High mileage thumpers

[Rossco500]

Looking over Richard Black's recent posts where he mentions the impressive mileage of his XBRs (105,000 and 145,000) I was wondering what the highest mileage you've come across on a thumper without having had its engine replaced. The attached photographs of an XBR (hopefully!!) were taken some years ago at the North West 200 road races and at that time the speedo reading was over 200k. The owner, Trevor McCartney, has since passed away but I understand the mileage stood at nearly 250k by then. Before the XBR he had a Honda 400/4 on which he covered 140k before it was stolen. I recall reading in "Real Classic" mag a few years back of a Velocette which had clocked up over 300k.



 



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[timbo]

Aye, some mileage. What you haven't mentioned, is that when Trevor sadly passed away, the bike was sold, and the new owner broke it up. Sad really, I'd have kept it going, I think   
What is the high mileage Norton that knocks about all year round, with the horrendous white and blue fairing?

[johnr]

ive a 650 katana that i got from fossie in the katana club (yes i know its not a thumper) and its currently showing 270 thousand miles on the clocks, it came to me smoky as hell, and i assumed it was worn bores, but theyre perfect, and the smoking was only down to the stem seals being utterly knackered.

[mthee]

Always liked them and came close to buying a couple of times. Really wanted the 750 version with the pop up headlight!

[timbo]

I have always liked the 650 Kat, what with shaft drive etc. 1997 we went to Faro Rally, and my mate went on his two up with his Mrs on the back. We have a 750 Kat that's been lying in the house for nearly twenty years. Must get it sorted some time 
Its not one of the gold frame, white pop up headlight ones, that Matt mentions,but a Jap import, and looks same as the big Kat's, with Yoshi shocks and exhaust 

[johnr]

then i think you will find that its worth more than the pop up. the 750 and 1100 kat were almost identical aside from a couple of minor differences, so practically every non engine part is interchangable. meaning that the 750 is quite sought after.  the engine mounts for the 750 and 1100 motors are all the same with the exception of the front lower ones, but you can get an adaptor to fit the 1100 engine into the 750 frame, and it will drop straight in. if you ever fancy selling it..........

[johnr]

many years ago, my mrs had a bad back, it later turned out that she had a prolapsed vertebre disc. and bike travel was pretty uncomfortable after 50 miles or so.  anyhow, we didnt have a bike on the road at the time, so i borrowed a 650 kat from fossie the club chairman for a weekend away in the highlands. it was a revelation. we sat on the motorway at 80/90 mph and it hustled through the backroads with aplomb, and in an 800 mile weekend, she never had even a twinge from her back. it was a superb tourer. shaft drive so no chain oiling and adjustment. comfy, smooth, quick enough and returned a solid 55mpg all the way there and back. on our return, we gave fossie his bike abck and he resumed work as a courier in manchester. it was this bike that had racked up the over a quarter million miles before he retired it and started using a different one. (before classicitus took hold of anything with katana on the badge, the 650s were dirt cheap, 300 quid hacks, and he would buy them off ebay and gumtree and mothball them, he always had a half dozen in the garage and would ride them day in and day out with nothing to do but change the oil every other week and fit new tyres when they wore down. his job changed and they made him ride a brand new dullville honda, it broke down frequently, and when in the garage, he would dig out a 650 kat and press it into service till the honda was fixed. after 18 months, (and over 100 thousand miles) the honda was scrap, with more reliability issues than was worth repairing, so it was sent off to auction and they got him a bandit 650, and when that breaks, he still has a 650 kat to pick up the slack. theyre remarkable bikes, so, when he had a clearout and decided to shift on the megga mile 650, i gave him 300 quid and it now lives with me. i have plans for it that include fitting a kat fairing to it to make it look a bit more katana like.

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[Rossco500]

Aye, those Suzuki fours were legendary for their reliability at the time (bar the occasional electrical gremlin) - there's a local GS1000G (Quiggs) with over 200k miles on it that just keeps going although I think the middleweights were probably the toughest of the bunch. The Bandits seem pretty robust too.

Just found an article on that old Norton Commando 750 Timbo mentioned. The owner, Ken, has two of them he's covered somewhere between 200 - 250k miles - he's not sure as the speedo is prone to breaking! He commuted to work on it every day, raced it at the weekends and toured on it. Turns out he painted the white full fairing that "horrendous" colour to avoid it being mistaken for a police bike - probably a wise move at the time in Northern Ireland!! I still see him out and about on it regularly.

As for Trevor's XBR, yes sadly it was broken up for parts - I'd love to have got hold of it or seen someone continuing to use it. You've got to feel sorry for the punter who bought the engine probably without knowing the stratospheric (for a thumper) mileage!

[Smithy]

Crikey my F650 with 66400 miles on it has a way to go to be considered high mileage! Mind you as I do 10 - 15 thousand miles a year it won't take long to catch up.

A few years ago I sold a one year old Yamaha Midnight Star cruiser with 15000 miles on it and the shop were horrified at the 'extremely high mileage'.

Ian

[Moto63]

Morning all...kind of on the flip side to this thread. The po leece man that interviewed me after my accident gave me a few stats, one of which was the average yearly mileage for a biker nowadays........wait for it.....1500. Yes 1500  NOT 15000. The average journey taken is less than 50 miles. It totally blew my mind but having said that it totally blew his that I did between 8 & 10,000. All of which are recreational, I personally didn't consider it that high, certainly not compared to what I used to do before kids etc ...food for thought. Cheers, Michael

[timbo]

I'm not surprised by those figures. I know quite a few people who do only a few hundred miles in a year. Theyll do the odd sunday morning run down to Newcastle on the coast, about 35 miles, and ride up to the NW200, and thats about it. Also, if theres even the slightest chance of rain, then forget it, which fairly limits you in this country  And they consider themselves as bikers. But anyone doing over a few thousand a year, is definitely the exception these days.

[CrazyFrog]

I do about 5k per year commuting and general transport use (I don't run a car but share one with the Mrs) plus whatever leisure rides I do, which has admittedly not been much at all this year due to my tumble, and moving house. Still, I guess an average year for me would be between about 6 and 8k.

[mthee]

This post got me thinking about who the "real" bikers are and whether I qualified.

I started as soon as on an SS50 at age 16.
Got the next size up wet dream (deluxe!) having passed test at 17 on a CB125TDC.
Then, one at a time, VF500FII, CX500 Eurosport, Z1000J2, CB400/4, XS750, GT750 (Kawa for courier job) GPZ600R, T140V, GS750, GSX750ES, CBX550FII, CB900F, CB250RS, GS500E, VX800 and XBR500.
No real interest in cars and passed test age 25 only to please parents.
Owned 1 car once, a Mini 1275GT, for a year and a half, but mostly rode my big zed.
Tried "giving it up" once, after a near miss, worried about how my missus would manage our severely disabled son without me, but only lasted 7 months over a winter and was miserable enough that I was told to get another bike.
I see bad weather as a challenge and have been known to shout, "Come on then, is that all you've got?!" into my helmet, whilst shaking my fist skywards.
Continue to ride on my own after my mate "gave up".
Do all my own maintenance, e.g, replaced rings on GT750, but have never had occasion to split a crankcase.
Never knew about The Dragon, or other winter rally, when I would have been able to go, but have been to several others and TT.
From high mileage, bonkers high as a courier, to now low mileage.

I reckon the part that qualifies me is that I started as soon as I could and haven't been able to stop. It literally must be in my blood, making me a biker at heart.

Of course, if you compare me to the likes of johnr on here, who took his wife and kids on sidecar holidays abroad, or timbo, who does more rallies than I've had hot dinners, or Joolz, who builds superchargers and installs them in the comfort of his front room, or Moto63, who's building his tracker whilst waiting for his injuries to heal enough to ride again after a very serious accident, and probably many others, I'm a bit of a lilly lightweight biker! 😁

[iansoady]

I think we can all feel humbled by some of these stories. There's a person who goes by the name of Spriddler on some forums (some here may know of him) who had a horrific crash and lost the use of his right arm completely as well as various other life-changing injuries.

He started back on a step-through and has now graduated to a Chinese 250 with the controls all moved to the left hand bar. I can only admire his determination.

I myself started riding in the late 1960s, went across to cars for a couple of years, then due to various circumstances couldn't afford the car any more and bought an ancient Norton side valve with sidecar. Since then I've always had at least one bike - didn't have another car till the early 80s - and for most of the time rode year-round, and made a trip across the Channel most years - the longest being to Greece.

But now in my dotage I've become soft and my annual mileage is in the low thousands. And my bikes are tucked up safe and dry.....

[CrazyFrog]

You're definitely more hard core than me Matt - I had a break of four or five years when my kids were little!