Just wondering what the general concensus is on just what is considered high mileage on a twin cam engine. What do you figure is the lifespan of a well maintained motor? I'm currently looking at a RoadKing with about 32ooo miles on the odo. The bike is priced right, but the mileage is of concern. Any thoughts are welcome...

 

Mine's got 81k miles. Still has the original clutch, belt, cables, charging system, ect. It needs no oil between changes, doesn't smoke and runs as good as, well better than, new.

 

A big concern is the cam chain tensioners. If they have been upgraded to gears or hydraulics, then that mileage wouldn't be of any concern. But if they hadn't, I'd be a little worried--they're gonna need checking & prolly replacing or upgrading REAL soon!

 

Same here. My '08 has over 100,000 miles on it.

As far as the cam chain tensioners, it depends what model year the bike is.

 

Not trying to be a smart-azz, but how do you qualify making that statement about the chain tensioner? What lets us know 'for a fact' your statement is 100% true and why. I mean there's already two posters that have more than twice the mileage of the bike the OP is talking about and so far as they know, there's no problem or need yet for a new tensioner.

 

New to the early twin cams aren't you. The tensioners are a very common problem with the TCs. Try reading a little before giving an opinion and you won't look so, well so ignorant.

 

Uh the 99-2006 TC engines need to be checked at 25000 miles and the tensioner shoes need to be replaced on a high percentage of them by 30-35000 miles. OR it's grenade time. HD came up with the hydraulic tensioner on the 2006 dynas and then all TC96 engines from then on. They still need to be checked but not as often. But I'll still check mine every 20-25k. It is an easy service.

 

Maintained correctly.

I'd say 100k easy....

 

There's an inverse relationship between power and reliability, so the more stock the motor, the more miles you should be able to put on before rebuilding. However, as you get into a motor to do performance work, you tend to take care of wear items, so that kinda throws off the balance of things.

There are a number of guys on the forum with 80 or 100K on their bikes, and still going strong without having to do major work.

 

My 2000 RG made 95k on the original shoes before one failed. It still has the original drive belt at 158k . Unfortunately a cager totaled it for me so it's on to a newer bike & rollin up a bunch more miles. IMHO the bike you are considering will do fine.