Aloha from Honolulu, Hawaii

Aloha! I'm not an SD owner (yet) but I'm working on it. Met a guy who has one on Maui that I'm seriously considering picking up. Here's the deal ...

07' 990 SD with 15,500mi
Extras: Full Akrapovic exhaust, Power Commander, KTM Ergo Gel Seat, carbon fiber rear hugger, Rizoma mirrors, new tyres (>500mi)
Very good condition. Had a minor down on R side but damage was very minimal, a few minor scratches and one of the welds on the exhaust busted off. Bike has a clean title but no service history. The current owner knows bikes and seems to have done a great job of maintaining it. $7500

I can pick up a new one in CA for about $8500-$9000 but shipping to Hawaii is $1000! A little nervous about buying a bike with over 15,000mi but have been reading the forums and it sounds like guys are riding the SD's well into the 30-40K range. Any thoughts?

Mahalo!

Welcome mate!
Mileage shouldn't be a problem if the bike was serviced correctly.

Thanks Bert. From the sounds of it, the LC8's can handle the high mileage. Unfortunately, this is the 3rd owner and he has no service history for the bike. I'm calling around to the dealers here in Hawaii to see if anyone's serviced it but am coming up empty. The bike looks and sounds great, and the current owner knows bikes, but no service history and higher mileage makes me nervous.

My take on this situation is that the SD is pretty bulletproof. If it's the right price you just have to take a punt on the previous three owners and and give it a really good service and draw a line under it's past. If there are no obvious signs of neglect or misuse then it's probably OK. I think that we are in an age where we are all paranoid about service history and how a bike is maintained. If you think about it you could buy a bike that has had one owner who was a prick and didn't have any mechanical sympathy and damaged his bike during the first year through neglect and ignorance. Or you could find a bike that has had three really caring owners who, for each of their terms as owner, has cherished their investment and done the right thing every time. And you must remember that "service history" even done by an authorised dealer is not really worth the paper it's written on. Some dealers and their mechanics do not know what they are doing. Seriously. It all comes down to how the bike is.....and that's down to you to check it out before buying it.

In my youth I bought bikes that had over 15 previous owners. And they were fantastic bikes that I loved to own and add to their care and longevity.

Welcome in! To me, $7500 seems high for a bike w/15k on the clock and has been dropped. IMHO, $6500 to $6800 is probably more realistic....

The biggest problem is that you probably don't have a huge selection of SDs in Hawaii, so that is probably where the up-charge is coming from.

Good luck,'bro.