High mileage poll

[MAXIMAN]

One thing that has always appealed to me regarding the Eleven was it's legendary "bulletproof" design.

I'd like to get a poll of all the XSives here: What are the most miles you've ever seen on an original engine (whether it's you bike or not), before a major repair.

I'm not talking minor failures here...think scoured cylinder, broke cam chain or worn lobes or transmission failures.

I've heard stories in XS of 100,000 miles. However I've only personally witnessed a Maxim 1100 with 91,000 and NO PROBLEMS. The thing was still running strong at that point too.

[Pat Kelly]

My E has 26,000 miles (7,200 when I bought it 3 years ago) and my LG has 46,000 (45,000 when bought last Dec).
The E is now in need of the 2nd gear fix, The LG is running fine.

[gerkenbruce]

166.000

( THE BLACK )

I bought my 1979 sf new.at 166.000 she still ran strong but smoked pretty bad I do run her XSivly hard.so I switch engens. The new motor has 14.000 and runs XSivly nice.

XSivly
Bruce

[beechfront]

44,000 no problems.

[scalded dog]

1978 xs 80,000, still runs great. uses very little oil, 79 xs 42,000, 30,000 in the last two years, still runs great, uses very little oil. Later 'Dog

[superdave]

milage challange

My opinion is there are going to be very few that dont need help. These bikes just beg to be wound up ! Which attributes to a lot of tranny issues and smoking pipes. look at all those bmw ribers that have 80k miles plus. They cant touch the grins on our faces! Those opposed cyclinders dont have anything on our inline 4's Word ! peace out ! sorry im getting a little out of hand now .

[kenkrieger]

High mileage

My 81 Special has 47630, runs fine, no gear problems, no smoking yet. Burns thru a bit of oil after 1500 miles or so. No repairs yet, original clutch. Bought it with 14 K on it and have put the rest on in the last 4 years, ride it 4 out of 7 days a week. Most of the year, Original pipes rusted through last winter, replaced them with a spare set from my 82 XJ1100 parts bike still rolling. Have all the parts to do the repairs should it be needed,,,but nothing yet.

[strom]

at 66kkm and 6 years of storage(???) replaced camchain, primary chain, all engine and middle drive bearings, cyls honed, one piston replaced, two valves, all gaskets, shocks, forks, 2nd gear replaced (have to fix 3rd now), spark plug wires and caps, gonna replace the speedo, lots of cosmetic stuff, new old exhaust system made. And I probbably forgot to mention most of the stuff.
OK, dunno bout 66966.6 km.... might be 166kkm or 266kkm. No idea. And at least one larger crash (PO). Will replace the triple tree, swingarm, rims.... maybe even repaint the frame.

LP

[Pain]

I have 42k on one, and 66k on the other. No problems yet, so I can't answer the poll.

[dragxs11]

80 special bought at 44k smoking a bit due to bad valve guides. Hot weather on these air cooled motors can take it's toll!! Other signs have told me, however, that the P.O.'s ran her hard. That never helps. Dads is up to about 40k with no issues yet.

[LoHo]

57k and nothing yet. And I think the valve adjustment I just did was the first one done on her!

[strom]

I'm quoting Andy here... I bought some parts from him on ebay. Great guy:

I own 2 of the Special Edition Martini-Yamaha (one with 486000 km since Feb. 1980 and still running very well and the other I bought 3 years ago from
Sitzerland with 23000 km on it) and aprox. 3 more XS which I bought
within the last 15 years to have spare parts. But so far I did not need
many of them and so I decided to sell some parts of them to get more
space in my garage.

LP

PS: Dunno what was happening to my bike before I got it, but after bout 12.000 miles, no probs. 3rd gear has to be black&decker fixed.

[Czekus21]

Just turned 37000 miles at the Iny ralley. Still going strong and still kinda sounds good. Most intense work other then the carbs were the valve shims.

[John]

How is it possible that there are so many 25 year old bike with such low milage? My 80 has 98600 on the odometer , but I have been through the engine, and my 81 has 56000 on it. When I bought the 80, it had 26000 showing, but I learned that the 80's had an 85 mph speedo, and the one on my bike was a 160. I bought it in 91, and it was pretty beat up then, so I don't know how many miles are really on it, but I'll bet it's over 100k

[MAXIMAN]

John,

I would say two fold. One is the cases that a lot of these old bike have either had the odometer tampered with or it has rolled over and no one bothered mentioning the bike actually had 110,000 instead of 10,000.

However this is probably more often the case. People simple don't ride like we do. They'll get bike and put3 or 4 thousand miles on it the first year. Then 2 thousand the next ....then park it in a garage and ride it very little after that. That's just what the average rider does.