Author Topic: servicing my wee  (Read 921 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline DEF2001

  • Member
  • ***
  • Joined: Sep 2011
  • Posts: 69
  • Bike: 2015 V-strom 1000
  • Location: Brighton
servicing my wee
« on: October 17, 2014, 17:39:34 »
My wee is fast approaching 25000 miles. I have serviced it mostly as per the schedule doing all of the servicing myself. I regularly change the fluids and liberally coat everything with acf 50 before each winter. The bike leads a charmed life as nearly all its mileage is dual carriageway and I'm still on the original pads and chain ( I have replacements for both and will soon be doing the chain and sprockets next week. I brought the pads about 1 and 1/2 years ago but every time I check there's still life left in them.) I have recently cleaned and put electrical grease on all the connectors. So my question is this what else should I start looking for and doing to preserve the bike in its mechanically sound condition.

Offline Juvecu

  • Member
  • ***
  • Joined: May 2009
  • Posts: 13454
  • Eat, Sleep, Ride, Repeat
  • Bike: '11 Versys 650 & '05 TT-R250
  • Location: Ryton-On-Dunsmore
Re: servicing my wee
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2014, 17:53:57 »
Keep on top of oil changes and change the oil filter every 2nd time (that said I change it almost every time so I get more old oil out.) You should do a valve clearance check at the 28k service and then you can probably forget about it until around 60k. Change the air filter when it looks dirty or as per the schedule. Coolant fluid and break fluid are often oversights, they don't need changing that often. I hardly ever change coolant, I've only done so twice in the last 80k miles and once was because I restored the bike and had to take the radiator off. Brake fluid gets changed when it goes dark or when I service the brakes, the latter happens more often, once or twice a year. While on the subject of brakes, it doesn't hurt to take the calipers off and give them a good clean, particularly if you ride in winter when there's salt on the roads. Don't forget about spark plugs, even if you use iridium plugs that last ages, at least take them out and check that they are clean enough and that the gap is correct. Fork oil is also often an oversight, it's an easy job to drain the old oil and put fresh oil in. On budget forks, like the Wee has, it's a worthwhile exercise.

Other than that there's not much that really needs doing to keep the bike going well apart from the normal stuff like taking care of your chain, tyres and other such wearing items.
Members Map                                                    Juv's Strom "Restoration" (sold to Mad Phil)
Juv & Locky's Morocco Trip Report                   Juv's Blog

Offline DEF2001

  • Member
  • ***
  • Joined: Sep 2011
  • Posts: 69
  • Bike: 2015 V-strom 1000
  • Location: Brighton
Re: servicing my wee
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2014, 18:39:22 »
Your I'm pretty much on top of everything there. Will be changing the spark plugs soon as I think the one in there at the moment were last changed at 10,000 miles. They are Iridium though. I will probably do the valve clearance at the same time. I could'nt be bothered to do it at 14500 miles as I rarely rev the bike that hard. Fork oil is something that I had'nt considered but to be honest my suspension does'nt feel that baggy. The kind of stuff I was thinking about was headstock bearings and greasing the swing arm pivot but never really seen any posts about this on the site.

Offline greywolf

  • Member
  • ***
  • Joined: Dec 2011
  • Posts: 5262
  • Location: Evanston IL USA
Re: servicing my wee
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2014, 21:19:39 »
I put NGK CR8EIX Iridium plugs in at 17,000 miles. I looked at them at 50,000 miles and they were fine. I sold the bike with 77,000 miles on it and it now has over 100,000 miles. I'm pretty sure the new owner has not changed the plugs as he updates me on any changes. The bike is running great.
Pat- 2007 DL650A was ridden to all 48 contiguous states. 2012 DL650A outlasted me.
Nicknames I use to lessen typing, Vee = 2002-2012 (K2-L2) DL1000s. Veek=2014+ (L4+) DL1000s. Wee = 2004-2011 (K4-L1) DL650s. Glee = 2012+ (L2+) DL650s

Offline Juvecu

  • Member
  • ***
  • Joined: May 2009
  • Posts: 13454
  • Eat, Sleep, Ride, Repeat
  • Bike: '11 Versys 650 & '05 TT-R250
  • Location: Ryton-On-Dunsmore
Re: servicing my wee
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2014, 21:35:46 »
Don't touch the swingarm pivot bearings unless you've checked and there's definitely too much play there. I took mine out to get my frame powder coated. They looked as good as the ones I put it, you'd never say they came out a bike with more than 100k on. Headstock bearings really only need changing if there's a problem like feeling it's settling into a notch at the middle, movement being notchy/rough or some play that isn't caused by the nuts being loose. There's no harm in opening it up, cleaning out the old grease and regreasing (assuming you have the stock open roller type bearings in there still.) Even that is fixing something that's not broken :)

One bearing that you can check periodically is the sprocket carrier bearing. They have a lot of stress on them and can fail, particularly if some water gets in there.
Members Map                                                    Juv's Strom "Restoration" (sold to Mad Phil)
Juv & Locky's Morocco Trip Report                   Juv's Blog