I'm about to hit 5000 miles. I don't want to take bike to dealership for service. What needs to be done?

 

I'm in the process of doing my own first service. I don't think there is anything I can't do but a factory service manual is pretty much a must. There is a fair bit to go over and having all your torque specs is crucial. That's me though. You could wing it, do your oil changes and call it a day. But if you plan on continuing to do your own servicing, get the manual.

 

1K and 5K is changing fluids and lot's of check this and that. I change all three holes every 5K.
Then if the bike is not making any funny noises, clutch slipping, brakes squealing, etc, I'll grease the steering head bearing and call it a day.
And the money I save by not buying a extended warranty plus the interest, or a maintenance
package plus interest, or having the dealer do my service, allows me to go on more vacations on the bike!

 

Is Clymer's the best?

 

No, get a factory Service Manual.

 

As has been said, get the manual, it will probably be the best fifty bucks you will ever spend on the bike.

 

I agree. The factory manual is the best.

I have done several services on all my Harleys in the past and if you follow the service schedule you can have it done in a couple of hours.
One tip, while your draining the oil, for example, you can be doing other things, like checking cables, wheels, etc. you can save a lot of time that way.
I keep a copy of the service schedule print out and mark off each thing I do so I know what was done.

I think the 10,000 mile service on my Ultra cost me around $75.00 for all the parts and oil. Sure beats $500.00 the stealers wanted.

 

I use a downloaded version of the manual, about 8 bucks off of ebay. It has a search function and you can print out individual pages to have close by without ruining your manual. Very handy!

 

I haven't been able to find a downloadable one. I have a 2014 FXDB, but everytime I look around can't seem to find anything beyond 2011... Any help sourcing either the actual manual or downloadable would be greatly appreciated. I'm told I can only get it at the dealer?

 

After some digging, I found where I purchased mine last year on ebay from pvdautos. It was 13 bucks , not 8 like I was thinking. Also it says that pvd is no longer a seller on ebay?? and like you, I have not seen anything for the2014 models. Dealer may be the only source for this new a model.Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.