I went on a charity ride last Saturday. While on the ride I met this really old school biker. He has never owned a twinkie but has owned pans, shovels and evos. Right now he has a 1985 Electraglide with something like 230,000 miles on it. He told me that he has redone the base gaskets several times on his bike. Here's the kicker, he said that he has never replaced the rings, done any head work, and only used a ball hone one time one the cylinder walls. He also said that he has never had any machine shop work done to any part of his engine.

I was surprised to hear that he had never replaced the rings even though he had one time honed the cylinder walls. He said that it was his experience that most people do a lot of unnecessary work to their bikes, especially mostly stock bikes. He also said that he hasn't found any base gaskets to be a permanent fix for the leaky base gaskets. He told me that the metal ones or the paper ones last about the same amount of time.

 

We may but it makes me feel better.

 

It's an often repeated saying that our bikes will last for ages if left stock, but then a lot of us wouldn't have anything to tinker with! He has probably never spent much time working on that bike either, but he has spent a lot of time in the saddle!

 

you bet we do. seems more and more common to try and get more power out of our bikes. doing this leads to more repair/maintenance. on a stock bike, there really isn't a need to get in the motor often. case in point, my old lowrider. i put 70k miles on it and the only things done to that bike was base gaskets once, a super e carb, and a set of pipes. other than normal oil changes and such. sold that bike to a friend of mine years ago. he now has 144k miles on her and just finished changing the base gaskets again. no work on heads, rings, pistons and cylinders all looked great.

does the lowrider still have the power it did when new, no. could it use a refresh, sure. does it NEED a rebuild,,, nope.

we both ride about the same. i bet that bike hasn't seen 80mph ever. we usually cruise around at 60-65mph and maybe hit 70 if we need to pass someone. we don't hot rod around, don't ride like kids on crotch rockets. i don't see the need in that, if i need to be in a hurry i should have left sooner!

i guess the point to my rant is alot of motor wear depends on the usage of the bike. treat it right and they will last way past what you think. treat them bad and ......

 

Sometimes I feel funky when I'm about dissassemble a perfectly good running bike,,,,for about 10 seconds,
then it's back to thinking about the next mod.

 

Delete this post immediately. I don't even want to consider such blasphemy

 

Too much is never enough !

 

That was me a day or two ago........Got done, took a ride, and started throwing cash in a jar........for the pipes..........

BLASPHEMY! PURE BLASPHEMY!

 

I'm with the Old Timer......

 

When I bought my bike I took it over to my normal indy mechanic who normally just likes to work on Japaneese bikes but he would work on my old Moto Guzzi too if I asked nicely. He is a German guy like 65 years old with lots of tattoes and a heavy accent named Lars.

I went and saw him when I got my Harley and said "Hey Lars I got a Harley!" his reply, "well that's your own fault" LOL

Anyway he said Harley's are great bikes until everybody starts messing around with them... then they start to suck.

Ha ha, well maybe inline with OP comments about doing too much.