Hi, I'm looking at buying a 1998 Sporster 1200. The price is good but I notice that the LCD odometer is damaged and only the last two digits can be read. There doesn't seem to be evidence of tampering but the molecules have just gone nuts. Is this a common problem?

There is no record of mileage but the owner assures me that the bike has done around 16,000 miles. It is very clean, seems to have been looked after, and runs and sounds great. Should I buy or leave alone?

 

Hard call. If its clean and runs good you could get lucky. Try to see if you can find out how many miles it had on it when it was last inspected or registered... which ever was sooner.

 

Won't not knowing the exact mileage screw up your title when you register the bike?

 

Not in the UK. Ownership transfers to me and the mileage is an optional box on the form.

 

He bought it from his buddy who claimed it had 14,000 on it. Reckons the only reason he bought it with damaged mileometer was cause he didn't think his friend would screw him!

Isn't the 1200 bulletproof? What's the worst that can happen?

 

I've never heard of that as being a known/common problem. You can always order a new odometer through the dealer, and tell them a mileage that is close to your buddies estimate to have programmed into it. I wonder if the dealer/MOCO has an attachment that they could read the speedo readings/codes like through a laptop or something.

 

You could try pulling a carfax of it.. It should tell you the mileage the last time the thing was registered...

I dont know if it works for bikes but I know It did for my car... found out one of the previous owner rolled the odometer back 25k.. nice

 

Even if the odometer worked that dosen't mean the reading is accurate. It could have been disconnected for a while or even replaced with one with lower mileage. Look at the overall condition of the bike if it was well cared for it will show. There is one trick I use that works sometimes to tell if milage is accurate. If the tires were not recently replaced, look at the date code on the tires and how much tread is left on the tires. If the tire is 4 or 5 years old and there is not a lot of wear on the tire then the is most likely correct. Whereas if the tire is only a year old and has a lot of wear then it most likely has more miles then they are saying it has.

 

Thanks to all who replied. New Odometer for me and also, nice tip from Ultra Rick. Cheers!