Who services their own bikes?

[Alphadog43]

For my first 25 years of bike riding I always serviced my own bikes, mainly because I couldnt afford to pay any one else but also because the bikes were pretty easy to work on.

More recently I have been fortunate enough to have newer bikes but because of this have fallen in to the trap of paying for a service, mainly to keep the service record up to date with a dealers stamp in the service book.

How many people on here do all of their own servicing & more specifically how practical is it to service oil cooled GS's? They seem pretty simple but even the Haynes manual refers to dealers only hmy: for certain items like ABS.

I suspect the hardened adventure bike riders on global tours are pretty much self sufficient, how do they manage?

Sorry for posing so many questions, just interested in other peoples thoughts & experiences.

[OB1]

Like you, until about 7 or 8 years ago I only rode pre-1990 bikes and therefore I would service my own - oil, plugs, filters, brake pads and shoes, etc. Simple jobs that would take an afternoon of light tinkering in the garage.

Then I bought a modern bike (T595 Daytona) with a fully stamped-up service book and fuel injection, etc. Since then I have paid up to £500 for servicing! :S

I'll be picking up my Tiger 800XC (did I mention that before?) at the beginning of March. Once the first service is out of the way, I'm going to look into doing most of it myself so that I can figure out if anything is going wrong when I embark upon my trip to Hong Kong in 2012.

[scouse]

I generally do mine on the R1100GS and when I have a big trip close to a major service I will sometimes bite the bullet. More for peace of mind or what we call in IT a sanity check. Another set of eyes checking it over in case I missed something.

But as regards oil changes, not a problem. I always leave a bike to drain from a warm engine overnight anyhow.

ABS is not really a problem as long as you keep everything clean and air-tight.

Boxers are a dream for the home mekaniknik as they are so easy to fettle. Or you can have a chat with the workshop manager. I know at my local dealers I can get a 45 quid tappet and throttle body balance that gets me a dealer stamp... but they only usually will do it for the customers who clearly know their way round a toolbox

[CRAIGREVO]

Do your own work!

Paying a main dealer to service your bike just to keep the stamps in your book up to date, is a massive false economy. It can cost around £500 for a stamp in your book, but in reality it adds nothing to the value of your bike.

who is going to care about your bike more you or a mechanic?
If you work on your own bike using a Haynes manual you can follow every torque setting to the T, A mechanic at your local dealer wont! They work to a time limit you don't.

As for ABS, its a system that will tell you if its not working so that doesn't need to be touched in a service.
The only reason you will need to use a main dealer is for diagnostics, and the bike will tell you if it needs diagnostics.

[Warthog]

I do my own servicing: both the Ural and TA.

Where I let the professionals come in is diagnosing a problem. I'm not brilliant at detective work, especially electrics :side:

[OB1]

I do my own servicing: both the Ural

You mean that you don't use the vast army of main dealers to get it serviced? :woohoo: :laugh: :whistle:

[herman]

I guess if you get a good dealer and a relationship built up with the mechanic then that route is fine,especially if you have little mechanical knowledge which lets face it, is usually gained thru cock ups. However,many of the dealers use cheap labour to do routine servicing and the attention to detail is not good,such as a mates blade with loose fairing lowers and an overfilled sump on a Husky. Personaly I do all my own work,good or bad,but have been mending wot I broke since age fifteen. Trade in values seem to be bottom book whether serviced or not it seems.

[Lee]

I'm happy to let the dealer service it during the warranty period for two reasons:

1 - as it's still 'new' (yep after 7,000 miles I still consider it to be running in :whistle: ), I like to rely on their experience with that engine in so many different bikes they service to inform me if it's running in well.

2 – if there's a warranty claim needed there's just far less hassle and arguing the toss

Rest assured, I'll be taking over the servicing once it's past the 2 year point. Though the rate I'm going it'll have 20,000+ on it by then and probably need a rebuild

[Sprockette]

I no longer trust any mechanic, whether dealer or independent, to service my bikes properly. I've had bikes come back to me without even an oil filter change on some occasions and if they're not changing oil filters, which is a relatively straight-forward thing to do, what else are they not doing?

The dealer I bought my bandit from told me he'd get an MOT put on it, which he did. Only thing is I don't think he even looked at the bike, there were so many things wrong with it that meant it should have failed an MOT. The back brake was virtually dry, for goodness sake! I'm inclined to think that they are doing it because they think I'm clueless.

I have limited mechanical knowledge but I have the bloody-mindedness to learn these things as I encounter them so I now do as much servicing as I can. Balancing carbs and checking valve clearances is the thing I'm currently looking into as the bandit is due a big service in the near future. Although, if the ABS on the bandit breaks, I think I'll take them out and fit non ABS ones, I've never had it "activate", if that's the right word, and I can't see why I should spend on something that doesn't get used. Not too keen on the bike deciding whether I can brake or not anyway, what if something confuses it? lol

[mark1150]

I've only ever had one new bike, and that was outed at it's first service.
Any other machine I've owned and loved has been spannered on by me, including the dreaded by some, Ducati cam belts.
Now here is something that may be of interest and you would have to look into your individual cases; but our Mitsubishi L200 Animal is on Mitsubishi's extended warranty, and over the years we haven't had to pay out for a thing, including full rear suspension last year; providing you can demonstrate that the vehicle has been serviced by a competent mechanic,or garage that is VAT registered.
I believe that there was a test case in law some years back; whereby a manufacturer lost the case as it was deemed unreasonable to virtually tie buyers to main dealer prices for servicing.
As said that is for cars, and to be fair I can't see bikes being any different.