MT-09 lifespan

[bskiad]

Just wondering... How many klm (or miles) a motorcycle can do?? What would happen if it reaches a certain number of klm? Break down all the time? Frame falling apart? Most of us dont keep our bikes for ever and my previous bike an XJ6 i sold it with 30,000 km on the clock! Recently a friend of mine with a BMW GS1200 after 150,000 km the engine presented a problem( ii dont recall what) and his dealer told him that it would be too expensive to fix comparing buying a new bike so he sold the bike in parts! Has anyone kept a bike for a very large number of km? How many km do you think our MT would be capable of doing? Philoshophy class 101...

 

[stevecbr]

I expect the engine should last up to 100,000 miles if regularly serviced.
Realistally it will be scrapped long before then, as it will either be crashed and written off, or get to a point where it is worth more to be broken and sold as spares than to be sold as a whole bike.

 

[Swagger]

I know guys on the Thunderbird forum who have 80,000 miles on their bikes already. I also know people with 75,000 + on Suzuki TL1000S's. If you service them regularly and properly they'll go on for way >100,000 easily, if not, indefinitely. Don't be letting main agent mechanics touch your bike though ... unless you know them well. I let them do the initial run in service and then I take over. I have access to some first rate mechanics for when It gets too deep ... I let specialists tweek suspension and mapping.

 

[ToastedBlue]

a friend of mine had an R1 from new and clocked up 96,000 miles before she blew the engine. she rode it like she stole it and even took it off road (through a hedge) a couple of times.

 

[fizzy]

A mate if mine has a suzuki gt750 kettle 1976 got it new did over 200k on it touring all over Europe etc , and one of the cylinders is on the original bore and piston the other 2 were re bored twice, he still has the bike but doesn't use it anymore he can't but can't bare to part with it , totally understandable it's been a big part of his life

 

[motorcycleboy]

A year ago i sold my '06 DL650 V-Strom with 98.000km on the clock... its condition seems like brand new and i sold it for cash on a bike store... But i did oil/filter changes every 3.000km and the engine was running as a swiss watch..
Also, i did more than 50.000km on a single cylinder KTM lc4 640s/m, oil changes every 2.500km (condition of bike/engine still like brand new) allthough(plus) i did a few thousands km on rear wheel... as i did on every other bike i owned.
At 4th of April my MT-09A had her first birthday ! The odometer is at 15.000km and i hope to do more mileage on it than on DL650..

P.S. i think that the "magic secret" for an engine's life is to warm it up before you ride it
We have to avoid cold start-ups as hell..

 

[colinlinz]

I'd be pretty pissed of if it wasn't good for well over a 100K. There was a documented case of a CBR900RR that had over 500K running on Castrol GTX. It was dyno tested at regular intervals and even after 500'000klm the engine was still putting out close to the power it did when new.

I sold my VTR1000F at close to 100'000klm and it was perfectly good. I've seen a number of them with 200'000klm on them and still going fine.

 

[bskiad]

Well i was discussing the subject with a friend of mine who is a helicopter mechanic. His opinion is that theoretically a bike or a car can go on for ever subject to regular and proper service. He told me that there are many documented cases where a vehicle reached crazy numbers on the clock. A Toyota Corolla for example reached 1,000,000 km and when the guy took it for service Toyota proposed him to give it to them so they can put it in their museum and in exchange he could choose any car he wanted for free.

I tend to agree with motorcycleboy on little secrets. Maybe if you use good oil and good fuel and maybe small things like he said warm the engine before riding play important role long term.

P.S In Greece people have this obsession with km, meaning that if they see a bike with more than 80,000 km its considered old. At the same time in Germany for example they don't care for the km as much...

 

[colinlinz]

It isn't advisable to warm the engine up. You should start and ride off, not let it sit to warm. This way the motor warms faster and wear is less. The same principle hold for thermostat removal. Remove the thermostat, as some people do, and the wear rate goes up.
Regular oil changes are the key. Good oil, mineral based or synthetic; and changed regularly is the key.
This is a picture of my Subaru camshaft. The motor had 320'000klm on it at this stage. 220'000klm were on Castrol Magnatec oil.

 

[motorcycleboy]

The principle i use is to let the engine warming up until i see on panel of MT-09 41C, then i start my riding.
Sometimes that i've been on hurry i've started my riding before the temperature reached the limit of 41C and realize that my engine didh't have the proper running.
The same i did on KTM (wait untill the first "-" come up) and also on DL...
My older bikes hash't had any temp info except the red bulp for overheat..

Hey Colin, i'm a Subaru enthousiast too !
I own a Forester '07 with 145000km on it and now i use Motul 8100X-Cess 5w40 which i change every 7.500km.
Before i used Motul 300V 5w40 power..

 

[colinlinz]

I just fire it up and head off. This is the recommended practice these days. My bike runs fine, but then it doesn't really get cold here, I don't even have a heater in the house. Mind you, that doesn't mean thrashing it. If you ride hard too early on you will get a cold or four point seizure of the piston (scuffing either side of the piston pin on both sides). Most wear occurs during the warm up period, so a faster warm up means less wear.
I was running mobile 1 in the Subaru until 100'000klm, but talking to Subaru, they recommended not using a synthetic and recommended the Magnatec. I just kept using it because it was easy to get. When I pulled the valve covers off at 320'000klm to replace some leaky seals I was amazed at the condition of the cams and the cleanest of the components. Cam lobes are really difficult to lube well, the metal is very similar between the bucket and cam lobe, this makes the risk of adhesive wear high.
I loved the Subaru, it was a brilliant handling car. Great build quality too.

 

[Clint Kingston]

I had a 2003 V-Star1100 I bough new I sold it in 2008 with 150,000 something kilometres. In that time it never presented any problems.

It was ridden hard but never thrashed. The sliders on the floor boards were changed many times and I had to paint the frame rails often to prevent rust as they were scraped around corners to sometimes.

I serviced it myself always used quality oil and filters, with interim oil changes every 6,000km. The bike was in mint mechanical condition when I sold it.

The V-Star was/is a proven and long standing design... The MT-09 is a new untested and not Yet time proven design. They could go on to do hundreds of thousands of miles??? The could all turn out to be lemons after a period of time???

I had another bulletproof Yamaha, a 1981 XJ650 it was 20+ years old when I got it and the odometer was clocked twice in the time I owned it and probably many times before that easily several hundred thousand km's. It still power wheelied and could beat many cars and bikes off the lights.

 

[colinlinz]

I had an XJ650 too, it was a reliable bike that gave me years of service. I also had one of the early FZR1000's, the first of the delta box type bikes. It did well over a 150'000klm and the engine was bullet proof. At the time I sold it, it was still going strong and doing regular track days.

 

[Clint Kingston]

There is a stigma attached to milage there also seems to be this strange belief that motorcycle engines just crap out after a measly few tens of thousand kilometers and or that they need regular rebuilding.

Unless you are operating a bike at or near redline for prolonged periods a production super sport shouldn't need any more than regular servicing for its life which should as stated previously be indefinite.

There are bike models that are inherently poor designs that have been prone to particular failures that become simply not economical to repair, but this is where a little research goes a long way. You could safely buy any Jap brand. With the exception being first of a kinds such as the MT09 but then I'm confident with yamaha's track record to have built an engine that will last. A few little hiccups with CCT's are nothing and the current recall for 2015 MT'S AND Tracers is more about a batch of a single component not machined to spec, than a re fleeting on the whole bike.

I agree with others as well if your bike is fuel injected just started it and ride avoid hard accelerationfor the first few minutes then go nuts.

If the bike is carb'd sometime you just have to use the choke and let them warm up before you can ride. I also had a Firestorm with just over 60,000km that I sold at 110,000km I restored it a little mostly cosmetic just giving the engine the once over, valves, balanced the carbs some new plugs and she was an absolute beast of a bike I really wish Honda would release another sports V-Twin. Any way back to my point this bike needed to be warmed up before you could ride away.

 

[colinlinz]

Yes Clint, carbied ones may need to warm before they are ridable, but the principle of less wear still remains. I'm lucky here, as even my VTR didn't need warming up, but as I mentioned, it doesn't get all that cold either.

 

[sigtrm]

I just fire it up and head off. This is the recommended practice these days. My bike runs fine, but then it doesn't really get cold here, I don't even have a heater in the house. Mind you, that doesn't mean thrashing it. If you ride hard too early on you will get a cold or four point seizure of the piston (scuffing either side of the piston pin on both sides). Most wear occurs during the warm up period, so a faster warm up means less wear.
I was running mobile 1 in the Subaru until 100'000klm, but talking to Subaru, they recommended not using a synthetic and recommended the Magnatec. I just kept using it because it was easy to get. When I pulled the valve covers off at 320'000klm to replace some leaky seals I was amazed at the condition of the cams and the cleanest of the components. Cam lobes are really difficult to lube well, the metal is very similar between the bucket and cam lobe, this makes the risk of adhesive wear high.
I loved the Subaru, it was a brilliant handling car. Great build quality too.

Yes you are right, fire up and head off...but gently on throttle until it warms up. Cold engine no matter if fuel injected or carb is cold, combustion sucks, efficiency sucks.
Whole point of waiting for Lo to disappear as in manual is for people who fail to understand basic physics.

 

[colinlinz]

Yes, no getting up them. That's what I was talking about earlier with cold piston seizure. I'm not sure why they say to warm up the engine in the manual. Probably the same reason manuals still say to wind up spring preload to stiffen suspension. Certainly, all the engineering advice on engines being taught today recommend starting and moving off as soon as practical.

 

[sigtrm]

Yes, no getting up them. That's what I was talking about earlier with cold piston seizure. I'm not sure why they say to warm up the engine in the manual. Probably the same reason manuals still say to wind up spring preload to stiffen suspension. Certainly, all the engineering advice on engines being taught today recommend starting and moving off as soon as practical.

They say that in manual because it is safer for them, imagine people starting engine in 5C Deg and revving it up. It is safer to write: 'wait for Lo to disappear and then go' than 'start engine and head off but be gently with revs until it warms up to 40C'.
Manual also says not to use midthrottle when shifting down, good luck with that when you ride dynamically. ;-)

 

[colinlinz]

Yes, probably right. A while ago, I had an apprentice in my class from a very remote area on the northern most tip of Australia. He used to have to take a boat, and three airplanes trips to get to college. He would come twice a year for three weeks at a time, over a three period. To top it off, he was wheelchair bound. We were very impressed with his commitment and wanted to do something to give him some recognition. We wrote an article on him and his ability to overcome some seriously large disadvantages in obtaining his trade qualifications. We wanted to submit it to an industry associations monthly magazine, but it had to go through our marketing and legal department first. In the end it was a waste of time. They wanted so much of it changed or left out because of marketing and legal issues.

 

[sigtrm]

Yes, probably right. A while ago, I had an apprentice in my class from a very remote area on the northern most tip of Australia. He used to have to take a boat, and three airplanes trips to get to college. He would come twice a year for three weeks at a time, over a three period. To top it off, he was wheelchair bound. We were very impressed with his commitment and wanted to do something to give him some recognition. We wrote an article on him and his ability to overcome some seriously large disadvantages in obtaining his trade qualifications. We wanted to submit it to an industry associations monthly magazine, but it had to go through our marketing and legal department first. In the end it was a waste of time. They wanted so much of it changed or left out because of marketing and legal issues.

That is bureaucracy and its policies that hurts or even kills people.