I used to burn up rear tires on my old 4 cylinder Yamaha and it never seemed to hurt it. But, as I get older it seems like a needless thing to do. My question is, does it hurt your bike to take it to the burnout pit and burn up a rear tire?

The old Harleys look like they are working hard doing that. I have never burned a tire up in the pit with any Harley and don't intend to.

 

Needless wear and tear on any engine, just my opinion.

 

Burning a tire makes the statement, "I have too much money," IMO.

 

After riding hundreds of miles to get somewhere, and facing the same to get home, burning my tires or otherwise abusing my bike never seemed like the wise thing to do.

 

The lifespan of any mechanical device is finite. There are only so many "load cycles" available before failure.

Doing things like burnouts is hard duty for a bike. You aren't just burning up a tire, you are burning up quite a few of the "load cycles" of your bike's life. Many, many more than you would if you spent the same amount of time in ordinary riding.

When you say "I used to burn up rear tires on my old 4 cylinder Yamaha and it never seemed to hurt it", you are wrong. It very much hurt it. Just not to the point of immediate failure. But make no mistake, you used up a lot of load cycles and therefore took a lot of life off of the bike.

Your bike only has so many load cycles in it. Use them as you wish.

 

Watched many toast clutches...
Watched a few blow out belts when the tire gave way and grenaded....not a chance I personally care to take...

 

When i had a sport bike i did from time to time but never on a Harley or cruiser. It can't be good on the bike to sit in one spot with the rpm's cranked up and no airflow to help cool it off.

 

 

These are the only burn outs I ever did

 

If yer not gonna do a burn out like it is supposed to be done...ie; Not against anything, but facing "down track"...why bother to show off the fact that you don't know how to ride yer Bike?????
Besides the other points made above.