[DrBob]

When I buy an older bike I look for one that is being used as a daily driver. Sitting is very bad for a motorcycle- dry rotted tires, carb boots, and hoses; rustes and fragile cables and linkages; dried out engine seals and gaskets; gummed up carbs; critter in the intake and exhaust; rust...nothing good comes from having a motorcycle sit for a long period. After a long slumber, or even a period of only occational use, a sudden increase in usage often is fatal. I will take a high-mileage but well maintained daily driver over a lower miles bike that has been sitting any day.
I bought a 1979 Harley FLH from the origianal owner a few years back, and still use it as my daily commuter. between us we put somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 miles on the thing, and the longest is has ever sat is probably 3 days. The bike runs very well, gives me no troubles, and I rode it to Texas and back last month and Florida and back this month without giving it a second thought. But I also bought a used 1993 Intruder with only 7000 miles on it, which had not been started in several years, and it took me months and several hundred $$$ to sort out all the bugs, fix everything that broke, and make it reliable. My first Intruder went 135,000 trouble-free miles of daily use, so I know it is not the design that made the bike a bear to get into shape, it was the sitting.