[Gasm]

In March I had to sell my car and I decided to just keep my bike. I was thinking, "I love my bike. I can do without a car." I've been riding my motorcycle to and from work, school, and everywhere else since then. It has over 5800 miles on it now and I bought it late April with 1.8 miles on it. Its a '04 R6. I'm startig to get worried that I'm going to wear it out really fast. I sold my old 98 ninja 600 with 31000 miles on it, but I was told there was only 9000 on the new engine. How long can I expect my bike to last. Because probably 5300 of those miles are highway and commuting, the engine hasn't been "raced the whole time."

Alright here's the real question though. Should I sell my bike and get a car? I can't have both because, I'm a poor college student. I don't mind the rain cold, or any of the normal complaints. My complaints are anytime I want to buy groceries or carry stuff around I have to ask a friend for a ride. I don't want my bike to need a new engine all the time. Lately my elbows have really been hurting too, and I can't think of anything else that would make them hurt except for riding way too much (almost 2000 miles a month). Lastly I am starting to miss driving a car. Having a place to set things down when I ride, listening to my music on long trips, and having a hard time taking girls out when they don't want to mess up there hair are even more reasons.

Help me out. Anyone else ever been in this situation or have insight?

 

[IllKneeGrow]

If you don't ride the bike to redline all the time and actually take care of the mike and maintain it properly you can get a lot of miles out of it. There is a guys in europe somewhere that has a bike with 750,000 miles on it. Maintain the bike, don't ride it like you stole it and it will take you very far.

If the weather was always good in MA I would only have a bike. I don't miss not having anywhere to put anything.

If I wanted to put some stuff somewhere I can always get a tank bag.

Some people do listen to music while riding, even though it's not safe, riding isn't really all that safe either.

And tell the girl you will meet her at your destination if she doesn't want to mess up her hair.

 

[Anti-Hero]

I've ridden a bike HARD to 43,000 miles before I sold it. And it still ran great. Just keep up on the regular maintenance. The bike I ride now, pretty hard has 34K on it. And my track bike which has been ridden VERY hard, has 30K on it. As long as you take care of it, it will run like a crackhead from the police.

 

[L8 Braker]

There's another member on here that has an R6, not sure what year it is...He was using it as a daily driver for the longest time...He's got over 40,000 miles on it, still does regular track days with it, and always makes our bikes nights...I'm not a Yami person but his bike rocks!!!

 

[Gasm]

sweet thanks a lot guys. I'm still not 100% on what I'm going to do but I'm right now I'm leaning towards keeping my bike. I don't want to lose a ton of money on it either which I know I will if I sell it. If I did though what should I expect. It blue books at 6900 and my bike is mint.

 

[ZeuSeason]

Go buy a POS car that you can put some miles on and not have to worry too much about maintenance (old Toyotas or something similar) and then you can keep the bike! It doesn't take much to find a clunker for $500-$1000 or even finance one for $2000. I don't understand why a bike engine doesn't last that long...then again I haven't been in the bike world for long.

 

[Süsser Tod]

Don't worry about the bike, it will last for a long time if you take proper care of it. However that doesn't solve the grocery getter problem. I think that you can finance a very cheap beater, and live happily with the beater and your daily driver bike.
I do have a car, and barely use it. I drove it last night to the store because it was raining, other than that I hadn't touched it in the whole week.

 

[IllKneeGrow]

Yeah I am with susser, I have a car...but since the weather has gotten better most of april, may, and june I haven't really touched it. Only put gas in the tank once a month, and thats not even filling the tank.

 

[L8 Braker]

Don't worry about the bike, it will last for a long time if you take proper care of it.

Excellent advice...Missed that in my reply...