How many hours is to much???????????

[Burtis_21]

I am buying a 2002 426 and the guy says it has about 70 hours on it..... When do you think parts start to get wore out on bikes????

here is a link to the bike.... http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/mcy/402386429.html

I am getting it for 2200......

[grayracer513]

70 is almost nothing for a big YZF. But the fact is that without an hour meter or a written log, he's guessing, and people are very often way off in their estimations of how much run time the engine actually has. That doesn't tell you much, either, since they're as apt to be off to the high side as the low. Get an idea of how he actually rides it.

[dr x]

Try and look at the bike as a whole, it looks like it has original plastics which has to be a good sign, are the wheels buckled, is the paint on the frame and engine worn, all those sort of things tell the story of how its been treated.

My one looked a bit rougher than that one when i bought it but it has been a great bike and the engine is sound.

Good luck and i hope it works out to be a good buy. ?

[blue9red9]

My buddy bought his '00 426 new. I have ridden with him since he bought it. I did a quick calculation on our riding and came up with well over 100 hours probably more like 120 or 130. He just sold it in favor of a new bike. There was nothing wrong with his 426 and he got $1800. It was ridden hard and most times not cared for too great. I would say he maintained it less than the average rider does. Those 426's were great bikes. I had an 00 too and never had a problem with it.

[426 boy]

i was always told that 50 hours is getting close to it blowing up, and wen i take the piston out its rooted, its not riddin hard just trailrides, so i get confused now.

[yz_for_me]

75 hours is just getting broke in for a YZF. Well, maybe that's overstating it a little bit, but seriously, there are many many guys out there with hundreds of hours on their Yamaha 400's, 426's and 450's. The guys in blue know how to build an exceptionally long lasting motor. I wouldn't let 75 hours scare me as long as I was confident the previous owner was good with maintenance.

[grayracer513]

X number of hours of what, is an important question. If you ride a solid 30 minutes of serious practice on race day, then two 20 minute motos, that's only 1.2 hours, but it's all racing at high engine speeds, and since it involves more revolutions per minute, it involves more revolutions. Think of it as engine mileage.

OTOH, you might actually put 2.5 hours of general horsing around at your favorite ride spot in and still not have the engine actually "go as far".

[tnl]

I have a hour meter on my bike and I like to guess how many hours I've ridden at the end of the day and I am almost always over the actual hours that I've ridden. That's probably the same for most.

[Butta]

I have a hour meter on my bike and I like to guess how many hours I've ridden at the end of the day and I am almost always over the actual hours that I've ridden. That's probably the same for most.

I have found this to be true as well, and, have also made the following observation: The older I get, the more I am over estimating......."man, that was a great 4 hour ride!!!" and the hour meter reads only an increase of 0.6.......

[USED YZ426F]

The hours a bike is ridden are less important than how it is maintained.

A bike with 100 hours on it and only one or two oil changes will probably be worse than a bike that gets an oil change every 10-15 hours.

I would test ride the bike and see how strong it feels. Look at the oil, coolant and overall general condition. Does it smoke? Shift smoothly? Any strange sounds coming from the engine?

Scratched plastics can be a little misleading, depending on where it is ridden. However, serious scratches, gouges in the cases, bent controls, missing hardware, etc would tell me that the bike is not well cared for and I would walk away.

[jayh300]

I have found this to be true as well, and, have also made the following observation: The older I get, the more I am over estimating......."man, that was a great 4 hour ride!!!" and the hour meter reads only an increase of 0.6.......

agree with butta, we usually ride in the 4 hour range and my actual ride time is never much more than 1 hour or so. Then on the other hand we were "trail braking" the other day and went like 6 miles in about 2 hours. Now thats fun riding.

[Yamaha4lyfe]

i was always told that 50 hours is getting close to it blowing up, and wen i take the piston out its rooted, its not riddin hard just trailrides, so i get confused now.

when shes wound out carbon gets burned up. when its just luged and stuff carbon stays. thats what happens when you ride trails.

[kubamtx]

I've got one question. Could you tell how many hours has the bike on it by looking at clutch basket condition? If it is stock of course. In my opinion it is good point to look at.

[grayracer513]

No. You could tell how much wear the basket has, but not how long it took to do it.

Some people can ride a bike for years, fairly hard, even, and not do much to it. Other people can F* up an anvil in 15 minutes using it as a card table.

[USED YZ426F]

No. You could tell how much wear the basket has, but not how long it took to do it.

Some people can ride a bike for years, fairly hard, even, and not do much to it. Other people can F* up an anvil in 15 minutes using it as a card table.

LOL.

There really is no definitive way to tell how a bike was treated. Although, if you go to look at a bike and it is greasy, filthy, bent and broken controls, etc then you can pretty much determine that it has been treated rough.

However, I once bought an '84 IT490 that looked to be in perfect showroom condition (this was in '87), not even a scratch on the plastics.?

I ended up having to replace all wheel bearings, swingarm bearings, brakes, clutch, and ended up splitting the cases for some tranny work.? All of this work was done before I had more than about 25 hours on it.

Previous owner rode it like a little old lady, and pressure washed the hell out of it after every ride. That is why it was so clean and no damage. All of the pressure washing ended up getting water in to every single nook and cranny on that bike. Oh, I forgot to mention that he never greased anything.

Bottom line, looks aren't everything when buying a used bike.

[mike_dean]

My '00 426 has just over 500 hrs on the hr meter, I'll agree that actual hrs seems less than what you rode, I rode 6.5 hrs @ black river falls and the hr meter read 4. My bike has had 1 piston (didn't need it) hinson clutch basket , new plates, more than 100 oil changes with mobil 1, many mods, wheels, bars, triple clamps, plastic, brakes, wheel brgs,linkage brgs, footpegs, homemade power now, and brake hose. The bike has original valves, (stainless steel stock),crank keyway, and trans, I'm very easy on the bike and over maintain it, the only time it ever hit the rev limiter was when my son was riding it. Most reliable bike I've ever owned. Mike

[motoscotty]

My wr has 10k miles on it been to mexico several times for a 700 mi. 3 day trip it has been beat and it has the original clutch and top end this thing will not quit ,it has close to 1k hours on it may be this is a freak thing but if this helps yamahas are tough all I do to this bike is oil and air filter and I run evenrude 4 cycle engine oil that is $2 per gallon at lowes I use that in my yz also so that says somthing about oil I guess I will let you know when it does stop running..

[Daz_426_02]

My 2002 Yz426 had over 3000 hours on it and never had a rebuild while i had it. Nor did i ever have to adjust the valves.

I had it street legal'ed in the UK and used it 40 miles to and from work for 6 months. Then when i moved back to South Africa i bought it back here and used it for Supermoto races, track days. Did motocross days with it as well as a lot of Enduro races, not to mention all the weekend rides in between.

I now have a 07 450 but to tell you the truth i still love the ol'426, wish i still had it ?

[creeker]

I picked up an 00' 426 a few months back from a friend and I am sure he put a good 100 hours on it and I have put well over 20 hours on it since getting it. I just did a top end rebuild and the stock piston that was pulled out looked perfect. The piston and rings were both in excellent condition and the cylinder looked excellent as well.

Even with only doing the basic maintenance these bikes seem to last forever.

[beasleys]

My 01 426 has close to 200 hours on her from me. i have no idea how many the previous owner put on it but, from the condition i would guess not much. I check my valves regularly and change my oil after every ride or 2 and clean my air filter the same. I removed my topend not to long ago and the piston/cylinder looked as good as it did the day it came from the factory. Topend had some carbon but was easily cleaned out with some carb cleaner. She still starts like a champ and would not hesitate to recommned one to a friend or family member.