Honda First Service

[nathanm]

Yeah first services are very seldom included, and generally only if you wangled them as part of the deal. You would have had to pay had you bought Himalayans as well, although £150 sounds steep for a Honda. Their service plans generally make good financial sense, especially on the Africa Twins which seem to have a pricey third service.

My advice would be to just do the first one yourself because your warranty is going to be void anyway by the time you miss the second service on the road, and really you ought to learn to self service your bike if you're traveling where you plan to travel. And maybe add the countries to the sig list once you've been there, rather than before.

[OB1]

Yeah first services are very seldom included, and generally only if you wangled them as part of the deal. You would have had to pay had you bought Himalayans as well, although £150 sounds steep for a Honda. Their service plans generally make good financial sense, especially on the Africa Twins which seem to have a pricey third service.

My advice would be to just do the first one yourself because your warranty is going to be void anyway by the time you miss the second service on the road, and really you ought to learn to self service your bike if you're traveling where you plan to travel. And maybe add the countries to the sig list once you've been there, rather than before.

Thanks Nathan.

The last two new bikes were both Triumphs and, according to the same dealer, the first service is free on them. This was my reason for thinking that, as they are a Honda/Triumph dealer, it was them giving the free service rather than Honda or Triumph.

Both Mike and I are already quite competent when it comes to servicing bikes and, as I said, we were only really planning to have the first service at the dealer for warranty reasons. The trip isn't until 2020, so the first year would be getting to know the bikes whilst travelling around the UK and Europe. We expect the bikes to have at least 10,000 miles on them before the off.

As for the countries in the signature, they are countries that I have already visited: I wouldn't think of adding a country if I hadn't already been there.

[nathanm]

Go ya, that makes sense.

I'm sure with services you pay for it one way or another, either a hidden cost or upfront. And great that you'll be familiar with the bikes before heading off. You guys will be fine.

[OnHellas]

My take on this one is this OB1.

First of all, good on you and your mate for planning a trip like yours.
Secondly, you now know that your box of naivety isn’t empty.
Thirdly, in the scheme of the trip it’s not much money.

Number one above explains itself.

The second one is important I reckon. One thing I’ve learned during my longer trips is that things happen that you thought you would have foreseen or had the experience to have prevented. That’s your box of naivety. If your is like mine you can never completely empty it. There’s always some left. This box is one of the places that unexpected adventure comes from.
Like not buying fuel when you can get it and running out......a new adventure within the big adventure begins.

The third one, “in the scheme of the trip” is in relation to money. Sometimes expenses can’t be avoided. Or you end up with a bill to pay due to number 2, your old friend the box of naivety.
When this happens, like your first service being a few quid more than you imagined it would be, think of how much the trip will be costing you overall.
Then say “in the scheme of the trip it’s not a lot at all”.
It’s still annoying but you can’t change it. At least both the naivety and the box it comes in is free!!

Good luck with everything and keep us informed of what you do, including during the build up to your trip.

[minkyhead]

dont know where they get that from ... but i guess if they charge a hours labour it would be 70 quid ....one thing on the rallys that seems to be re occuring is over tight head bearings from the factory ..mine were proper tight ..had to smack the lock ring silly hard to loosen it off ..id recomend doin that .

[OB1]

dont know where they get that from ... but i guess if they charge a hours labour it would be 70 quid ....one thing on the rallys that seems to be re occuring is over tight head bearings from the factory ..mine were proper tight ..had to smack the lock ring silly hard to loosen it off ..id recomend doin that .

Some good advice there and, now that you've mentioned it, I'll be checking that along with how much grease is used there and on the swing arm pivot before I do too many more miles: I've heard that they don't hae too much in there from the factory.

I'm not sure how much of a check over the workshop did as my rear tyre only had 17 psi in it when they returned it to me... That's the last they'll see of these two bikes...

[crofty]

If your not going to 2020, i would get the first service done at the dealer and just put it down to experience. you'll ride the bike so much that your 2nd service will come up before you go and that gives you some cover with the warranty while your still in UK/ Europe. Great choice of bike and if I was going where you are it would be my first choice, i did 15k touring on mine in less than 2 years.

[prg4967]

1st service on my EXC 500 was after 1 hour of use and was £160...I did pay for it as the KTM warranty is fragile enough as it is...and my Mrs did buy the bike for me so I can’t complain really


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