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50,000 Miles Too Much?


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I'm looking at a 2010 1200 with just over 50,000 miles.  It appears to be in nice shape with a DAM exhaust, and what appear to be factory hard bags for less than $5k.  How well are these motors holding up?  Is 50,000 miles too much for these bikes?

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70,000 km (about 43,500 miles) on my 2010, with DAM also,  and no issues at all. Had factory recall done on shaft drive early spring 2016.

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1 hour ago, CandyRedRC46 said:

Though there have been engine failures, I would be more worried about the final drive.

No offense but this is a pretty ignorant post.  There is zero evidence to suggest that 50k miles is some sort of threshold for FD life.

 

OP, 50k miles is nothing for either the engine or the FD.  A lot of motorcycle for $5k.

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1 hour ago, CandyRedRC46 said:

How ignorant of me to let him know about the universal joint recall. My apologies.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

An FD failure based on 50k miles is a far different thing than making sure the u-joint recall has been done which your post did not mention at all.

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Even that would be stretch as there has never been a reported issue that I am aware of,  of the FD proper.  Unlike the drive shaft.

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Even that would be stretch as there has never been a reported issue that I am aware of,  of the FD proper.  Unlike the drive shaft.




Drive shafts, or shaft drives, are one of several subtypes of final drive systems.

Final drive systems:

- Chain drive
- Belt drive
- Shaft drive

The recall from Honda for the VFR1200F is regarding (a component of) the shaft drive. Colloquially it is referred to as the shaft drive recall. The warning provided by the "ignorant" (sic) forum member was in the interest of safety and accurate enough in nomenclature to serve this purpose, making no reference to the influence of mileage; an assumption made on your behalf (probably) due to the nature of the original poster's query.

My grandma always said it's better to be ignorant than belligerent.
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Thanks guys.  I noticed the sticky at the top of the 7th gen forum, so I was aware of the driveshaft recall.  I was just curious as to what other issues I'd have to look out for and how the engines and transmissions were holding up.

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I would be more concerned with how the bike was (or wasn't) maintained.  If properly maintained, it'll continue to run like a top.  If ran hard, put away wet and the PO's idea of maintenance was filling up the fuel tank... then you might be buying someone else's problems.

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1 minute ago, crakerjac said:

I would be more concerned with how the bike was (or wasn't) maintained.  If properly maintained, it'll continue to run like a top.  If ran hard, put away wet and the PO's idea of maintenance was filling up the fuel tank... then you might be buying someone else's problems.

I totally understand that!  Been there before.

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13 hours ago, swimmer said:

Even that would be stretch as there has never been a reported issue that I am aware of,  of the FD proper.  Unlike the drive shaft.

 

 

If you put your head in the sand long enough, it would appear that nothing was ever reported.

 

I have read a few reported engine and u-joint failures on the VFR1200. Nothing anywhere near as bad as a kawasaki, but more so than the vfr800, especially being that the 800 has been out for much longer than the vfr1200.

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No wonder that no 1200 owner joined this forum from a long time...for every question placed here there's instantly a RANT

on how bad 1200 is...by the same VFR800 users all the time, all over again...it was funny for some time...now it's just sad...

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well we all know the vfr1200 is the biggest POS that Honda ever.............. oh wait im sorry wrong thread, where is that 1200 bashing thread again?

 

I have never had a issue with them, just more bike then what I want. although last week I was this close {---} to buying a 1200xdct but I bought another 6 gen instead....  will have tot wait for a used x before its in my budget lol

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Is 50k miles "ok" for a VFR1200?  Absent of any experience, I would look at the following:

 

Regular oil and filter changes?  Coolant changed at least once?  Crash damage?  If any of these three check out, then I would say 50k is nothing on that bike.  At the risk of sounding like someone who drank the Cool Aid, it's a Honda!  It will run over 100k+ miles easily if the maintenance was done relatively on time.    Also, the oldest VFR1200 was 2010, so  6+ years won't make too much of a dent.

 

Final drive? Who cares.  Just replace that item if it needs it.  Nobody in their right mind would actually expect a bike with 50k miles and 6 years old to NOT require ANY maintenance or wear item replaced!  Any bike of that age will need something.  But if the question is will the motor last well beyond 50k without any catastrophic failure, I would say absolutely it will last well beyond 100k miles.  That 1200 motor is rarely working hard.  If the VFR800 motors go well beyond 100k and those motors are revved a lot higher, and assuming Honda continued to build the 1200 motor with the same close tolerances and lower tolerance for failure on components, then I would expect no less of the 1200.

 

I've owned other brands before and I can tell you all my Honda's were always much more reliable down to the small components.  Even their fit and finish stands the test of time and weather compared to other brands.  Sure nobody is perfect and there are known weak spots.  But compared to other makes and models, not even close!  Even the VFR800 has weak points (stators anyone?).

 

It all really will come down to how the bike was taken care of up to 50k miles.  I would buy the bike and expect to have to replace known wear items, but not worry about engine longevity at all.

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7 hours ago, CandyRedRC46 said:

 

 

If you put your head in the sand long enough, it would appear that nothing was ever reported.

 

I have read a few reported engine and u-joint failures on the VFR1200. Nothing anywhere near as bad as a kawasaki, but more so than the vfr800, especially being that the 800 has been out for much longer than the vfr1200.

Nobody's head is in the sand.  Considering I own an VFR1200 I suspect I am more familiar with the bike than non-owners in general and, like most people, including the OP, did a lot of research before buying.  I know of a few driveshaft/u-joint failures amongst F and CT owners and two engine failures both of which were possibly related to the engine swarf recall on some Euro bikes made in 2010. I am not blind to reported problems. I have never heard of a final drive proper failure.  Yes, the FD could be considered everything from the/including gearbox back but, most in the motorcycle world, especially BMW owners which had a history of real FD failures, would distinguish between the drive shaft and the FD and that was the point of my post.  

 

 

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No wonder that no 1200 owner joined this forum from a long time...for every question placed here there's instantly a RANT

on how bad 1200 is...by the same VFR800 users all the time, all over again...it was funny for some time...now it's just sad...

I don't see anyone bashing the 1200 in this thread. We're just commenting on a couple of known possible issues with this particular model. Honda admits the possibility of issues with the bits involved, so it's not bashing, it's giving pertinent info to someone who is asking for exactly that. A heads up. The op asked about this particular year-model, so why would we comment on others?

Your comment about the 800 is blatant generic bashing.

Right guys, let's pull our heads in and grow up. It's ridiculous blasting each other over semantics and/or getting narky about any of this. Let's keep it clean and respectful, no-one is going to become rich if they're "more righter" than anyone else. Myself included.

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