Servicing your bike yourself

After all my faffing around I tightened it by half a notch. It doesnt look like it at the time but a whole notch is alot! bare that in mind

I've just completed the 4000 mile service on my curvy. I've only had the bike 6 months and didn;t know a lot about servicing a bike. Luckily one of the lads I work with and am good mates with anyway is a bike nut. He has 4 bikes and his wife has one. He gave me all the pointers I needed and watched me do the service helping out where needed. He would have done it himself but I wanted to learn myself. It took me 2 hours and that included removing 2 fairing panels to move the radiator away from the front plug. I soted the chain out as it was a wee bit loose and got the rest of the bits done easily. £36 for the parts at Hein Gericke instead of £120 for the service at a garage. The saving has just paid for my new exhaust

Lissa & kwak are right about the wear indicators rotating, mine came back from its £130 4000 mile service with the plate bent and the swingarm scored, a schoolboy mistake by a main dealer, a good reason for doing your own servicing !

After completeing my 4000 mile service myself there was no damage whatsoever to the bike

[Stingo]

Hmm - I'm starting to do the servicing myself - basically because I know I can although I lack a bit of confidence. I used to regularly strip the bonny down but that was when I was 19/20. Time has moved on - I'm more than happy with nuts & bolts and the like, regularly do the chain etc. Changed the oil & filter the other week. Next task is the spark plugs. I'm happy getting them in & out etc BUT I always wonder if I'm supposed to adjust the gap accordingly. Presumably if you are exchanging like for like, there's no need to make adjustments...

Along with the plug job I've got to try to beat the rear brake lever into submission to make it throw the brake light on (slightly askew after my slow speed off). The light works when I pull the switch, the brake lever is just very slightly out of kilter - not worth replacing unles I snap it off in the 'realigning' process!

So - spark plug gaps?

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

No you don't!

Odd, when I bought my SV it said in the booklet that all servicing must be done by an official Suzuki Dealership or an approved Suzuki dealer during the warranty period. That said this was a sticker that was in my book which at the time I didn't think to much about.

Originally Posted by Stingo

So - spark plug gaps?

If you buy the right plugs they should be good to go anyway. Just make sure that there's a compression washer fitted.

[Stingo]

Originally Posted by Heed

If you buy the right plugs they should be good to go anyway. Just make sure that there's a compression washer fitted.

Cheers ta! That'll do for me!!

[21QUEST]

Always check the gap although only once or twice have they needed adjusting in my case.

Regards the servicing reaosns for me apart from economics is really can't see the point I paying someone to bodge stuff when I can do a perfectly good bodge myself

I've never had bike shop where there has not been a problem or two. I do understand mistakes do occur but it's the "school boy" errors that pish me off. Most of my bikes over the years have also had a few things changed on them and so more chance of stuff not being put back as they should be anyway.

Anyhoos only thought about putting this thread up after changing the oil in a pair of SRAD 750 forks I sold on Ebay. I did say fork oil would be changed before sending off so had to be done. Whilst working on them I thought can't really see a (most from my experience) shop doing a better job than I'm doing here.

Forks drained of old fluid and then filled with very light oil and left to drain for a few hours. Springs, fork caps, damper rod oil wotsit cleaned. Basically everything cleaned nice and good. Probably went a bit over the top but that's the only way I was going to do it ie like it was mine.
All then put back together better than I've had any catrdge forks come back from dealers when I've had(ages ago) them do.

I'll still work on them even if money was not an issue as you get a great deal of satisfaction from working on the bike as most have said. All I need now is my perfect garage. Heck any garage will do

Just because I can here are some pics

I'm learning. I'm not mechanically competent at all, and I wouldn't dream of touching the brakes. Part of the prob is having the right tools, there's no point in using C&N ones. Karl Daryl & John helped me put the bike back together after I dropped it, now I like to think I could do it myself. Mrs was nagging at me to take it to the garage but no way was I going to pay them £200 or so. And it was such terrific fun, I felt such a sense of achievement doing it. I still have 2 small screws that I can't find a home for, mind