Hello folks: I am in the market to buy a new Harley. I am considering a Sportster 1200.

I found a bike on CL. It is a 2007 Sportster 1200 xl custom for $4000. The bike looks good and the guy claims that it is his 15th Harley and has taken good care of it. Cosmetically, it is very good.

The problem in it has already 26,000 miles on it. For a Sportster engine, is it too many miles? How long do these things last?

Most importantly, SHOULD I BUY IT?

Thanks for your time and help.

 

6 years and only 26,000 miles on it. That's nothing. He babied that bike. Sportster engines will run basically forever as long as you take care of it. At some point years from now you might have to service the motor, but you would have to do that with any harley you buy. 4k for a 2007 with low mileage and in good shape sounds like a good deal. I would take it.

 

Seems like fair price. A lot of fair weather weekend riders out there that would never put 26k on a bike in 20 years. Then again there are plenty of others that can put 10k on in a year no problem. Don't let those miles scare you.

 

I've owned 2 rubber mount 1200 Sportsters. One was an 04 and the other was an 06. That was the last of the carbed Sportsters. Me and my wife each had one. I put free flow exhaust and intakes on them and rejetted the carbs. They both hauled ***. (Especially the wifes since she is a petite 4' 11 inches and weighs 70 pounds less than me!)

I beat the pi$$ out of mine and it was using oil pretty good when I traded it. I think it needed valve seals. Her's was not abused, and did not use any oil. We had over 20k miles on each of them. So it just depends on how it was rode. Price sounds fair, but around here you can find Sportsters with only a few thousand miles on them. Good prices cause there are a ton of them for sale.
I did not like the fact that the transmission is not serviceable unless you split the engine cases. The ones before 2004 have a trap door to get at the gears.

 

I have an 07 XL1200L with over 21k miles on it. Admittedly, the last 10k miles were clocked in the past 18 months.

So, as the others have said above, 26k miles for that bike is good. That said, 20k miles or the whereabouts is when a sportster's stock clutch would typically start failing. Be sure to check that bike's clutch before you buy. I recently replaced mine and, unfortunately I waited too long: the rivets had broken and the clutch plates gouged the basket. The damage was painfully expensive for me.

YMMV but HTH.

 

+1

EVO engines go 100,000 easily if they are well cared for.

 

Is it a factory 1200, or an 883 bumped to a 1200?

 

That is NOT a problem! If you like it buy it. How many miles did your car/truck have on it when you bought it?!

 

[QUOTE=lewk;11900318]I have an 07 XL1200L with over 21k miles on it. Admittedly, the last 10k miles were clocked in the past 18 months.

So, as the others have said above, 26k miles for that bike is good. That said, 20k miles or the whereabouts is when a sportster's stock clutch would typically start failing. Be sure to check that bike's clutch before you buy. I recently replaced mine and, unfortunately I waited too long: the rivets had broken and the clutch plates gouged the basket. The damage was painfully expensive for me.

Now that you mention it, I did have to replace both clutches in my Sportsters. Fortunately for me, I do all my own work. I replaced them with Energy One extra plate clutch kit which eliminates the troublesome pressure plate with the brass rivets. Mine came apart also and scored the clutch basket. I was able to file the grooves and avoid replacing the basket. Good thing about Sportys is they are easy to work on....

 

While I agree with everyone has said, There are plenty of really low mileage garage queens out there. You can always take a look and see what else is out there.