2001 Yamaha Road Star 1600 with 169,000 miles?

I found one on craigslist in my area for 1600$. At first I thought it was bogus but then I read more and found out that its high in mileage and the carbs need to be cleaned. Cleaning the carb isn't a huge deal for me. On the flip side to this I grew up with Harleys and Yamaha is literally foreign to me. I have heard many stories of both older Yamahas and Honda Goldwings that are well above 200,000 and still running strong. I've heard stories of ones over 300,000. But these are all stories. As much as I do in fact love Harley, once you hit around 50,000 its time to redo the top end. How are these bikes in terms of engine reliability? Is this way above the standard mileage without needing to be repaired? Should I buy it for that low of a price. If the engine would need to be rebuilt, what would be the average cost? If I were to buy it and it still ran good and I did a tune up would I still get alot more miles out of it? And roughly any other info someone can give me. Please do not try to sway me towards another bike, If I was interested in one id be asking about it. I'm debating on buying this one so I'm asking for information on this specific Motorcycle or equivalent Yamaha Motorcycles.

Added (1). The guy says he is the original owner of it. Ill post the ad at the bottom but I don't know how helpful it will be, its in Spanish. My wife read it to me. I was going to drain everything and replace all the fluids and give it a through cleaning before I even try to start it. Like I said the carb needs to be cleaned as well and i'm gonna do that myself I was gonna check the wires too and replace the spark plugs. I'm really worried about engine condition but i can't really check for anything.

Added (2). http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/mcy/4780189564.html

You can find some extremely high mileage bikes, and some which are knackered after only a few thousand. There's no telling from your description whether your ad is for a bike that has had one owner too many who did not care for the mechanical basics or if it has had a single owner for all its life.

Buying any bike that age or with that much use is going to be a risk. You might get another 100,000 miles or you might get 10. However I suspect you could get a replacement engine for comparatively little. As a basic precaution you should replace the fluids and brake pads.

If you can't start the bike and ride it then you have no idea what is wrong with it.

Consider this, if all it needed was the carb cleaned, the seller would have done that to sell it as a running bike.

A bike that will not start is worth it's weight as scrap.

The adds in Spanish so there's a good chance its got 169,000 kilometers = 105,000 miles.
Either way thats still a lot of miles & any internal replacement parts will have to come directly from a Yamaha dealer, if internal replacement parts are still available at all.
I'm an old Harley guy but I bought 2 new Yamaha's (1978 650 special & 1982 virago)when I was busy raising a family & building up a business & I would rate them as the most Harleylike of the riceburners.
Everything is quite a bit harder to get to but pretty straight forward & overbuilt once you get there.
Make sure you get a factory manual & study before you start because a some major Yamaha components are 1 time use only & can't be replaced every 10-15 years like on a Harley.

One in excellent condition with far fewer miles (under 50,000, perhaps even under 15,000 miles) could expect to get around $2500 in a retail shop, which means under $2000 on the street.

I don't think that a bike with that many miles on it is worth much more than $1000 unless it has a buttload of accessories you just have to have and is in showroom like perfect condition.

You will have to look carefully at the bike and ride it to see what kind of condition it's in. These bikes can take a lot of miles and run for a very long time. I think you can do better on price with a similar bike with fewer miles, unless it's in unusually good condition.