Is 60,000 miles alot for an '80 KZ750 ??

I had an 80 KZ750 years ago and regret selling it. Found one for sale locally, repainted, well maintained, bone stock and unmolested. Only problem is...is has just over 60,000 miles on it. Everything works, runs fine, fires right up. On long rides, headgasket seeps slightly. Otherwise is fluid-tight.

Is that alot of miles for a KZ750? Am I looking at the end of it's useful life and a total teardown and rebuild is around the corner? By the way, no weird noises and not smoking either.

What say you all.

Depends on the type of miles: highway cruising is not so bad, stop and go city riding is murder on the top end. Also depends on how good the maintenance was. For the record, the local shop that did all the rebuilds on the KZ1000 police fleet here said they got valve jobs about every 25k. My 750 twin needed a valve job at about 45k, then about 65k and then at 75K I had to do valves and bore the engine. Lot of city riding.


ON YOUR BIKE: do at least a compression check cold and hot. A leak down test is better. Check oil pressure cold and hot with a gauge. Also, check plugs for oil and check for white puffs out the exhaust at start up. If that engine is stock, I would assume the valve seals are bad and it probably needs at least a valve job. That's not a big deal to do, it's really basic maintenance on these air cooled engines.

60,000 is a lot on any bike, Its not unusual for these bikes to rack up high mileage though, I would run a compression test if i was serious about buying, then think about what kinda riding I was going to do? weekend, across town, comuter? probably not across the country tourer :laugh:

lemo32 wrote:

60,000 is a lot on any bike, Its not unusual for these bikes to rack up high mileage though, I would run a compression test if i was serious about buying, then think about what kinda riding I was going to do? weekend, across town, comuter? probably not across the country tourer :laugh:

A Gold Wing is technically a motorcycle, and commonly goes over 200k miles without a rebuild

Ronkz650 put over 150k miles on a KZ650, and its the same basic motor as a 750 four. And I'm pretty sure he did Iron Butt Rallies on that same KZ650.