As we can see there are a variety of opinions. By all means service your bike in future, but I regard that first service as very important. I've been buying new bikes since the 1960s and with several of them there have been issues which either I have identified, or the dealer did which I hadn't noticed. I have always and will continue to have that first service done.

 

BS....Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act

 

To original poster from New Jersey: I thought having the 1000 mile service done at a dealer was a good idea, too, on my 2017 XL1200T Superlow. Turned out they did not use the correct gasket on the primary chain tension inspection cover. Leaked oil like crazy. They stood behind it and picked it up, fixed it and apologized. The point is that I would not have made that mistake after wrenching for almost 50 years. Never again unless service or repair is something I'm not tooled for. Take the advice given many times; get a service manual and do it yourself. There are also many videos out there to help you cover all the bases. I recommend Delboy's videos on a Sportster. You will learn more about your bike by doing it yourself, and you are, I'm sure, quite capable of doing it correctly.

 

LOLSSS people actually get HD to service their bike? HAHAAHAHAHA

 

I took mine in at 1,000 miles and will probably again for the next service. Being this is all new to me I will eventually start doing my own maintenance. I'm no stranger to getting my hands dirty working on stuff.

 

The price quoted does sound high for the area but I have not had my bike serviced at the dealer for 10 years. The warranty comment is valid IF YOU ARE LIKE ME AND CANNOT SAVE RECEIPTS NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY. I try, but simply cannot. The first service is the most important, especially if you got the bike used and have no idea what the original owner did or didn't do to the bike.

The service manual is excellent. I had basic skills, growing up working on my own cars, and was able to replace a leaking head gasket with no problems. You as an A&P should have no issues doing the work.

If you want someone else to look at the bike since you are not familiar with it, consider an independent bike shop. Thy should be cheaper than a dealer and if a small to medium sized shop where the owner is working on bikes you should have better comfort that he is going to do things the right way as his livelihood depends on each bike. That is not the case in a dealership.

Regarding your plan, I'd say yes to changing the oil at the end of the season and would add placing it on a battery tender of the winter as well. As for the dealer doing future service, not sure that dealer records will add much value. I'd either do it yourself or have an indy bike shop do it for you if you want a record and have someone else's eyes on the bike.

Curious as to which dealer and where in NJ? I'm in PA just outside Philly

 

Thanks for all the advice. After much research and some debate, I decided to do it myself. There were two factors at play, the money and the experience with motorcycles. I don't think that there is anything on the motorcycle inspection that I will not be able to perform according to the manual. I have all the tooling I need, including torque wrenches. Now, to open up a can of worms...As new as I am to HD, I know there's an ongoing, endless debate on what type of fluids to use. I decided to purchase Mobil 1 synthetic 20/50 for the engine oil, HD Formula+ for the primary , along with a KN engine oil filter. The reason I went with Formula + is because that's what's recommended per the manual, and I'm very hesitant/ inexperienced to know what else works. If there's anything else I'm missing, please chime in. As many noted, there's no better way to learn and understand how your motorcycle functions than to work it yourself. Thank for all the replies, safe riding.

 

Rahway NJ

 

Not surprised you are near Rahway since there are only a few places where you could be working on jets I don't know anyone up that way.

Regarding fluids, my Sportster has 234,000 miles on it, with 206,000 miles on the engine when I killed it last year. Up until that point the engine was stock and the only work done had been pulling heads to replace broken exhaust studs. I ran HD Syn3 in the engine and HD Formula+ in the primary. I followed the manual for change frequency.

I was doing an oil analysis after every oil change and up until it died they all looked fine. The few times that there was a spike of aluminum or iron was right after I had pulled a stud to drill out an exhaust stud, so obviously I hadn't gotten everything out. I also went 10,000+ miles 2 or 3 times and the oil was fine.