What he said^^^^^^

My 01 had 50k on it when I bought it and it runs just as good as bikes with half the milliage. Only question I would ask is who will do the maintenance on the bike. If you do your own maintenance then a one with more miles can save you some coin, but if you will pay to have it done I would pay more and buy a lower miles bike because it might save you money in the long run.

Also...If you are looking for an injected EG, go 2002 or newer. The FI system is light years better in those bikes. Just passing on something I wish I had known.

Re'

 

Take your time and you'll find what your looking for. Lot's of good deals out there in all sorts of price ranges.

 

with the economy in it's current state, i'd think that you could surely find something in the wisconsin, ohio, michigan, indiana area for a lot cheaper. if you're patient, the right one will magically appear, odd how that happens. the twin cam motors are the best harley motors yet. and they last a long time if taken care of

 

The injected bikes 2002 and newer seem to be popular with most folks. The tensioners in the twin-cam engines need attention I'm hearing.

When do the tensioners need attention? Is it a scheduled maintenance item like the timing belt in some cars?

Thanks again for all the info/opinions.

 

The tensioners on '06 and earlier models can go out as early as 15,000 or 50,000 miles.There is no scheduled time to service them.
Most owners here say to check them around 25,000.
Do a search here and you will be reading for hours!

 

Great advice given in this thread, miles don't mean all that much if the bike has been well maintained, I personally wouldn't buy a bike with 88K on it. Saying that my buddy had an older EGC with 107K on it and the engine has never been torn apart. Good luck.

 

Bikes are not that different from cars. 80,000 miles in 4 years is not as important as 80k in 15 years. Once the bike is running, there is not a lot more wear thats going to occur by driving 200 miles than would occur going ten. Highway miles are usually at a fairly constant speed and the rider is not using the gears and brakes much. Plus the jugs are getting good air flow around them.

 

Not all of the bikes I've seen for sale say they have used synthetic fluids but on an air-cooled engine I gotta believe it's the only way to go. Having said that, I have to admit that I've gotten plenty of miles on my trucks and cars using dino oil and synthetics.

 

Tensioner replacement is an every-20,000 mile $170 expense in my area of SoCal. Gear-driven cams solve that issue. The first Twin-Cam FI bikes seemed to have bugs to work out of their system, so I'd avoid the '99-issue EFI models in favor of 2000-and-newer. And my '01 has a forged crank, resulting in a gear drive that is quieter than the chains it replaced. Owning and operating a 2001 bagger modified through the various stages of performance mods, I would say that having a Magneti-Marelli ECM instead of a Delphi ECM (MM is still a major HD contractor, they simply don't manufacture the ECM anymore) doesn't amount to a hill of beans. But that's just from personal experience...

 

Do I understand you to mean that 2001 and newer bikes have gear driven cams and the tensioner is a none issue?