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20, 000 mile service


PhilJones

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Not Sure if I should start a second topic but I have just passed 20000 miles and I know the Honda sales team spout it is an 8k service interval but not if you want to keep the bike working through the winter. So my question.

What would be recommended for a 20,000 mile service, I am reasonable at this stuff and have a cozy garage to do it in. Please list away, oh and any good places to get the parts / oils from.

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DaveM59

The service interval is not seasonal, so why shorten it in winter, run it until 24,000? If you have a cozy garage you can change consumables like brake pads when they are worn out and not before, it's a 10 minute job. Oil changes are at 8000 miles regardless of seasons. What I would do to prepare for winter use and to make doing any sort of maintenance during miserable weather is to make sure all necessary bolts, pins, screws etc all come undone easily. Remove and coppaslip them and make sure that nothing you need to undo will become a bigger problem than necessary. Give the bike structure under the panels a good blast of whatever is your favourite version of ACF50 and make sure the electrics are all weather protected and bulbs all in good order and not darkening off and about to blow. Electrics get wet in summer but soon dry out, but they are permanently wet in winter so check all connectors.

Prices for oil and filters don't vary a lot apart from main dealers who charge a lot more, but look at Halfords, Euro Car Parts or online bike spares like Fowlers don't get too anal about the brand. Home brand oil is just as good as the brand leaders. If you are out of warranty then use OEM quality aftermarket filters, they are perfectly OK and half the price of Honda.

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Guest aldmannie

Service interval for warranty purposes is 8000 miles or 12 months whichever comes first.

After the warranty expires you don't need to bother too much about the 12 month aspect but you don't want to go too long without fresh oil.

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3 hours ago, DaveM59 said:

The service interval is not seasonal, so why shorten it in winter, run it until 24,000? If you have a cozy garage you can change consumables like brake pads when they are worn out and not before, it's a 10 minute job. Oil changes are at 8000 miles regardless of seasons. What I would do to prepare for winter use and to make doing any sort of maintenance during miserable weather is to make sure all necessary bolts, pins, screws etc all come undone easily. Remove and coppaslip them and make sure that nothing you need to undo will become a bigger problem than necessary. Give the bike structure under the panels a good blast of whatever is your favourite version of ACF50 and make sure the electrics are all weather protected and bulbs all in good order and not darkening off and about to blow. Electrics get wet in summer but soon dry out, but they are permanently wet in winter so check all connectors.

Prices for oil and filters don't vary a lot apart from main dealers who charge a lot more, but look at Halfords, Euro Car Parts or online bike spares like Fowlers don't get too anal about the brand. Home brand oil is just as good as the brand leaders. If you are out of warranty then use OEM quality aftermarket filters, they are perfectly OK and half the price of Honda.

Hi Dave, I have a buddy in the trade and he told me the advertising men suggested increasing the service intervals for better sales rather than need, he also said to keep an eye on the brake callipers, :)  I have just bought the bike and I am doing 500 miles a week, I will drop the oil and filter every 4k every couple of months and check out the pads just wondered if there was anything obvious I was missing out on really :) 

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2 hours ago, aldmannie said:

Service interval for warranty purposes is 8000 miles or 12 months whichever comes first.

After the warranty expires you don't need to bother too much about the 12 month aspect but you don't want to go too long without fresh oil.

Absolutely, I want this bike to last so yes the oil will be changed this weekend. Might even clean her :) 

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Guest aldmannie
8 minutes ago, PhilJones said:

I have just bought the bike and I am doing 500 miles a week, I will drop the oil and filter every 4k every couple of months and check out the pads just wondered if there was anything obvious I was missing out on really :) 

 

If you are doing big mileages like that there's no need to change the oil before the recommended 8000 mile interval.

 

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DaveM59

Exactly, keep it at 8000 otherwise you are just wasting your money and not doing anything at all for the bike. Really there is only oil and filters that need doing to a mileage, everything else is done as needed or in the case of brake fluid and coolant every two or three years at a convenient time. Five years for red antifreeze when it could be advantageous to replace the thermostat too all regardless of mileage as these are time or seasonal related items. Spark plugs are good for 18,000 miles and the air filter can be anything from a year to five years before needing changing as they are environment dependent, not time or mileage. The reason such things are included in a service schedule is for safety, dealer profits and manufacturers covering their backs to the lowest denominator, just in case! Oil the chain occasionally but only when it's dry and keep your eye on the tyres for nails as they don't always lose pressure while riding, but overnight when cooled down.

If you are riding in winter, wash it occasionally but not the plastics, they won't take any harm, but up underneath, around the shocker, swing arm and upper fork tubes and keep the callipers clean or the salt attacks things. Nuts and bolts, screws and such rust on Jap bikes as they use black anodised mild steel so once you put a tool to them and scrape the corners off, they develop rusty edges so you are forever touching up with satin black paint.

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Dunnster

Agree with the above, time or mileage dependant. Also the spark plugs are precious metal types and are good for at least 30k miles, probably more like 50k miles is a very realistic life.

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Guest Mac750
9 hours ago, PhilJones said:

Hi Dave, I have a buddy in the trade and he told me the advertising men suggested increasing the service intervals for better sales rather than need, he also said to keep an eye on the brake callipers, :)  I have just bought the bike and I am doing 500 miles a week, I will drop the oil and filter every 4k every couple of months and check out the pads just wondered if there was anything obvious I was missing out on really :) 

Get a cable oiler and drop some in the cables the clutch cable in the non DCT rubbed on the adjuster on the pre 2016 bikes, the cure is to bend the bracket so the cable runs better. Not my idea taken from the S.A forum. Some good info on that forum also. 👍

Edited by Mac750
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Andy m

Aren't the cables now nylon lined teflon coated? Adding oil to dirt creates grinding paste. This lubed better than fresh air in the olden days when the cables were steel on steel or steel on brass, but most manufacturers I thought had moved on.

 

Americans can get their oil analysed much more easily than we can, so there is data for septics using V-Stroms. Every bike from a commuter in California to a guy doing repeated coast to coast runs with the IBA mentalists was having the oil changed too soon. Suzuki want to sell oil. Every oil change you risk drain plug threads and run for 30 seconds with low oil pressure.

 

The advice in the manual is to cover the far north (thats Norway, not Stoke for those inside the M25). Here multigrade works but is at the limit. The locals switch to winter grades and fit sump heaters, ignoring the manufacturers claims.

 

I have stuck to the manufacturers reccomendations for the last 15 years and had no hassle. Oil change between 8000 and 10000 as convienient and the rest as it needs it. Don't forget brake fluid needs to come out between 2 and 3 years.

 

Andy

 

 

Edited by Andy m
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Guest Mac750

Didney know the cables was teflon coated (nice saves a job), but on the pre 2015 the clutch cable can snap as it's run is slightly skewed at the adjustment barrel at the clutch end on some early bikes, the S.A forum shows pictures and shiny cable shows where it's making contact . Being hotter and more sandy than our pitiful August they expressed concern that the clutch cable snapped regularly. The cure was to slightly bend the metal bracket holding the adjuster so it corrected the cable run.  Maybe of use to someone doing Megha miles over winter . No use what so ever for the DCT guys 😉

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DaveM59

The point about wear being imposed physically every time you change the oil is a good one. Plus every time anyone 'tinkers' there is the danger of damaging or forgetting to tighten, over-tighten, strip threads, round off heads etc regardless how efficient you are, the odds go up. So it's best to leave everything alone until it is necessary to do something, then do just what is needed. This not only reduces risk, wear and tear but also saves a lot of money. Preventative maintenance when you first get a bike/car pays off big time.

The best maintenance tool is your eyes. Check over things regularly, keep stuff fairly clean, but not obsessively so, a power washer can be a bad thing too.

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Addison Lee, on their website, mention that their fleet cars are serviced every 6,000 miles, rather than the manufacturers' recommended 12,000 miles.  This may be partly for marketing purposes and partly to boost residual sale prices.  However, the additional cost would be considerable and I therefore suspect their thinking must be, in part at least, down to the fact that long service intervals may not be good for a vehicle.

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Andy m

Landin mite innit. Hours count rather than miles. A company that big will have had an oil analysis done, the costs are too great not to.

 

The nationwide truck fleets do the same. It will cost a truck manufacturer hundreds of thousands in sales if their trial vehicle comes back with worn out oil and the competitors lasts another week. The fleets drive intervals longer while the bike manufacturers selling to Joe Public would cheerfully have them shorter.

 

The Enfield is a laugh. The dealer says 2500 miles, the handbook 2500 km, the old boys at the REOC who are addicted to Castrol R say 2500 inches.... In India the oil is a greater unknown.

 

Andy

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TheEnglishman

I keep oil, filters, spark plugs, filters liquids etc as per the service manual

 

Through the winter I take the callipers off every month and clean the pistons and make sure they're not sticking.  Having had a throttle cable snap I check the cable ends and set tension.  Tyres and pressures get checked at least weekly.

 

I also wash the bike every week through the winter - which makes you see if anythings lose or broken.  

 

Late autumn I take the swing arm off and shock linkage, clean and repack the bearings with grease.  Also do the same with wheel bearings.  I should look at the head bearings but that looks like just too much to take to bits and put back together in a day.  Maybe if someone's doing theirs they'll let me watch?  Not seen a YooToob video on that.

 

I'll make a plate that shields the spark plug covers from the elements, having had both fail with arcing problems.

 

1st MOT next week at 45k - fingers crossed!!!!

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10 hours ago, Andy m said:

.. In India the oil is a greater unknown.

 

Andy

I worked in the UK on a project for an Indian company. i had to source oil to the minimum spec for some engine tests. The UK oil company we usually used were confused by my request until I explained what it was for, they had to search the bowels of their basement to find something suitable.

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coopers12345
13 hours ago, DMB said:

Addison Lee, on their website, mention that their fleet cars are serviced every 6,000 miles, rather than the manufacturers' recommended 12,000 miles.  This may be partly for marketing purposes and partly to boost residual sale prices.  However, the additional cost would be considerable and I therefore suspect their thinking must be, in part at least, down to the fact that long service intervals may not be good for a vehicle.

 

Cost wouldn't necessarily be that great. A 'service' doesn't have to include automatically changing parts, it could simply be what is more commonly referred to as a 'safety inspection' where everything is given a good looking over. I seriously doubt that they are doing a full manufacturer's service every 6 months or changing things at half the mileage that is recommended.

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