Try to match this guy. Dave Zien put more than one million miles on his 1991 Harley-Davidson FXRT (pictured). H-D’s press release below doesn’t say when Zien started riding his Harley, but assuming he started in 1991, he has averaged more than 55,000 miles per year for the past 18 years on his motorcycle. After you read the press release below, send us an email and let us know if you can top Zien . . . or even come close.
For any motorcycle rider to log one million miles in a lifetime is truly amazing, but it’s even more impressive to do it on one motorcycle, as Dave Zien did, on a 1991 Harley-Davidson FXRT.
Harley-Davidson celebrated and honored Zien’s million mile motorcycle accomplishment at the Company’s Milwaukee headquarters on April 6 with special presentations to Zien that included a brand new 2009 Road Glide. It was also announced that after a short stay at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Zien’s million mile 1991 Harley-Davidson FXRT motorcycle will be put on permanent display at the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame in Sturgis, S.D.
Steve Phillips, Vice President Quality, Operational Excellence and Technical Services at Harley-Davidson, helped honor Zien for his passion, dedication and devotion to the sport of motorcycling.
“We are extremely proud that Dave has accomplished his goal of riding one million miles on a Harley-Davidson,” Phillips said. “As much as Harley-Davidson appreciates being part of Dave’s riding achievement, we believe that riding one million miles is about the perseverance of the rider. This effort personifies the statement that a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is more than a machine and it certainly places Dave among the world’s toughest riders.”
Phillips also recognized Zien for his service to our country as a U.S. Marine and a Vietnam Veteran. Zien is a member of the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame and the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in recognition of his support for rider and veteran causes. He was a Wisconsin State Senator from 1993 to 2007, and a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1989 to 2003.
MD Readers Respond:
- To whom it may concern, This is a big milestone for some one to accomplish but, a BMW rider Dave Zwisher, has logged 1.4 million miles and Dave Hidgeon has just logged the 1 million mile mark on his BMW. the only difference between what was accomplished is the Harley rider got a new bike, the BMW rider just kept riding his.Have a nice day, Chris
- Dave, Great to see you made it. We injoyed your visit to Yuma Az. All of us from
Bobby’s Territorial Harley-Davidson wish you the best. Hope to see you
again on the new 2009 Road Glide. Marty - Kudos to the fella! I can’t top him, but I’d like some information….
Regarding that picture…. He has things written on the bags, and I think it is parts replaced information…. It would be interesting to note what is written on the bags…
I do not have a million miles and may never get there (I’m thinking I’m about 500,000 to 600,000 miles since 1962 (1963 when I became legal to ride))….
But I’d be interested to see what was replaced over a Million miles. - I have owned two bikes in my life, a Honda Nighthawk 750 and a Shadow Spirit 1100. In nine years of riding I put 80,000 miles on the Nighthawk and have put 71,000 miles on the Spirit. During this time, I was deployed for eighteen months to Iraq. That is as close as I can come to Dave Zien. Greg
- First allow me to Congratulate Zien. You have accomplished my goal and on 1 bike now that’s quite the accomplishment Much respect my friend Much respect.
I ride 85 miles to work and back and most weeks I work 6 days a week. I like taking a couple of short trips a year so I add about 3-4000 miles on those trips. Last year I logged a little over 47,000 miles and I’m hoping to clear 50,000 miles this year.
The Honda VFR seems to be the perfect bike for me. Big enough to have the power and comfort and small enough to pull 48-52 MPG. All importaint specially after last summers 4+ dollars a gallon fuel. Regular Unleaded works fine but I get about 2 MPG better if I use Mid-grade fuel. Super Unleaded seems to be a waste of money. I included a xcel spreadsheet of every mile I’ve logged since March 1990 and some may fine it interesting.
Happy reading all and Seriously Zien Congraulations that is one impressive goal. Robert
- Props to Mr Zien on his accomplishments. To average 55,000 miles per year for 18 years it is ironic that he held a political office. Sounds like an awful lot of time off to me. ps Semper FI Mr Zien. Everett
- I may not be able to top Dave’s record, but not many people have duplicated my feat
either. In 1973 , on my fifteenth birthday , for $379 (brand new), I rode home on my 90cc Kawasaki. Exactly one year later I rode up to the same dealer and talked to the same salesman about trading up. When he looked over the pristeen condition of my 90, his jaw dropped open to see 29,000 miles on the little two-stroke. Most bikes 10 years old didn’t have that many miles on them.At fifty three now, my wife and I share a 2005 Nomad 1600 at a rate of about 10k per year. I’ve probably logged half a million miles total. So, do I rate a little star for for my accomplishment?
- I don’t believe this story. It’s not possible, do the math. He lives in Wisconson? What about snow days,work days. I want to see proof. Did you ask for facts or just take Harley’s word for it? Les
- Is the Million mile Harley actually documented? Given Wisconsin’s 7 month motorcycle season, he would have had to average more than 300 miles per day, rain or shine, and without any downtime for maitenance and repairs. You would have to be retired and probably have a more reliable bike than a Harley to accomplish. Steve
- From http://www.bmwmoa.org/ridetour/mileage_awards/roll/
Grimes Lyle 1,000,000
High, Thomas 1,000,000
Klas James 1,000,000
McHugh Kenneth 1,000,000
McQueeney David 1,250,000
Randolph Ray 1,000,000
Sewell Ray 1,000,000
Swisher David 1,250,000Darren
- Riding 1 million miles is without a doubt an impressive accomplishment. Perhaps he was logging all those miles as part of his political career… “He was a Wisconsin State Senator from 1993 to 2007, and a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1989 to 2003.” Brian
- I would love to know how many times Dave Zien had to rebuild his H.D.’s engine in those million miles? I would wager 12+ times. Warren
- As impressive as that milage is it also brings up the question of where do you get the time to ride that many miles while working as a State Senator ? I think I need a job in government!!!!
- Check out this months Cycle World some guy did 1500 miles per day for 7 consecutive days. Regards, Walker
- I’ve known Dave for many years and he is a true believer in all he does.
He racked up many of these miles between Madison WI and Eau Claire WI, but also around his district. Each week he would publish a schedule and ride around his district meeting people at café’s, restaurants, bars and sportsmen’s clubs to touch base with his constituents. He would start about 4am and finish up at midnight or 1am.
You could always recognize Dave coming down the road with his American Flag and MIA flags flying. Maybe there is someone out there who has put on more miles than Dave, but they probably don’t live in Wisconsin. Congrats to Dave! Dan
- That’s a neat article and Zien certainly has an interesting story to say the least!
But is 55,000 a year is high mileage? I’m not in any way demeaning Zien, but is that really a lot per year? I’ve heard some numbers for average mileages that riders log, but they vary so much there’s no real validity.
Not counting track miles, I ride an average of at least 45,000 per year commuting for work and playing on the weekends. That’s not too far out of the average for most of the folks I’ve talked to and we really don’t consider that to be high mileage. Now, my friend Bill… he’s a commuting fool. His ride to work includes something like 100 miles of lanesplitting on LA freeways each day. He’s worth talking to if you’re inclined- he’s the founder of the yahoo group “Cafe Sportsters” – drop him a note.
Doing that kind of mileage on one bike for the time Zien has, is pretty neat. While I’ve split my mileage over several bikes, my trusty ’98 XL is still going strong… and since I’m only 36, maybe it won’t be too long before I’ll get a freebie from HD.
=) Thanks for the great website, Chris
- I can’t imagine the constant riding time needed to rack up this kind of mileage being more of a mercury butt than an iron one. It would be very interesting to see a mileage/date total of all his maintenance on the bike. Perhaps you could acquire that and post it? David
- My hat’s off to Dave Zien. For whatever reason, that’s quite an accomplishment. More than that, using H-D motorcycles for long distance miles is assuming quite a risk, so Mr. Zien is also a brave man.
But allow me to introduce you to David Swisher of Bowling Green, Virginia. Last year he was officially awarded by BMW Motorad with a special plaque for putting more than 1.4 million miles on his BMWs.
Check it out … Norton
- Wow that is an accomplishment! What is missing from the press release, and what I would like to see, is a detail of what maintenance he had to do on the bike. When Emil Scotto rode 500,000 miles on a Goldwing, Honda released details of what he had to do to the bike to make it go so long. Along with the dozens of tires and gallons of oil he used, he had to have a new engine put in at 240,000 miles. I know V-twins are modular, but I wonder how many times he had to have the engine rebuilt. Not brand bashing here, I am just wondering. Andrew
- 55,555 miles a year average
152+ miles per day average
Something does not pass the smell test here.
He was a state senator or assemblyman from 1993 to 2003 plus he probably held down a full time job.
It just does not add up. I had a full time job, my Connie and two weeks of vacation a year (with weekend trips) and my max. per year mileage was 19,000 +-.
But if this man actually did 55,555 miles a year for the last 18 years….Wow that’s freaking amazing.
I (jaded person that I am) believe this to be more HD PR than an actual all facts out story. Brian - Wow. I put 60,000 miles on my 1985 Honda 700SC Nighthawk in 2 years. A solo trip from NW Indiana to tour the Rockies and 6 “circle tours” of Lake Michigan was all the long distance miles I got. The rest of it was normal day to day riding……12 months a year I’ll add as I was in scollege and couldn’t afford a car. It was the perfect bike to put those kinda miles on, self adjusting valves and shaft drive kept maintenance to a minimum and it got an oil change every 10,000 miles if it needed it or not! Last I knew that bike had over 100,000 on it and it was still a guys work ride.
A million miles on a bike…. I’d love to see EVERY receipt that has gone into keeping it running. Goes to show you what a little oil, a wrench and some duct tape will do for you. Rob
