Originally Posted by thedonal

Well- I did my first service on the bike on Saturday- plugs, oil + air filters, coolant and oil, plus replaced the clutch cable (the last one sent to me was clearly too long and for the unfaired mode).

It all went....characterbuildingly! A 1. hour job taking 5. The wing mirror bolts on the fairing had their allen sockets rounded, so just had to leave the fairing on and pull it away to get at stuff- that was no real bother. Even the washer on the coolant drain plug was OK (was expecting it to be broken as I'd had a bit of spitting from the area on occasion) and almost everything else came apart fine.

The old oil filter was absolutely stuck fast- took a lot of muscle to get the thing off. Lovely. Popped the new filter on and filled the engine. Started her- lovely. My brother (helping and giving moral support!) revved the bike- and a huge jet of oil shot out from around the filter. On inspection, a bit of rubber was sticking out of the side- bugg€r, I thought- as in the filter is
bugg€red! But no- the rubber seal from the old filter (lookied like a cheaper, non suzuki one) was stick sticking to the filter socket. A relief, I can say.

So- popped it back together and started to fill up with oil again- at which point I hadn't re-fitted the sump plug after draining the oil again. Big D'Oh!

So- at this point, people are turning up with fairy liquid to help wash the local birds and wildlife, while my bro shoots off to get more oil.

Finally- all filled up, and she's running sweeeeet now.

I got to 155 miles before filling up the tank- the light started flashing at 147 miles (normally anything from 110 to 125 before it lights up. So- she starts more happily, with less choke, the clutch works proply and smoovly now and the engine seems to run much sweeter. Very happy D!

One thing I did spot was that the airbox had some brown fluid in it- I assume from all the rain and muck and stuff knocking about- I assume it's coming through the snorkel in the air filter and was the main cause of running woes in the baddest wet weather- any suggestions on how to avoid this? I gues regular checks will help.

The back plug was fine and the front FILTHY- but the electrodes were fairly clean. I've covered the ceramic part of the plug in silicone seal and given each cylinder head a good squirt after plugging the leads back in- hopefully this should also avoid running woes.

Is it common to notice such an increase in mpg after a service? Admittedly, most of the miles yesterday were A roads, rather than up and down the gears in traffic and I wasn't absolutely hooning around, but it does seem to be a vast improvement regardless... Not that I'm complaining of course. And it's so nice not to have to blip the throttle when starting up and run at full choke for a while... And I saved at least £40 on labour whilst learning loads!!

Perhaps now I can start saving for that Fuel exhaust- but I'm sure something else will turn up...!