Looking to purchase a Road King or Heritage Softail, everything I’m finding in my price range has at least 20K or better, I currently own a Victory V92 deluxe cruiser.Just not sure at what milage I need to start to be concerned about reliability. Advise and opinions are very helpful.

 

20K miles is next to nothing. I am getting close to 100K on my road king and it still runs like new.

 

Thank you

 

If the bike was maintained, 20K is just broken in.

 

I had 130,000 miles on my 92 evo fvr when I sold it and it still ran strong and had good compression. I expect to be able to get a lot more mileage on my 2014 Switchback. I once asked my Dad how often a car needed a ring and valve job when he was young. That would be in the late 1920's. He said about every 20-30,000 miles. I've even seen that vastly increase in my lifetime.

I don't know if you plan on buying from a dealer or private party, but every time I've ever bought a used car or bike from a private party, I mostly have bought based on my feelings about the owner in the short time we were able to talk. The ones who impressed me as someone who took good care of their bike or car, those are the ones I bought.

 

I agree with TriGeezer, 20K isn't very many miles. I will add only that some years have some things to be watchful of. The twin cam engines up until 2007 are known for the spring type timing chain adjuster shoes wearing, and 20K is where you want to start at least inspecting them.

When you find a bike you are interested in, do a little research about that particular year and see if there is anything that needs to be checked into, but overall that mileage wouldn't be a concern for me.

 

Outside of major defect, Harleys are pretty good about cranking out a ton of miles.

 

Instead of viewing bike's status in miles, consider maint records & overall condition. I can simply look a bike over & tell if it's in good shape (inside/out). Good luck w/ your hunt.

 

So many buyers just walk up to a bike and are dazzled by the look. Is it clean? Ask to ride it.
Look under any bike at the frame for damage or gouges. Look at the bottom in general for any oil on the motor, or oil on anything for that matter. As has been mentioned, 20,000 is nothing if it's been maintained. Look at the tires.
Start it, set on it, check the cosmetics. Know what fluids are used where before you buy anything. Synthetic or dinos?

 

Some of you went all negative with repo bikes and impulse buys.
All true, of course.

Then there are folks with tons of cash that buy the latest model in everything they own. A new bike every year or two is nothing to their budgets.

My advice to the OP is buy a used garage queen. It makes better financial sense.