their Harley.

Very seldom see them actually riding the bike, and when they do it's only under ideal weather conditions.

But I guess there is nothing wrong with that. It opens the market up for a lot of low mileage, shiney, used Harley's.