How long do you keep a bike?

[Roadinator]

Have a 2005 Girly.  68K and has served me well.  Needs work.  Valves need to be done, chain/sprockets, battery, fluids, runs rough off of idle for a bit.  I like the bike, still puts a smile on my face when riding, but not sure I want to put money and time into this or sell as is and move on.  Money is tight and I am not sure I have the expertise to swap shims (checked them last summer and one exhaust was tight and I packed it up and decided to ride).  I wanted a motorcycle to work on myself, but trying to find that out if it is time to move on.  Girlfriend likes to ride with me, but we never seem to do that enough to justify keeping it around.  Thinking I maybe want to go smaller and do a DR650 (or XR650).  Looking at Huskies as well (610).  I like chewing up the highway miles on the Girly, but not sure if it is time to move on.

What do you think?  What helps you decide to move on from one bike to the next? 

[Ossian]

I bought my Girly new in 2003 as I reckoned (rightly) that I would never again have the funds for another new bike. So when I felt I wasn't using it enough, I bought a second hand (3 previous owners!) CB500 for the short stuff. I think I bought wisely, because those two are about the closest you could come to everlasting motorcycles which can still be very usable and a lot of fun.
I'm lucky though as I have the space to store the two bikes.

[Roadinator]

I don't really have room for a second bike in my current situation (street parking).  Wouldn't mind a beater to have fun on (can you do that with a KLR?).

[VABird]

I have an '06 Girly that I'm just getting to love. I also have a really nice '08 Tiger 1050 that I'll sell. I'm only a few hours from you  (east of Roanoke). PM me with your # if interested.
But I guess that didn't answer your question.
I had my America for 7 years and (still) have my T-Bird for almost 3 now. (It's a keeper.)

[ronhr]

I had to weigh in for the title if nothing else.

I have the first motorcycle that I bought when I was 12 and as I am 55, I am going to have to say 43 years!

Ok, I am probably on the odd side.  I actually have 2 2000 Girlies.  I just bought the second one and sold a disassembled BMW F650 I was swapping engines into to do so.  It was taking me months as I had it at my cabin in the mountains. I realized it was going to take me either more months or another year.  I gave a good price to a young man who had the BMW running in 2 weeks.

I bought the second Girly to eventually have the ability to make one from two.  That and to leave at the cabin in the mountains.  Space is not longer the issue, just the tolerance of the wife.

Except that I find as I get older, I end up paying someone to do the things such as valves that I used to do before.  So maybe the two into one is not really going to happen, but it is my old guy rationalization.

[Timbox2]

I had to weigh in for the title if nothing else.

I have the first motorcycle that I bought when I was 12 and as I am 55, I am going to have to say 43 years!

Ok, I am probably on the odd side.  I actually have 2 2000 Girlies.  I just bought the second one and sold a disassembled BMW F650 I was swapping engines into to do so.  It was taking me months as I had it at my cabin in the mountains. I realized it was going to take me either more months or another year.  I gave a good price to a young man who had the BMW running in 2 weeks.

I bought the second Girly to eventually have the ability to make one from two.  That and to leave at the cabin in the mountains.  Space is not longer the issue, just the tolerance of the wife.

Except that I find as I get older, I end up paying someone to do the things such as valves that I used to do before.  So maybe the two into one is not really going to happen, but it is my old guy rationalization.

You cant say things like that without telling us what bike, and also pictures please or we wont believe ya

[ronhr]

Fair enough!  I am in the mountains on my Girly so not at my house to take a photo.

1968 Yamaha at 125.  Some say they started selling in 1969, but 1968 is what the title says. 

I bought it from my father's friend who had flipped it and broke a vertebrae.  My father was beside himself because it was a motorcycle and the guy had broke a vertebrae.

I saved from when I was 10 to buy a motorcycle mowing grass.  I had to be one of the youngest subscribers to Cycle World (or at least I think it was Cycle World) from 10-13 or 14 years old.

You can find these things selling in the U.S. for $1000-2000 USD with 1500-4000 miles on them.  The reason is that it was impossible to put high mileage on them and not experience carpal tunnel nerve damage in the wrists or dead butt.

The enduros were classics, but the 125 did not have enough power.

[ronhr]

I just realized that I am going to have to completely restore it by the 50 year anniversary of owning it!

Damn it!

I won't tell the wife.

I have 7 years to do it incrementally so she won't notice!

Aargh, she will still notice.

[Timbox2]

Ok we will let you have a photo reprieve, for now. AT125?  Think we knew them as DT?  Or maybe we did have AT's, just dont remember them

[ronhr]

The AT preceded the DT series!

I am that old.

Magazine articles will state that the DT was the start of the Yamaha enduro line and that really drives home how old one is when you know and own one before it.

[Bigfeesh]

44 years, my Granda gave me an Ambassador '53 Supreme when I was 11 years old, still own it, in my loft, I sporadically repair parts for the day I will rebuild it.