Some common sense considerations: How much do you know about the bike's maintenance history? As you say, longevity depends on conscientious care. Honda motors have a reputation for being "bullet-proof" and are arguably capable of 100K miles IF they've been properly maintained.
Since your prospective machine is approaching the half-way point of its potential life-cycle, you'd need to know as much as you can find out about previous maintenance and repair. 41K is high mileage for a motorcycle, but this bike is 27 years old, so it may have been ridden an average of a little over 1,500 miles per season. Or, all those miles could have been accumulated in the first 10 years and the bike could have been sitting up the rest of the time. The first scenario could be a good thing, since you don't get that kind of service from any machine unless it has been well maintained. Neglect, however, is a different story -- carbs varnish, tires rot, rubber gaskets and o-rings dry out, metal parts rust, etc., all of which would need restoring, replacing -- at considerable cost. Another consideration is how many owners it's had. If the same guy owned it since new, you could be more confident that previous maintenance had been regular and conscientious. Several owners, not so much. Hope this helps. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en.
