Being from Canada my odometer is in Km's. When I purchased my shed stored Wing in the spring it had 26,500 KM on it which would be 16,450 miles. It had been sitting for 4 years and the seller made no claim about the number if miles on the bike but we both assumed it had rolled over once and therefore has 126,500 Km or 78578 miles however who is to say how many times the clock has rolled over? It's too bad that Honda did not put a 6'th digit on the odometer as I'm sure they must have realized that these bikes would have many miles put on them. But since they didn't I was wondering if there is any signs or some way to varify if my bike has 16,000 miles or 78,500 or ???. Every day I'm amazed at how welll this bike runs because all I have done to it is changed the timing belts, changed the plugs, fuel and air filter, all the fuilds and adjusted the valves. It starts instantly hot or cold and idles smooth. It pulls strong through all the gears and gives me about 50 mpg (imperial galloon) with a daily 30 mile commute which is 80- 20 highway mixture. I'm up to 30,000 Km now and it feels like a very happy motor. So other then a compression test which I havn't done because I don't have the right sized adapter for my tester and i'm having trouble finding one, are there any other signs that would indicate appropimate number of miles on the bike? Thanks.
Number of Miles on the old girl??
- Thread starter Jcol
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Very hard to know.
In the old days on cars when it was common to roll the Speedo back we'd observe wear on the brake and gas pedals. On a bike foot pegs could have been changed easily so that's not accurate.
A bike that's been stored in the weather will look aged much more than it actually is.
2 ways I can think of are compression and condition of the final drive splines, but even the final drive could have been changed and these engines can go 2-300k miles and still have good compression.
I've often wondered the same with mine.
When I bought it the paint was in very good condition with the usual clear coat wear around the pinstriping.
It "looked" like it actually had 78k miles but if garage kept the paint will stay in good shape.
The engine was fairly tight with good compression, the same with the primary chain.
Thinking about it now I guess another way to tell is by how "mechanically noisy" the engine is.
A high mileage (150k plus) engine will have a loose primary chain but even then if the engine was maintained well with frequent oil changes that might not be an accurate indicator of miles.
In the old days on cars when it was common to roll the Speedo back we'd observe wear on the brake and gas pedals. On a bike foot pegs could have been changed easily so that's not accurate.
A bike that's been stored in the weather will look aged much more than it actually is.
2 ways I can think of are compression and condition of the final drive splines, but even the final drive could have been changed and these engines can go 2-300k miles and still have good compression.
I've often wondered the same with mine.
When I bought it the paint was in very good condition with the usual clear coat wear around the pinstriping.
It "looked" like it actually had 78k miles but if garage kept the paint will stay in good shape.
The engine was fairly tight with good compression, the same with the primary chain.
Thinking about it now I guess another way to tell is by how "mechanically noisy" the engine is.
A high mileage (150k plus) engine will have a loose primary chain but even then if the engine was maintained well with frequent oil changes that might not be an accurate indicator of miles.
or just maby the odometer has the correct milage. lots of guys buy a bike because thrir buddy has one and when their buddy finds a new hobby the bikes just sit with very low milage. one of the '69 cb 350 supersports that i purchased back in '82 only had 5636 miles on it. the po put those miles on in two years riding with his buddy that had a cb 350 at the time then they got in to boating
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- Former '82 GL1100 "The Slug"
Tough to tell by the odometer....my '81 odometer read around 43,000 miles. However, when I got the title, it stated at the last sale the bike had 147,000 miles! So I did the math and thought it could not have turned over again to now have the equivelant of 243,000 miles??? I little investigative revealed the bike had been in an accident prior to the accident the PO was now selling the bike to me for and it appears the previous accident may have wiped out the gauges. By hook or crook, we were able to determine the miles he put on the bike from when he got it from his brother and I wrote that down as my starting mileage. Total on the engine before I took it out was around 169,000 miles.
That engine had the tell tale knock at higher RPM. I swapped it with an '83 engine and noticed some things that do tell some mileage stories! Look at the front of the engine under the timing belt covers. Any wet oil spots? If the underside of the covers have any wet spots, it usually points to the cam seals leaking from being worn out from high mileage. On start up, if there is any noise other than the starter, it might be worn. (Listen to this video)
That engine had the tell tale knock at higher RPM. I swapped it with an '83 engine and noticed some things that do tell some mileage stories! Look at the front of the engine under the timing belt covers. Any wet oil spots? If the underside of the covers have any wet spots, it usually points to the cam seals leaking from being worn out from high mileage. On start up, if there is any noise other than the starter, it might be worn. (Listen to this video)
Smokey66
Well-known member
Mines got approx. 130,000 km on her and the original motor is still tight with perfect commpresion.Final drive splines also like new.Only sign of high milage are the rock chips on the lower fairing and the rough surface of the head light glass,also from rock chipping(we don`t have "sealed beams" in europe so the glass is still the original),even the rubber foot pegs show no wear. If I wasent so honest I could sell this thing as an original 30,000 km bike and nobody would ever know.................
My 83 had 40,000 miles when I got it.It now has 68,000
I figure I cant call it mine untel I get over 80,000.The I know I out most the miles on her myself.
Odd goal,but a goal non the less.
I figure I cant call it mine untel I get over 80,000.The I know I out most the miles on her myself.
Odd goal,but a goal non the less.
