16,000 service

[woosie 14]

Hi, just had a quote for a 16,000 mile service from a Honda main dealership for my 2021 NC750X, £635.00.

Does it really cost this much for a main service?, I was so shocked I actually started laughing over the phone.

[Skidt 1,319]

Valve clearance check due at this mileage. I’d need to check the manual to find out what else is required.

Thats a steep price though imho. 
 

Valve clearances are screw and lock nut adjustable, rather than shims, so if you’re okay on the tools, a relatively straight forward job to do. 
 

Might be worth shopping around for a few other quotes. Good luck. 

[Empty_Ten 454]

From a main dealer, yep that’ll be the ballpark.

 

Even with an independent you’ll be north of £500.  16,000 miles is the valve clearance check.

[PoppetM 16,874]

Ouch. Mine is fast approaching, I am going to take it to my independent garage and will see what the quote is.

[EdG 71]

9 hours ago, woosie said:

Hi, just had a quote for a 16,000 mile service from a Honda main dealership for my 2021 NC750X, £635.00.

Does it really cost this much for a main service?, I was so shocked I actually started laughing over the phone.

I guess that main dealers have a fixed price for a service or each job. I bought by NC new a couple of years ago and the first service was at a main dealer. I think the charge was around £200 for what I consider to be a minimalist job. Dealers are not a charity but there is a limit to what we are prepared to pay. I do all of my own servicing. Most of the servicing jobs on an NC are not too difficult although they may take you a little time especially if you have to remove panels, etc. Plenty of information 0n how to do these jobs on the Internet.  Try a search on youtube.

[Xactly 5,454]

The valve clearance checking and adjustment in itself is straightforward but it's easier to swing the radiator out of the way. I changed the  coolant at the same time when I did mine. The only real PITA in terms of access is the air filter. 

The amount quoted is not out of order, provided they actually do everything they should. A dealer would do the job more quickly than me because they work on these bikes often. I didn't keep mine long enough to do the work automatically like I have done with the bikes I liked and kept. Even so the hourly rate and hours needed by the workshop will cost, plus full retail price of Honda parts and oil.

Consider yourself lucky you don't have a Multistrada 1260 twin - the valve job service on that costs £1400 at 16000 miles - a bit of a shock to an owner friend of mine...

[Andy131 751]

After breaking a few clips that are actually part of the side panels on mine she will be dealer serviced - the cost of the side panels and rewrapping them will far outweigh the cost of the service.  A metal knee and arthiritis in the other means that getting down to even adjust the chain is downright painful, so an hour or two messing about, taking panels off, adjusting bits and building her back up would probably have me throwing the bike in the local canal.

 

Strangely enough swapping out brake discs or changing the oil on the Landy are theraputic - done either lying down or standing up. LR service costs rarely less than £1k and can be three or four times that if a timing chain is involved.

 

Strange though I had the panels off the 2016 & 2018 bikes several times without breaking any clips - lost a couple of the push-pin fasteners though.  Time to buy a motorcycle lift table?

 

Edited April 27 by Andy131
spelling

[Slowboy 20,572]

2 hours ago, Andy131 said:

Time to buy a motorcycle lift table?

Best tool I ever bought Andy. Makes working on the bikes so much easier. Mines a 15 year old ARE hydraulic one.

Its been worth its weight in aching joints. 

[Tegraman 807]

1 hour ago, Andy131 said:

Time to buy a motorcycle lift table?

I would agree strongly. My skeleton objects to any other position than lying down, standing or sitting.

I constructed and installed a bike lift even before returning to biking. The table is completely flush with the garage floor until I want to raise it. The detachable front wheel clamp simply bolts to the table with 4 x M16 screws, so I just drive the bike into the clamp, and get off, no centre or sidestand required. The table rises hydraulically to a maximum of 1.5 m on a telescopic, heavy-wall square 120mm x 120mm tube that prevents rotation or any other movement. In any position the table is rock solid and of course can't possibly fall over. The 1.5 hp electric motor, hydraulic gear pump, 7 tonne ram, shuttle valve and all the steel sections were all recycled from previous use. The hydraulic hoses are new.

Engine, brakes and chain spannering is usually done sitting down with the items at approximately face height. Frunk, tank, lights etc are done either sitting down or standing up with the items at approximately chest height.

The table was made a little wider than the wheels on the paddock stand.

If I change bikes I will just modify the table to suit.

Bliss. I would have to stop biking if I couldn’t work like that.

[Grumpy old man 4,682]

The ridiculous price for servicing is the main reason I don't change bike. I can do the valves, change the coolant, air filter and oil and filter in less than 3 hours. The oil and filters around £55, halfords silicate free coolant about £15.

I don't enjoy spannering but hey-ho if I want to ride I don't have a choice. 

[Xactly 5,454]

I should have bought a bike lift years ago - I wish I had. For me, given the likely small number of years left to do any spannering it's not worth it now and potentially it's just more stuff my wife or family would have to dispose of when I'm dust.

 

A good mate of mine had one. We used it to change the gearbox on my R1100RS a few years ago, a job that I would not have attempted without a lift, though I did the rear pivot bearings easily enough with the bike on its mainstand. I was a bit bendier then. He got rid of it in the end because of the space it took up.

[Tegraman 807]

22 minutes ago, Xactly said:

t's just more stuff my wife or family would have to dispose of when I'm dust.

That’s on my mind too. I’ve already started to get rid of things that I rarely use. It is a sad process, each item has a story to tell, but only to me, to others it is just junk. I still use hand tools that I bought when I was sixteen, usually from shops in Sheffield, that felt like Aladdins cave to me, like Marples chisels, Moore and Wright micrometers and even a rare Joseph Rogers penknife. My lathe is an old but cherished Myford ML7, still in perfect working order. It is small for heavy jobs, a modelmakers machine really. I can’t bear the thought of such things going to landfill or to people with no engineering soul. I tell myself to enjoy them while I can, and sell them one by one as my sight and dexterity decline. My garage/workshop is important to me, it is where I go instead of watching the magic lantern in the living room, or pressing keys on a computer (except for reading lovely posts from you good people, of course.)

I’m offended at some deep level whenever I encounter a piece of far eastern crap, after a long lifetime of being proud of our great engineering heritage and always turning beautifully crafted tools over just for the pleasure of reading “made in England” stamped on the blade.

Your R1100RS may not have been made here, but it surely was made by a group of dedicated engineers, qualified by training and by instinct, to produce things that they can be proud of. 

Don’t give up, Mr X, make or buy yourself a bike lift, and then, when the time comes that you decide to hang up your helmet, invite Ted to auction it off to the members to help with the upkeep of our forum.

This life isn’t a trial run.

[Xactly 5,454]

Yes, I've got a load of good stuff garnered over a lifetime of amateur spannering and also plumbing, decorating, gardening, beer and wine making, IT stuff, photography etc . Trouble is my descendants are not interested and my wife sees it as junk mostly. It's not helped by her divesting herself of similar re her own interests.

We were going to move 2-3 years ago but changed our mind - got rid of a load of stuff, a lot of which of course I then needed....🧐

[Gringo 5,145]

I'm quite lucky really. I bought a bench years ago. It was then transferred to my sons garage/workshop which is, pretty much, fully equipped. No way I can work on the bike(s) without a bench these days. 

[baldric 869]

20 hours ago, Tegraman said:

This life isn’t a trial run.

Amen to that.

[Grumpy old man 4,682]

21 hours ago, Tegraman said:

life isn’t a trial run

I understand that completely and believe it but application of the theory is far more difficult. 

[SC07NCX 22]

MInd this cost includes a cylinder head gasket as well.  Depends on the condition of the existing one and it could be used again.  The dealer deducted that cost from the bill of materials for my 16k mile service.  Left the bike with them overnight and picked up 24hrs later.  With my mileage, it won't be another eight years before it needs done again + proper service of oily bits so I considered it cost effective for me.

[woosie 14]

I will try some independent garages in my area and see the difference in price, it must be at least a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than main dealer.

[Xactly 5,454]

6 hours ago, SC07NCX said:

MInd this cost includes a cylinder head gasket as well.  Depends on the condition of the existing one and it could be used again.  The dealer deducted that cost from the bill of materials for my 16k mile service.  Left the bike with them overnight and picked up 24hrs later.  With my mileage, it won't be another eight years before it needs done again + proper service of oily bits so I considered it cost effective for me.

Cylinder head gasket? I think (hope) you mean valve cover gasket....I reused mine as I have done on all the bikes I've owned with modern gasket materials.

[MatBin 5,102]

1 hour ago, Xactly said:

Cylinder head gasket? I think (hope) you mean valve cover gasket....I reused mine as I have done on all the bikes I've owned with modern gasket materials.

I thought the same.

16k service is lots of inspection, plus presumably adjust if needed, so i suppose they assume adjustments will be needed and price accordingly. But only replace items are oil, filters, all 3 on a dct. Mine is 2500 miles off a 16k but with my mileage I might be toasty before the service comes up, if i am still around I shall do it. 😁

[Empty_Ten 454]

6 hours ago, woosie said:

I will try some independent garages in my area and see the difference in price, it must be at least a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than main dealer.

I’ve had 5x valve clearance services across 3 bikes.  All were £500+ apart from the first valve clearance service I had for the NC which was around mid-late 2021 and it was £300.  I used the same garage for the 2nd valve clearance June 2023 and it was £500.

 

i think the first one was a one off as the garage was still establishing itself and because it was the tail end of the shenanigans in 2020.

 

dont think you’ll be saving as much as you think.  The price of consumables (oil, spark plugs, coolant etc) seems to have skyrocketed.  I doubt you’ll get much change from £100 for oil, filter, spark plugs and coolant.

[MatBin 5,102]

You're right about fluids, I just bought a couple of bottles coolant, £20 as near as damn it. Seems outrageous, oil is the same.