Bikes With Improbably Low Mileage

[V8RX7]

I'm looking for a supermoto - have seen a Duke 640 with only 7k on it.

Looking at the MOT history

15/05/2015
+ 4 miles travelled since last MOT.

18/07/2013
+ 3 miles travelled since last MOT.

27/07/2012
+ 12 miles travelled since last MOT.

22/07/2011
+ 3 miles travelled since last MOT.

30/07/2010
+ 11 miles travelled since last MOT.

23/07/2009
+ 39 miles travelled since last MOT.

01/08/2008
+ 24 miles travelled since last MOT.

27/07/2007
+ 45 miles travelled since last MOT.

I can understand a few hundred and I can understand nor using it for a few years, but to MOT it every year for 8 years and not use it ?

Surely it's been disconnected ?

[boyse7en]

So its done 6800 miles in the last three years, but virtually nothing beforehand?

Was it a test bike or something? Or on display somewhere?


I bought a three year old BMW with only 450 miles on the clock. Guy had bought it from new, rode it twice then had an accident on a ladder. He injured his arm and couldn't ride but thought he would get better. After three years his wife got fed up of the bike sitting in the garage and made him sell it.

[V8RX7]

It had done 4000 at this stage.

( the formatting was a pain so I edited it out)

[Fastchas]

Maybe some owners just like 'owning' a bike...

[bimsb6]

I have an ‘05 ktm 640 supermoto with just shy of 9k on it , so no not that unusual i have other bikes and use a car for work so bikes are fun use only .

[the cueball]

Could have been a previous owner with a few bikes...

I had on old 6R that I only managed 3 miles on one year - to the MOT and back.

Currently got a 2000 12R with only 9k miles on it, my 14 HD48 has 1600 miles.

I put most of my mile on daily bikes.. Pan with 90k and Fazer with 30k

So I wouldn't dismiss it straight away, just make sure everything else stacks up and any time based servcing has been done.

[The Moose]

I have a bike in the UK that I literally haven't ridden for 3 years (I've not lived in the UK for 3 years!). It's still MOT'd and taxed all the time.

[HughiusMaximus]

The Moose said:

I have a bike in the UK that I literally haven't ridden for 3 years (I've not lived in the UK for 3 years!). It's still MOT'd and taxed all the time.

+1

I had a bike sitting in the garage in the UK for 2 years when I was in the US.
Probably only put on about 200 miles in that period

[Krikkit]

My monster had done 1801 miles when I picked it up at 8 years old. The first owner used it sparingly for three years (I think about 1000), owner 2 put a hundred miles on it then it sat in the garage for 4 years.

Then he serviced it, used it for another few hundred miles and sold it. The bike shop I got it from said he had a big collection.

Didn't matter as I'm using it, now done nearly 5k since March.

[Rsdop]

I bought a 2010 GSXR 750 earlier this year, it was on 1800 miles from new. Strange thing was the MOT history, first MOT was in 2017 with 51 miles on the clock! There was a change of owner the same year so someone bought it new and literally never used it for seven years. Was a bit worried about the engine seals etc but it’s been faultless.

[Rubin215]

It's fairly easy to disconnect the speedo on most bikes...

[Caddyshack]

Owner might be good at wheelies?

Sounds a little obscure though for that many years. Surely if faking it you would allow 1000 per yr.?

[barryrs]

I did 6 miles one year on my RSV; to the MOT test station and back

[Fundoreen]

difficult one. But its not the sort of bike you would do massive touring on so its possible that the owner literally had it to do one trip to some gathering a year and sometimes not toward the end.
Bikers do enjoy an element of deluded poseur....

[Adam_W]

shameful I know but my fireblade has done just 8 miles between mots on more than one occasion. no single reason for it and my only bike at the time.

[UpTheIron]

My SP2 is similar, has sat in a corner of the garage waiting for me to get around to selling it. Maybe I'll get around to it in the spring (have said the same every winter since about 2014)

[the cueball]

UpTheIron said:

My SP2 is similar, has sat in a corner of the garage waiting for me to get around to selling it. Maybe I'll get around to it in the spring (have said the same every winter since about 2014)

If it makes you feel any better, my RC51 (US import) has nearly 28k miles on it!

Between us, they both work out at average-ish...

[OldGermanHeaps]

my neighbours 04 bandit has a similar history, ridden to the mot place and back, then sat in the garage for a year. I dont understand being able to resist the temptation myself, but then again it is a bandit, but surely a hoon on a bandit is better than nothing.

[shovelheadrob]

My Buell has a few MOTs with very low mileage difference, I've owned it for 15+ years, i have other toys & some years it's hardly been ridden other than to & from the test. Other years it's done several thousand miles. It's just how life goes. I bought an American pick up a
couple of years ago with extremely low mileage, 19k KM's in 14 years, it was like new, even had the original tyres.....some people have too many choices of travel to use them all.

[podman]

My LC had only done a recorded 600km's when I bought that, no evidence to support it but the fact everything rubber/seals wise in the engine was shot & the piston rings stuck in the piston lands suggested it was genuine..!

Sometimes a low mileage motor is not a good thing..