Does anyone have an idea how long my 954 should keep tickin, as long as the oil is changed and valves adjusted. I met a guy with a 929 that said he had over 180k on his bike. I have over 45k on mine and runs fine, but I'd like to start looking for a motor, and maybe change it out at about 120k. My P.O.S Ford main bearings went out at 90k, next car is gonna be Honda.

 

depends on a lot of factors. I saw a guy with a 600F4i that went over 200K, I don't even think he needed to rebuild it.

 

the crank, bearings, rods, valves, etc - everything is built really really well on these bikes.... they'll last forever imo (probably 200k).

EXCEPT!!!!....


the ONE problem with the 929/954 is the pistons.

the shirts are so short and narrow. so these motors, when they start to go, usually go with a piston slap knock, and then they lose compression and you'll drop a cylinder. i've built 3 954 motors, and i bought them knowing they had some sort of knock. all of them, and i mean all of them, had a piston/cylinder clearance problem. so i think that's the one problem with the motor and i think that'll be what fails first.


and it's hard because of the deep scoring that occurs, you need to then bore it out a mm (and that's as far as the 954 can go) and get new pistons, so it's not cheap when these motors go