i currently have 1050 miles and obviously need to take the bike into service. currently the closest dealer is 30 minutes away. i can get a ride to and from but it is a PITA. my other alternative is to just ride the bike another 200-300 miles till she goes up for the winter and then get this done later or in the spring at a new dealer opening up 1.5 miles from my house.

what would you do?

 

Buy a service manual and do the service yourself....

 

+1 on doing it yourself. Its easy, and you learn your way around the bike a little more, if you're not well viced with it.

I would get it done ASAP, they have a break-in oil in all the holes, and that oil probably has tiny little metal particles in it. So I say get it swapped out as soon as you can.

 

Here is the quote from the HD warranty:

Regular maintenance must be performed at specified intervals to help keep your new Harley-Davidson motorcycle operating at peak performance and keep your new motorcycle limited warranty in force.

The unknown is how far after the scheduled interval can you go....?

I've never heard of a limit to the overage....

In my case, I road my '12 Ultra cross country after the 1K service. I was three days from home, when I hit 5K miles. I had my 5K service done on-the-road at a dealership, at 5,263 miles. That's only 5.26% over. I've since had warranty work and no issue with the mileage was mentioned.

If you go 300 miles over the 1K, that's 30% over... not sure if that would make a difference.

My gut says, if you have a warranty claim, and they see in your bike record that the service was done by a dealer, they won't really take notice of the mileage.

Now if it's a contested warranty issue, for whatever reason, they may try to use that over mileage to avoid paying out.

It would be worth my peace of mind to do it. Either take the ride to the dealer or do it yourself, with good documentation.

If I went 300 miles over, I'd want it done by a dealer, so it shows up on the bike record.

Good luck....

 

It's just a nice round, target number...nothing more nothing less. Same thing goes for how often to change your oils. A couple hundred miles over isn't going to make a difference.

 

Exactly! 220/221, whatever it takes.

Break-in oil is a myth. They fill the bikes with same **** that is on the shelves. The reason they say do the first service at 1000 miles is due to the engine break-in and maybe some tiny particles of metal will get collected. But the filter should catch all of it.

 

I had a green light from my dealer when I told him that it would be around the 1300 mark when I brought it in. He was cool with it.....had service done and it does shift better since they changed the fluids...synthetic all around. You wont have any problems at the 1300 mark but do it before you store it.....

 

I took mine in early rather than late for the first one. Whilst breaking in, that oil contains all kinds of bits of metal. Best to get it out sooner rather than later IMO. I'm also going to keep going back to the dealer whilst it is in the warranty period. Then there's just no arguments. Also best not to mix doing your own services with dealerships as they may be judging the appearance of the oil etc. from when it last came in to them. So for example, say you change at 500m and take it in for 1000m, then do your own 2.5k and take it in for 5k. If there was twice as much wear as should be expected, the dealer won't notice it in the oil as they'll only see half the wear.

So my advice is to take it to the dealer if anything earlier than the recommended mileage and then once out of warranty, do it yourself (or indy). But it's always going to be better to do oil changes more often than less, and the first few thousand miles have logically got to be more sensitive than the rest.

 

I took mine in for the 1k at about 1200-ish miles. No eyebrows were raised.


I got it back yesterday after experiencing difficulty downshifting. Tech said there was a burr in the c/c bushing (?) It was fixed N/C under warranty and I'm good to go with fresh juice in the gearbox.

 

My dealer told me after I bought mine if you want to bring it in before 1K fine if you go over no big deal.