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I guess I'm lucky, I got a dealer an hour away, I pass by It while working often.
There Is a wrench there, he answers every question I have,
never says, "bring It In",,
He's the one who said, "The first thing you buy for your bike Is the HD service book"
I take His advice,,
Also got a freind who's been into sporties for decades, has built, rebuilt, modified,
raced, for 30 plus years,,,
I Listen to him also,,,,
I do all my own work, yea I have a mechanical background and would gladly show someone else how easy it is, preventative maintenance is the key, looking and checking your bike even when you are cleaning it is a good start.
I service mine every 2,000 miles (my choice no technical reason), sounds a bit excessive but clean oil never broke an engine, and only costs me 50 for engine oil, oil filter, and primary oil from HD.
Ain't nuttin wrong with that,,,
I don't get to log many miles a year,
so I change my Oil twice a year,,
Primary,,It tells me when,
I agree.
It's the same with cars, my last one had over 400k on it with the original timing belt, if I had changed the timing belt by the book every 80k I would have put in five timing belts at over 350 bucks each, that's over $1700.00 wasted.
I may be misunderstanding you, but I have over 35 years experience as an auto mechanic, and I have never, ever heard of a timing belt or chain lasting 400 thousand miles. What kind of car do you have???
About the only thing right now I am not comfortable doing myself is checking the spokes to make sure they're not loosening up. I read the instructions on how to do it and the tools I'd need to do it. Just seems like a fairly complex process.
Other than that I do all my own work other than tire mounting. The article, with a couple exceptions, seems to be for those that religiously rely on the dealer for their maintainance.
Had my bike worked on at Bruce Rossmeyer in Sunrise Fl. and they scraped the powder coat off my transmission. That was the day I bought a shop manuel and started doing my own work!
Being a Chrysler mechanic myself, I know how exaggerated service intervals can be and how much dealers rape customers. That said, since I am mechanically inclined And have plenty of tools, I do all my own work. No one touches my vehicles except me except tires since I don't have the equipment to do that.
Being a Chrysler mechanic myself, I know how exaggerated service intervals can be and how much dealers rape customers. That said, since I am mechanically inclined And have plenty of tools, I do all my own work. No one touches my vehicles except me except tires since I don't have the equipment to do that.
Heck, what equipment? I do my tires myself. Couple of harbor freight tire irons and a little bit of muscle and its a piece of cake. Biggest pain can be breaking the bead but I just line up the tire with my cage and drive on to it. Instantly breaks the bead. I had to do 5 tires this summer, 3 rears and 2 fronts. After you do it a few times its no big deal. Takes about 30 minutes by myself.
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