Average number years you own a bike

[the Ferret]

yea, without the mention of the out of country travel I wouldnt be nearly as concerned. I assumed she flew so she was in a germ incubating tube with a bunch of other travelers from who knows where. certainly hope it's nothing but the common flu. with those symptoms I would still be at my local Drs office getting anti biotics.

[peterbaron]

Did not have many bikes in my life. Average held is about 4 years.
No plans on selling present CB at all.
After recent purchase of a 2019 new/used car and age, very unlikely to buy another motorcycle, however a perfect GL1000 is possible......

[LongRanger_imp]

It varies wildly with me, but generally 10+ years if I like the bike.

Longest: 1998 BMW K1200RS (22 years, 134,000 miles)
Shortest: 2008 BMW R1200RT (3 weeks, <1,000 miles)

[Ben70_imp]

Montgomery Ward Riverside (Benelli) 250 single, new 1969, 4 months, crashed. I was young then, and immortal. That's why they taught 17 year olds to fly P-51's.
Yamaha SR500 new 1979. 4 years. Put it in the class of 3 or 4 cars I have owned, wish I still had it.
Yamaha XS1100 1981, bought lightly used in '91. Sold when our son came along, 3 years.
Honda CB1100 2013, 3.5 years and counting.
So an average of just under four years, but the current bike will continue to drag that average up for the foreseeable future.
pdedse, why the short tenure for the SR 650's, and why two? Inquiring minds want to know...
And best of luck with the illness, whatever it is.

Ben

[cooldrum_imp]

Pdedse, I hope your wife feels better. Maybe just take her in to be tested to make sure.
Most of my bikes I keep from the 8-10 year mark. I ride a '74 CB750 and have owned it for 10 yrs. The 2013 CB I've had for 4 yrs. And the '67 305 Scrambler.... I've had since that year. Now you know how long I've been riding . Still fun every time I swing a leg over the saddle. Amen!

[Rocky_imp]

I tend to keep bikes a long time.
I've had my two vintage bikes for over 20 years and all the modern bikes since new.

[pdedse]

Thanks folks for the well wishes for my wife...and sorry, perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned her being sick here, but I was a bit frustrated last night. I'll just say this about the testing: I think Portland area medical offices may be flooded with test requests and so Kaiser (our insurance co.) has developed an on-line testing procedure to deal with possible cases. They ask all the symptoms questions, but apparently hers didn't tick off enough boxes (?), and so they say stay at home, call back if it worsens at all. For the moment she says it's like any other cold/flu she's ever had.

Montgomery Ward Riverside (Benelli) 250 single, new 1969, 4 months, crashed. I was young then, and immortal. That's why they taught 17 year olds to fly P-51's.
Yamaha SR500 new 1979. 4 years. Put it in the class of 3 or 4 cars I have owned, wish I still had it.
Yamaha XS1100 1981, bought lightly used in '91. Sold when our son came along, 3 years.
Honda CB1100 2013, 3.5 years and counting.
So an average of just under four years, but the current bike will continue to drag that average up for the foreseeable future.
pdedse, why the short tenure for the SR 650's, and why two? Inquiring minds want to know...
And best of luck with the illness, whatever it is.

Ben

Haha...it would be interesting to start a thread "bikes we've owned for less than 3 months" or something like that, explain the reasons why. It might help people think about future purchases.

I had the Honda CGL125 in Costa Rica as a commuter bike--it was kick-start. I loved that. So easy to kick start you could probably do it with your hand. I don't know, got back to the USA and wanted a kick-start bike--looked at the Yamaha sr400 that was just coming out at the time, but they wanted $5500-6, for them. Too pricey for that bike I thought.

Nearly bought a Kawasaki W650--two times they sold before I could go see them. Thought I'd try my hand at a humble restoration of a '77 xs650. Realized it was a bit far gone for my mc repair / restore skill set (not very high), sold it after 2 months.

Then I found another xs650, '83 I believe. It was actually in really nice condition with only about 6k miles and I put about 1500 miles on it over a few months, very fun. Got my kick-start thrills for awhile.

But...that would be about when the CB1100 '14 Standards were piling up at the dealerships and not selling. So I thought why dump more and more money into a 30 year old bike when I could get a new bike and be free of mechancial issues. Suddenly the kick-start feature wasn't enough to stay with the xs650 and I moved on. Sold both of those 650s for just a bit less than I bought them for, learned lots working on them, and they satisfied a curiosity I had about them so I don't regret time with them at all.

I think what I learned is that, while I love working on motorcycles when I can actually do the work, I really enjoy riding them much more (duh, for many of you).

[the Ferret]

I had 3 of the 650 Yamaha Twins. I liked them a lot. An 73 TX 650 I bought new. Rode3 years and bought a KZ1000 Kaw. years later I picked up a 79 XS 650 with intentions my son would like it. He was 12 at the time. When he turned 16 he decided to like girls and cars better so I sold it. Then bought myself another 81 XS 650 Special and put superbike bars on it. They are fun bikes, kinda vibratey but lots of torque.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Never owned one, however, I used to drool over the '80s Yamaha XS650 Heritage Special. I still have the original brochure. At the time, I thought it was a cool lookin' ride.

[tinboatcapt_imp]

I keep bikes as long as they still bring me enjoyment. The average comes out to 8 years, but three bikes are still counting so that average will increase pretty rapidly.

66 Suzuki X5 200 6 years Stolen and wrecked
72 Suzuki GT 750 12 Years
74 XL350 8 Years Pit Bike
86 BMW K100RT 7 Years
80 BMW K100LT 5 years Bought as a parts bike, but repaired, rode 30K miles and sold
86 GL1200 Sidecar 3 Years The Wing was a maintenance pig.
81 CB650 custom 6 Years and counting
00 ST1100 12 years and counting And now is a sidecar rig
14 CB1100 3 Years and counting
Jim