The giddy thrill of Acquisition

Well he's hardly gonna' stop and post you a message a quarter of the way
through a PROPER ride!!!
Sheesh!!

 

It's just that I'm not man enough to attempt a 180km daily bicycle
commute... yet. ;-)


BTH

 

Not really interested in the litre bikes, or indeed the GSX650F - I
rode Bamfy's and it was a bit too much like my old CBR1000F, weight and
handling-wise.

We'll keep looking for a while yet.


BTH

 

So why bother with paying someone to work on your bike? Once the pair of
~45-minute trips to the shop and back to drop off the bike and pick it
back up are factored in, there's hardly even a time saving to be had out
of the exercise.

<grabs envelope and pen>

In five years and 67,000km, my ZX6 has gone through:

~15 oil changes. That's ~80L of oil at ~$9/L, $720.
8 oil filters at ~$12.50 each, $100.
16 spark plugs at $4.50 each, $72
Chain and sprockets, $279 (still have the receipt).
2L of fork oil, ~$30.
2 sets of EBC HH pads at $118 each, $236.
11 valve shims at $7.00 each, $77.

That's a total of, including a fudge factor, of some $1550 in consumables.

With 6,000km minor service and 12,000 major service intervals, over the
same time, had I done things by the book, there would've been six minor
services at ~$350 each and five major services at ~$550 each. That's a
total of $4850. Thus, over the five years I've had the bike, I've saved
$3300 in servicing costs.

To put that in perspective, in the same time, the bike's gone through
two sets of Metzeler Rennsports at $440 each, one set of Bridgestone
BT-001s at $380, two sets of Bridgestone BT-012SS at $420, one set of
Michelin Pilot Powers at $455, one set of Pirelli Diablos at $460 and a
$279 Pirelli Diablo rear after a puncture.

That's a total of $3294 I've spent on tyres in the time I've had the bike..

To put that in another perspective, the ZX6 has an Ohlins rear shock, a
titanium Akrapovic full system, braided lines, a rear hugger, a BMC
filter, a tall screen, rack and bag. Pretending for a minute I paid
anything like the going secondhand rate for all those bits, the Ohlins
would've cost me some $700, the Akrapovic $1100, the braided lines $180,
hugger $140, filter $50, screen $70, rack and bag $120. Total, $2360.

A third perspective is to consider the $3300 saving as amounting to some
$550 saved per year. Rego and CTP insurance for my ZX9 is ~$470 per year.

So, by not letting an alleged mechanic anywhere near my "main" bike, I
effectively get to either keep that bike in tyres, put some very
worthwhile top-shelf mods on it (with enough change left over to buy a
whole secondhand engine), or I get to keep a whole second bike on the road.

 

And a lot less available here. They only sell them in the US and Canada.

You're right on the rest of it, though. For someone looking for a sporty
middleweight on a budget and without a death-metal soundtrack, the
'98-'02 ZX6 is about the pick of the bunch. The alternative, the '99-'00
CBR600 is somewhat physically smaller, but dynamically inferior in just
about every way.

The lower-spec options, like the ZZ-R600, YZF600R, SV650S, Fazer 600 (if
you can find one), tend not to be any cheaper, just bigger, heavier,
slower and wobblier.

A bloke here in Canberra is selling a '98 ZX6 with 33,000km on it with a
starting price of $6000 on the OCAU.MC forum... you wouldn't end up
paying anything near that.

 

So give us your impression of the best tyres for the bike.

Boxer

 

Michelin Power Race, by some margin. I didn't include them in the above
list because:

a) the set I had on the bike were a cheap set of ex-race tyres.
b) they only lasted 2500km. That could've been covered by running the
other sets of tyres an extra tank and a half of fuel each.

 

new gixxer is $16500 on the road at just about any dealer around the place

the R1 price was from Team Moto in QLD, $14500 in the crate , with powers ,
just assemble and add rego
Team moto has taken over john frettons but needs to be really kicked up the
arse
$14500 was 2 months ago , cant see that changing yet

new ZX10's are going cheap as well

and that's the reality behind it

 

Probably far too late for the conversation, but ho about a CB600 (hornet) -
comes in sexy black.....

Kathy

 

Of course all of the above is based on the assumption that you know what
you're doing, you have the time to do it, the space to do it in, the
resources to do it with, and you want to do it.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

Yep, with my K100 and airhead BMs, I was willing to do pretty well anything
at home. With the VTR and now the TDM, about all I'll do is oilchanges,
wheels out for tyre changes and chain/sprockets. All the other servicing
goes to the dealer, the Honda was cheap, Yamaha seems a bit more pricey.
I'll probably try another dealer for the next service, but realistically
there aren't many choices really (too far etc). I don't touch Maries R1150R
at all if I can avoid it.

Al

 

How hard is it to undo a sump plug and drain the oil?
How hard is it to undo a half-dozen fasteners to pull off a side fairing
panel to get at the oil filter?
How hard is it to undo four bolts and uncouple a fuel line to get the
tank off?
How hard is it to, then, undo another 4-6 bolts to get the airbox off
for an air filter clean and a sparkplug swap?

"Minor service" is really a euphemism for "oil change". That takes 10
minutes.
Lubing cables, changing brakepads and so forth can be done on an
as-needed basis. Neither of those jobs takes more than 15 minutes.

On a modern bike, doing the valve clearances is a
once-in-a-lifetime-of-the-bike job. I did mine when the 6R was 10,500km
old. They haven't budged since. That's far from the only bike on which
I've seen that.

Before I moved to Canberra, the ZX6 shared a single-car garage with a
whole bunch of shelving, the remains of my R1 and my FZR600, and my
YZ426F. There was room in there to work on any of them.

I've worked on bikes under porches, in underground carparks and, in the
case of the dirtbike, in the bush.

My socket and spanner set cost me $69 from Supercheap back in 2002.
The set of magnetised screwdrivers and Allen keys I got with it cost $19
and $7.50, respectively.

A fan of feeler gauges costs $2.95.

A car jack is all that's required to take one wheel off or one
suspension assembly (shock or forks) at a time.

Used oil goes into an ice cream container, then into an empty 10L paint
can (they give the latter away at Bunnings), then into a used oil
collection tub at a friendly neighbourhood mechanic.

That's a point. I mean, look how much easier it is to sit back and
complain about overcharging, incompetent, disinterested motorcycle
mechanics.

 

I must say I have some trouble following that reasoning. What happened
in motorcycle design between the mid-1980's and the mid 1990's to make
bikes so much more opaque to the home mechanic?

I haven't worked on many older bikes; a GPz900R, a Z750, a GPz500S and,
ummmm, I disassembled an RGV250 once, but those I have had my hands on
have all been more awkward than anything modern.

Plug-top coils come off more easily than HT leads.

It's a lot easier to pull the downdraught carbs off a beam-frame bike
than the sidedraughts off a bike with a spine-and-cradle frame.

With a shim valvetrain, you take the old shim out, put the new shim in
and bolt the cam back on top. Zero chance of getting something wrong...
that's on the one occasion that a direct-valve-actuation top end will
need shimming; after they've been adjusted for bedding in, the top end
stays together until the valve stem seals fail sometime around the
150,000km mark.

As for the rest, a usd telescopic fork comes apart just like a rwu one
for a fork oil change; back the preload right off, wind the rebound
right in crack the fork cap and turn upside down.

If there was more to it, I'd've put a rod through the cases by now.

 

With the BMs I had easy access to all the service infor required, not so
easy to get for the VTR or the TDM (manuals not easy to get), I had access
to a shim kit and appropriate tools for the Ks (and the cams don't have to
come out either) for when the valve shims very rarely had to be changed.
Didn't have to pull the tank at all on either BM for any regular servicing.
The FI on the K's was dead simple as well, nothing to set other than the TPS
and synch the throttle bodies. Both the VTR and the TDM need more
disassembly and access to tools I dont possess. I'll quite happily pay the
shop to do it, it simply doesn't bother me.

Al

 

If it really was as simple as you describe it to be, everyone would do
all of their own servicing and enjoy it, and all the professional
mechanics would be out of business, and then who would you take your
bike to when you fucked it up trying to do it yourself? and who would
stamp the warranty book?

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

I hear more people dont do their own servicing because of what about the
Warranty ?
others just havent got the skills/knowledge of what to do

Reason behind my vehicles never seeing a mechanic stems from when i started
working
and couldnt and wouldnt pay someone a months wages to do a job i could do in
a saturday
My father being mechanically minded helped also

I do remember replacing a head on a 76 corolla under my own steam with
nothing more than a few tools and a
Gregorys handbook , it even started on the first try

obviously now wages have risen but i still am not willing to pay someone 2
or more days wages
for something i can do in a sat morning between cans , some people just
rather open the wallet

as IK suggested the minor service is nothing more than an oil change anyway
and newer bikes
dont have valves listed for a long time in the schedule

For average Joe i could teach in a morning how to change oil , spark plugs,
coolant, brake fluid,
brake pads , maybe even step into a carb balance , and check the bearings

from there about the only thing that is difficult to do is valve clearances
so you could just send the bike
in to the shop to have that done , but in saying that checking the
clearances isnt hard just a little time
consuming and fiddly which culd save you several trips to the shop if they
dont need adjusting , have yourself
an older bike with screw and locknut then its piss easy

of course there are some people that just dont know the pointy end of a
screwdriver and for that reason
the stealership workshops survive

 

Each to their own J5, if it suits you it's right for you.

My dad was a mechanic (Front wheel drive BMC stuff was his mainstream), I
grew up in that environment, working on cars all the time. I got a trade in
an automotive area and worked for 10 years in that before teaching it in
TAFE for nearly 15 years, been exposed to and have a pretty good
understanding of most of the vehicle trades not just mechanical. I've
built/rebuilt at least 8 engines and rebuilt gearboxes too.

So I could do it if I wanted to, but I don't enjoy it at all these days.
I'd rather simply give it to someone else most of the time. Same reason I
only recover bike seats and sidecar stuff, I don't want to get bogged down
and bored in a big car resto job that I just want to see the end of, I enjoy
bike work and I see the result quickly. When I finally get around to
rebuilding my K100 into some sort of beast(when i know what i want it to
do), I'm sure i'll enjoy that, but it will be a part time project only.

The TDM is out of warranty soon, I might do more then, but I doubt it.

Al

 

I refer you back to a portion of my response which you snipped...

Am I, there, oversimplifying, omitting or glossing over anything?

When you fucked what up trying to do it yourself? What kinds of
disasters are likely to result from taking off a fairing panel, or the
tank, or from disassembling the rear shock linkage?

The way you put it, you'd think that routine servicing involved
splitting the cases.

Incidentally, the answer to your question would be, "the same places and
people the dealer workshops farm out work that's beyond them now."

That presumes the warrany book isn't hanging off the bogroll dispenser...

 

What is simple to you (or maybe I) is not necessarily simple to others.
Some people just instinctively have an understanding of mechanics and
tools. To others, they may as well be trying to speak a
never-before-heard language.

On the sump plug alone:
- cross-threading the plug
- no idea about crush washers, so slow leak
- stripping said sump plug
- not tightening it enough (unusual) and dumping contents of sump
somewhere around the 1500 km mark.

Panels?:
- break locating lug
- try to pry off panel with one screw still in place: break off tab.
- cracking panel.

I sat down with a bloke one afternoon, and talked him through doing an
oil change on his machine, while I did one on mine. Prior, he didn't
have a clue and thought it was a 'skilled' job. The look of pride on his
face at the end was priceless. Not everyone has the luxury of having a
mentor.

Couple of guys in DMCSC hold the occasional spanner day. Great way to
introduce concepts and skills to those who've never been exposed.

---
Cheers

PeterC [aka MildThing]
Most scientific discoveries are heralded by a tentative "Hmmm. That's funny..." instead of a jubilant "Eureka!"

'81 Yamaha Virago (XV) 750H (work in progress)
'01 Yamaha FJR1300

www.dmcsc.org.au
http://eladesom.com.au/ulysses/
# 37181

 

About 15 years ago in ausmoto there used to be this really annoying knut
who's handle I have forgotten but others will probably remember, who
wouldn't accept anyone as a 'real rider' until they had stripped an
entire motorcycle down to it's basic ingredients and reassembled it
themselves... apparently a task he performed with annoying monotony.

I think you're starting to the whole point here yourself.

Anyhow.. back to where we started.. I was discussing the reasons why not
to own a Kawasaki in Melbourne. All your hypotheticals were great, but
I bought a Honda instead. The valve clearances are due to be checked in
about 5,000km. If you're in town, you're welcome to come over and give
it a go. I'll drink beer and watch.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX