How Many Miles Will A Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Last? Here's What Owners Say

One day in early April of 2009 in New Berlin, Wisconsin, former state senator Dave Zien rolled his 1991 Harley-Davidson FXRT (Sport Glide) onto the lot of Hal's Harley-Davidson dealership. That may not sound particularly noteworthy, except that there were 300 people waiting at the dealership for Dave and cheering him on. Why? Because, as he approached the dealership, he had just reached his goal of putting 1,000,000 miles on his Harley, setting a world record.

The typical Harley owner shouldn't expect to get anywhere near the mileage Dave got on his bike. But how long will a Harley-Davidson last? Judging from what owners are saying online, it is not unrealistic to get at least 100,000 miles from a Harley if it's taken care of. The touring models seem to last the longest, as we've found some for sale online with nearly half a million miles on them. Mostly, though, owners who have kept their touring models a while are claiming mileage between 100,000 and 150,000 miles.

The smaller models — the Softails and Sportsters (which aren't made in America anymore, by the way) — aren't far behind. We see lots of comments around the Internet from owners who have gone past 100,000 miles. We have also seen the occasional extraordinary claim of 200,000 miles and even found a Fat Boy for sale with 500,000 miles on it.

Touring Harleys are built to go the distance, especially the Street Glide and Road Glide (here's the difference between Street Glide and Road Glide models). Most commenters we see around the web boast of having north of 100,000 miles on their bikes. One Redditor, I_Cant_Alphabet, proudly put up a post about their 2018 Road Glide that has 135,000 miles on it, and asked how to put another 135,000 on it. I_Cant_Alphabet may sound a bit optimistic, but we found a poster on Harley-Davidson Forums who claims to have ridden the original engine on their 2000 Road Glide for over 199,000 miles. Even more incredibly, we found a 2010 Road Glide on Cycle Trader with over 500,000 miles on it.

Riders tell similar stories about the Road King. One forum poster said they had put 148,000 miles on theirs without any serious problems. Another poster said they had around the same amount of miles on theirs and it still "runs great." A poster on the V-Twin Forum claims their wife's Road King reached 140,000 miles "with only changing the tensioners." Another poster in that thread said that their 1999 Road King ran 135,000 miles before they sold it. A third rider said they rode theirs 157,000 miles before selling it, only changing the tensioners and having the oil changed every 10,000 miles.

Riders of the Electra Glide/Ultra Classic boast similar figures. The friend of a widow of a Harley rider posted to Reddit her husband's '95 Electra Glide Ultra Classic to see what she should ask for it. It had almost 100,000 miles on it and looked great. We also found an Electra Glide on Cycle Trader with over 600,000 miles on it.

The Harley Softails are no slouches when it comes to longevity. One poster on Harley-Davidson Forums, roycet4, said that they put 106,000 miles on their 94 Heritage. But they had to put a lot of work into it, including new lifters at 60,000 miles, a new cam, and new rocker cover gaskets.

Pococj at the same forum claims to have over 110,000 miles on their Fat Boy. They say that "it burns no oil, has good compression, and the only oil leak is a bad starter solenoid gasket. Still on original top end, though I did replace the base gaskets." Big_Zombie_40 on Reddit bragged that their 2001 Fat Boy has 110,000 miles on it, and adds, "I would ride this bike anywhere today." We came across a 2004 Fat Boy for sale on Cycle Trader that has 500,000 miles on it. While it seems to be a popular model, some of you have told us that the Fat Boy is the hardest Harley to ride.

A third H-D Forums poster, 06dynablack, said that their 1996 Dyna Low Rider (FXD) was "still running strong" at 100,000 miles when they traded it in. Meanwhile, Dangerous_Fortune790 on Reddit claims they put 175,000 miles on their Dyna. Also, we were able to find a 2014 Softail Deluxe on Cycle Trader with over 180,000 miles on it.

Not everyone who keeps their Harley a long time has a problem-free experience. Blue Scoot posted about his 2013 Sportster Iron 883 in a thread on XLForum titled "My First 100k Miles." He said he started having engine problems around 10,000 miles, "First was a cylinder head recondition. At 20,000 they put in new rings and reconditioned the top end again. At 30,000 they replaced cylinders and pistons, and finally at 48,000 the bike was spitting oil out of the exhaust and pretty much died. Basically, the whole motor ended up trashed — not sure if a lifter went bad and starved the top end of oil — but they ended up finally getting me a new motor [under warranty]." He did add that he hasn't had a problem since.

Cacomly on HD Forums says they put 203,000 miles on their 2006 Sportster. According to the post, the bike died when cardboard was dropped into the gas tank, causing an oil blockage. Komber_2000 said in the same thread, "I have a 2014 Sportster 1200T with 90,000 on it and still riding almost every day! It's been and continues to be a tough little beast!" We were able to find one Sportster for sale on Cycle Trader with right around 100,000 miles on it. We're not surprised to find examples of these bikes with a lot of miles on them, as the Sportster family of models made our list of motorcycles with the longest production runs.

As long as Harley-Davidson bikes last, they aren't on top when it comes to reliability. Back in 2015 (still pertinent, since we're talking about bikes that have been on the road a while), Consumer Reports surveyed over 11,000 subscribers regarding their motorcycles and compared the fail rates of major brands. Yamaha scored as the most reliable with just an 11% fail rate. The next three brands were also Japanese: Suzuki, Honda, and Kawasaki. Harley-Davidson came in at a much less respectable 26%. BMW and Can-Am were alarmingly bad, scoring at 40% and 42%, respectively.

What's truly surprising, however, is how well Harley did with customer satisfaction in the same survey, scoring the second highest (behind Victory), with 72% of owners saying they would buy the same bike all over again. Why would Harley-Davidson score so highly in customer satisfaction when it was just middling in terms of reliability? Consumer Reports thought it had to do with comfort, since comfort scores were pretty close to customer satisfaction scores.

Recent data comparing the reliability of different motorcycle brands is surprisingly hard to come by, which is why this 2015 Consumer Reports list is still widely cited around the Internet. However, Riders Share, which is sort of an Airbnb for motorcycles, has been collecting data on which of the bikes rented through their service have had to be towed. They looked at the percentage of rental days each brand of bike had to be towed. According to their findings released in 2023, Harley scored in the top five this time at only 0.22%. That's still roughly in the middle, however, since this was just a 13-brand list.

Motorcycles don't last over 100,000 miles on their own. They need to be taken care of like any other machine, and your Harley is no exception. How often should you get your bike serviced? Harley-Davidson recommends that the first service take place at 1,000 miles. This is often called the "break-in" service. That's because it involves, in addition to changing the oil, checking to see if anything has shaken loose. 

This first service involves a list of 24 items, including checking all critical fasteners for tightness, the clutch adjustment, the primary chain, and the rear-drive belt. After that first oil change, Harley-Davidson recommends changing your oil and performing other maintenance every 5,000 miles after that. But you'll want to change your oil more often than that if you ride in the cold or on rough dusty roads. You should also do an oil change right before storing your bike for the winter.

But overall, from what owners are saying, it's not hard to ride your hog for at least 100,000 miles, regardless of the model. Riders who take care of their bikes may be able to finesse tens of thousands of miles more out of them. Touring and Softail models tend to last the longest, with some exceptional bikes going for hundreds of thousands of miles.