VFR 1200 expectancy ...

​What is the life (millage) expectancy from an VFR 1200 assuming all the maintenance is done as scheduled?

Are they great engines without too much headaches?

Thank you

 

Not many years have passed to evaluate that....

But folks routinely get 200,000+ miles on the 800...

 

Its a Honda...most likely it will be a barn relic or crashed before major mechanical problems shut it down. Assuming appropriate maintenance of course.

 

The way it's been designed and built, and with the water cooling and tight tolerances, I'd expect pretty high mileage IF good maintenance is done and if you use a better than average oil- something like the Honda synthetic or one of the 3rd party brands (I do).

I've got a '98 VFR800 I bought new with almost a 100K miles that runs like a top or a sewing machine- it's easy to take it for granted. But then, I got 85K miles on an early Kawasaki Z1, running great until it was stolen after a re-paint made it look too nice... that one was the first bike I started using Mobil One on. Of course, that was an old air cooled monster, but I did used to really hammer it from time to time, too, and did a couple of cross country rides from Dener to SF and back in the summer time- desert heat and all, not the best thing for air cooled engines.

I wouldn't be surprised if it holds up almost as well as my NSX (designed in the late 80's) and I know guys in the Bay area approaching 300K miles without going into the motor. Of course, that's using good maintenance practices and premium oil.

 

Use good quality syn oil, do all maint. at least as often as recommended, keep the bike parked under cover, use good quality gas when available and add a bottle of techron to the gas with every oil change and my guess is 250, to 300 thousand miles before you have to get into the engine for anything except valve adjustment and possibly a set of clutch plates.