Service requirments and cost's

[Tom_the_great]

Good morning all,

On from the 'who service's your bike thread' I'm in the dealer pile as im just up the road from padgetts where I bought her however I could be swayed as the bike will never be owned by anyone else so the stamp is not important a good job is.

It's the first time she needs an MOT so will be asking them to do that aswell (which im told is £25 standard) but what should the bike need to keep her in as new condition and what should I expect to pay for this?. The bike is a 10 plate pointy with 3000 miles maximum ! has been stored for around a year, as I was going through the house refurb and never got out.

thanks in advance omo.

[dw22]

"what should the bike need to keep her in as new condition?"
Keep on top of the services etc. grab yourself a service manual and go by that.
If its been sitting around a while I would check all the brakes,make sure none are binding etc. No harm in oil & filter change. Spark plug should be good if its got 3k on it. I believe it needs to be inspected at 4k miles. Grease linkages etc.
Also give it a good coating of ACF-50.

[Bibio]

with 3000 miles i would presume that you have had the first 600 mile service and thats it?

[Tom_the_great]

with 3000 miles i would presume that you have had the first 600 mile service and thats it?

Hi Bib, yes 600 was done in the first year then most of the miles was done at AR 2012 and the odd trip to north yorkshire.

I've spoken to Padgetts and was quoted £159 for a fluid/filter change etc which seems to be the norm.

[Bibio]

yup basic service price. TBH a filter is going to be £10, oil £30-40, tin of LM Grease £5, tin of copper grease £5, sump plug washer £2-4 for a bag and thats your basic service. if you want to change the brake fluid (advisable as its 7 years old) then add another £6.

presuming you have the tools then its an easy job. so for £60-65 you can do your own basic service which you can do properly instead of being on 'time' like a garage.

so your saving £100 which ooohhh look is a shed load of tools :-)

since you dont use the bike much and if it were me i would be doing 'the works'.

'the works' include.. greasing the steering head bearings, swingarm and linkage bearings, TPS, brake/clutch/gearchange/footpegs pivots (these should be done on the basic service).

i would also highly recommend that you RRG all the brake pistons NOW to stop any chance of them furring up. Suzuki scare the pistons with grease at the factory.

yes the above sounds a lot but doing the work now will save you an absolute fortune in the future. yes i know the bike has only done 3000 miles but its the ideal candidate to have all the work done while everything is still 'fresh'

[Tom_the_great]

Cheers for that bib, have taken it on board as I most likly have the tools (again more time cleaning then using) and may look at doing it my self if I feel confident or may even ask Owenski if he can spare some time to oversee I dont do anything silly.

I'm waiting on my first choice YC if hes fancys it or if hes too busy enjoying playing with the landy.

one question whats 'RRG' ?

[garynortheast]

Red rubber grease.

[Bibio]

Red Rubber Grease

learn to do it yourself that way you gain a skill and again save a fortune. if you dont feel confident though, take it to someone who is.

if it was you who added your exhaust, tail tidy etc.etc then you are more than capable doing a basic service, in fact there is nowt much on a bike you wont be able to do yourself if you have done the above.

top tips.. dont use 1/2 tools use 3/8 that way you are less likely to strip threads by tightening them too much which is a common mistake with nubes. if a nut/bolt/sparkplug/sump plug wont thread most of the way by finger then its not threading right, never ever put nuts/bolts on with a tool till you need to tighten it up. only exception to this are nylock nuts but again you should be able to thread it on with ease. when you gain experience using tools you get a 'feel' for things and learn to recognise things that are right.

ooohhh and buy the right tool for the right job, yes you might only use it once but the job will be a lot easier and besides you are already saving by doing the job yourself.

unless i know a mechanic i dont trust them one little bit to work on my bike. i learned to do it myself for A-i was always skint when i was a teen and B-if i do it i know its done right. my very first bike i bought from a shop (second hand) had to have the fork seals replaced and the mechanic feked it up and i almost crashed and died. ever since then i have had no confidence in so called professional mechanics. when i do have work done like tyre changes i ALWAYS go over it myself afterwords.

[Dave20046]

Yorkie chris ain't that far from you tom.

soz just seen your post, wait on chris - I've much more faith in him than a garage who might hit a problem/not have something in stock and just miss out an element of the service...or learning to do it yourself, it's not hard

[yorkie_chris]

Aye I'm still doing work on them when folk want it.