My wife and I went to dinner last eve and I ran into an old friend of mine. We first met when I was 18. We were drawn to friendship due to the fact that we both rode motorcycles back then and always have.

He told me last eve that he now has a 2015 Goldwing. I asked how many miles on it and he told me 315,000 miles. The man is in his 70s too.

He gets a new bike about every 2 to 3 years.
One of his old motorcycles was featured in a bike magazine because it had 350,000 miles.
That bike for a long time was sitting in the Honda shop 3 miles from me with a sign telling about the owner and the bike history.

This friend told me one time that he rode to California. I asked how many days he spent there. He said 5. I asked what he saw in Cal. and he said nothing that 5 days period was mostly out and back.

Who does that?

When we were working at the same place for 30+ years, during the winter there were usually only 3 bikes in the parking lot. He always rode and mine was always one of the 3. But I never put that kind of miles on,
Do any of you guys?

Not quite that many but I only had a motorcycle for several years. I currently have a 12' with 72k miles on it. I know of at least two guys that but 20 to 25 k miles on bikes every year.

Even 25k is a lot. The weather in Ohio is not really good for motorcycling much.

I have hay fever really bad and riding in early spring or after the middle of July is hard on me. that does not leave much.

But heck my friend has put over a million miles on his bikes.

He has a 57 Nomad wagon that has had a frame off resto and is as good as it gets.

He also has a 59 Corvette Fuel inj that is also pristine. He wins the big trophy at every show he takes it too, sometimes with over 150 vettes in the show.

About 2K a year for me. Unless I want to ride in the snow. Most of my rides are day trips around the Yoop.

Nah. Your friend is doing iron butt miles. That’s all slab (highway) and boring as hell to me. Just different strokes, some really enjoy that.

My ride to my twisties is about 20 Miles. Then I’ll do a hard 150 Miles at a time. High speed cornering all ride. I don’t put a knee down on the street, that’s saved for the track. So I ride about 6/10 to 7/10 out there on my twisty roads. Very few homes, little traffic. I sport tour on my other bike a few times a year, and will put 8 hours a day in, but we’ll take the twisties route to our destination so after 8 hours of riding you can barely move. Corners will kill you doing it all day.

I spread mileage among my bikes so probably 6-8k per year total.

Last June I did a test ride at a local Metric bike dealer. A guy rolled up on a 2018 BMW tourer, almost certain it was a K1600 GTL. Anyways, guy had just bought it that January and he already had 45,000 miles. Everyone kind of misunderstood him when he told them how many miles he had put on. Talked to him a bit and he had ridden all through the bottom half of he country and had just gotten back from a ride to Alaska and saw us riding so he stopped to see what was going on. I was flabbergasted to say the least. I didn’t realize people did that.

There is a guy that frequents my dealer that rolls up similar miles but flips bikes more frequently. Last year he took delivery of a new Harley on Saturday and had his 1,000 mile service scheduled for Monday. He was over on miles.

Another guy regularly runs from the Pittsburgh area to Chicago for lunch and back.

I couldn't agree more that interstates are boring.

Some people have nothing but time and enjoy spending it on a motorcycle.

At one point I used to put on about 8-9000 miles a year on a bike, recent years not quite as much. If it was a long trip we would do some interstate time to get there/back quicker but generally stuck to byways and back roads. Interstates are a snorefest and hot as hell in the summer, the back roads are almost always cooler with some shade. I usually had the most fun on impromptu trips and it was not unusual to ride 2-3 hours just for lunch. I always liked to poke around a bit in the towns/areas we rode in and got to eat some mighty fine food by trying out little mom/pop joints. Not having a set schedule allows the flexibility on a trip to discover some amazing sights and roads. A lot of times locals would see us geared up and suggest fun roads we wouldn't have found otherwise.

I never quite understood the "ironbutt" type of riding. In my opinion it's the polar opposite of a recreational ride as it might as well be a friggin' job. It's all about quantity of miles instead of quality of trip experience. Official Ironbutt "awards" like the "SaddleSore 2000" (2,000 miles in 48 hours) that focus on time, distance and record-keeping while riding a motorcycle to the point of exhaustion had/have zero appeal to me. Some ironbutt riders use auxiliary fuel tanks and would literally bring old clothes/underwear they would throw away after use so they could rack up more miles in a shorter period of time. I guess it's OK if you like that sort of thing but I'll never do one.

Agreed. I'll ride 150 miles round trip for good ice cream but never touch a 4 lane road in the process.

It seems like I ride quite a bit. But maybe not so much. I have 70000 on my '05 and 12000 on my '16. So about 6000 a year average. I do ride year round.

I find it interesting when I see bikes on Craigslist with 6000 miles and they're 8 or ten years old. Or a two year old bike with 1000 miles or less.

This is an up year for me so far. I have done 3000 miles on the Fat Bob since getting it in February, between general pleasure riding and riding to work most days for the past few weeks. As to what Sandman just mentioned above, this was a 2010 with 8000 miles on it. Barely used.

I used to do a couple of longer, week-to-ten day jaunts at least once a year, doing from 2-3k miles during that time, but it's been a while.

I'm hoping to get back to that type of thing in a couple more years. There's nothing like being on a road trip on the bike.

I dream of being able to ride those kind of miles.

I like to stay off of the highways when practical but I will ride them when going from point A to point B.

I consider my. Ike’s my main mode of transport. I ride to work nearly every day. I have two bikes; a 2012 Honda NC700 that I bought new that just had its 20k service & a 2016 HD Roadster (also bought new) that I now have about 7800 miles on.
So nowhere near your friend’s mileage, but I ride more than most around here.
Bear in mind, I also have my truck & suburban that I spread miles out on as well.

I worked with a guy who commuted to work each day on a Kawasaki Concourse 1000, unless it snowed more than three inches. (S.E. Pennsylvania) He wore no heated gear, just a heavy coat.

One morning he hit a deer and totaled the Concourse. He got the insurance check and bought another Concourse 1000.

I have not see this guy in a few years, but last time I rode with him had 100k miles on his hayabusa he bought new 5-6 years earlier. Some interstate riding but moustly back roads and no commuting. 500 mile Sunday’s were pretty much a norm for him. I rode that bike once, and that torque was unreal.

I used to do 8-10k miles a year but now happy with 3k

Yes, my friend does a lot of iron butt stuff, but he just rides all the time.

Like I said he has a couple of really nice classic "show" cars, but other than those, I have never seen him drive a car.

Unfortunately, I have not ridden my Goldwing for 2 years. Had a lower back issue(is a little better now} and then some knee issues.

My first motorcycle I had for 12 months and put 12k miles on it. After that I settled into more of a 8-10k per year (although of late it's been less what with some life issues). Still, those miles are almost all back roads. Yeah, I'll "admin" ride on a highway a few miles if I have to, but to me the adventure has always been discovering what's out there on the back roads. Most of the time I ride with little destination in mind, just pick a cardinal heading like "North" and take off. Maybe only 200 miles, maybe a 500+ mile day. It just depends. Regardless, I'm sure your friend has some great tales of his travels!

I ride mine about 10k a year. Used to be more, but I got promoted and have less free time. I just did a thousand mile day coming home from Norfolk, but I try to keep to 500 or less a day on trips unless there is a time constraint. I generally do one camping trip to Florida and one long ride a year plus whatever local riding I can get in. Having a work car is nice, but it has cut out the ability to take off in a random direction for a couple hours right after work.

When I was younger and still immortal I rode 12 months a year, rain or shine. I just didn’t do ice. That hurts now, so I avoid it. Note to you young folks, don’t get old. It sucks.