Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[divedolphin]

I am looking at purchasing a 2014 CVO Softail deluxe. One bike has 11 miles and the other bike has 886 miles.

My question is each bike still has the original oil. The bike with 11 miles has been stored inside in Arizona and the other bike inside a heated garage in the Chicago area.

What should I look for in evaluating these bikes? I am very familiar with piston engine airplanes and a general rule of thumb is that if you have an airplane that has been sitting around or not flown you will most likely have rusted cylinders and cam.

I don't want to buy a bike and then put thousands of dollars into repairing the engine.

Thanks for any assistance.

Ralph

[Bextreme]

Bike with 11 miles should still have break in oil. Typically you change the break in oil after 500 miles.rust should not be an issue since the engine is sealed. Only thing I would have a concern is old gas if it’s sat a long time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[divedolphin]

I thought the bikes come with Syn3 full synthetic oil from the factory?

[skratch]

if it's a cvo, it did.

some people still like to change it right away, though it isn't required by the manual until 1000 miles.

[Unbalanced]

If you can I’d want to do a compression and leakdown test.  I’d also like to heat it up and after a bit see if it smokes as well as take a listen to the engine for abnormal noises unlike the - they all do that.   I’d also check the tires for cracking etc.

Even if you had to pay at the dealer I would do the checks.

Check the underside for oil leaks or seepage. Mirror is helpful for this.

Good luck with it.

[VaEagle]

I would think you have to look at more than just mileage too.
You can have things like temperature/moisture changes that can create condensation.You can have a vehicle exposed to disasters like flooding.
Then you have different thoughts and procedures on long term storage such as years ago many thought it was good to run a stored motor for several minutes a month to prevent drying out and rusting inside. Most now know that that procedure can actually cause internal corrosion since most don't run it long enough to burn off the internal moisture and combining it with old oil can cause corrosion. So I would have to ask the owner which method did he use for maintenance under storage conditions.

[smkymtnboy]

the az. bike is probably a no worry bike for cosmetics. stored inside in an arid region. the il. bike is probably ok also if stored in climate control. if, you worried just buy an esp as both bikes qualifies.

[Grizzly]

I would ensure that these two bikes were originally delivered and sold in Illinois and Arizona as suggested.

Sure wouldn't want to find out later that they were originally sold in Texas, and sat in water for a few days after the floods. 

Then later shipped north and west to sell.

Just sayin'.