Finally got there after seven years

[crazyhorse]

Hi

Yesterday finally got to my goal of taking a bike to 100k miles, and its taken me seven years, with no commuting, just fun and holidays.

[MartinW]

 

I haven't quite hit 30K yet on my 15 year old bike.

[StromGeeza]

That's a decent amount of fun and holidays.
Well done.

[Gassoon]

    I don't think I'll ever manage that now!

[Ridaz]

Well done, a hell of an achievement 

[Fat Rat]

Good effort 

[welldc]

That's some hours in the saddle !
Good effort.

[sjrainsford]

Be interested to hear the fault history over that mileage.
My same speedo is only showing 8 percent of that!

[UK_Vstrom650]

  

I'm just over half that mileage at just over 51,000. Roughly I've had the following done in that time:

Tyres - four sets: OEM, Anakee 3s, Pilot Road 4 and Roadsmart 3s. Probably due the fifth set soon. I've had one puncture in the rear tyre (PR4) due to a screw. Fortunately it was in the centre and was repairable.

1 rear bearing set c. <20,000 miles.

1x new chain/sprocket set

2x fork seals sets. OEM leaked around 24,000 miles (first replacement set were non-OEM and lasted about 1 year)

I also changed the front bearings and steering bearings around 30,000 miles (I don't think they needed doing but I changed them anyway).

Three sets of spark plugs (again I doubt they needed doing but that was dealer servicing).
Two air filters - OEM then K&N.
Oil and filter changes every 3,500 miles until the service schedule changed in 2015 to 7,500 miles, then every 7,500 miles.

Brakes:
Two sets of front brake seals (and one replacement piston) due to dust seals popping and binding the front brakes.
Two sets of front brake pads
One rear set of brake seals as I thought it was due a thorough service.
Two sets of rear brake pads.
Three brake fluid changes.
Front brake lines replaced with braided lines. (Rear lines awaiting to be fitted)

Bulbs:
Four replacement sets of headlight bulbs (Phillips Vision Blue, Xtreme Vision, Osram Night Breakers, OEM). The brighter bulbs are OK but don't last. I'm now back on OEM.
Two replacement sidelight bulbs (excluding the useless LED efforts which just failed repeatedly).
Two number plate bulbs.

I'd estimate approximately 220 fuel fill-ups at around £18 each.

Brakedowns:
I've had two brakedowns in 7 years and 5 months, both of which were electrical. The first was August 2015 - one month after the warranty ran out. This was caused by the connectors above the radiator corroding.  Naturally being outside of warranty by one month Suzuki had no interest. After this was fixed, I treated every connector I could find with ACF50 and used innertubes to add waterproofing to them.
The second was January 2017. The whole bike cut out in lane 3 of the A1 in Newcastle (no hard shoulder). I coasted the bike to lane 1 where it remained for an hour in traffic until the recovery truck turned up. The dealership in Newcastle replaced the the battery, but couldn't determine the fault. I managed to get home but the next day it was dead again. This was diagnosed as a connector within the loom itself which had separated itself. Again, Suzuki weren't interested despite my dealerships best efforts. The second incident nearly cost the bike it's home with me as I went and test road a Tracer as a replacement. Fortunately for the bike it was more comfortable than the Tracer otherwise I'd be in Traitors corner. If it has anymore electrical issues then it'll get a 

[crazyhorse]

Hello

Other than tyres. brake pads, wheel bearings. head bearings, and servicing, the only problem I had was with the stator.

This packed up in mid Wales, but I managed to limp home, and replaced it, and upgraded the reg/rec, and have not had any problems since.

The bike is so comfortable, and have managed a run from south of France to home in Herts in 13 hours. and 715 miles, mostly in rain on the autoroutes.

Even shipped it to the eastern states for three months, and put on 15k miles enjoying the roads over there, and the lovely people from Stromtroopers, and included a long desire to ride around The Great Lakes, cold but beautiful up there.

The bike is now getting its forth valve check (last one was at 61k miles, no change from the one at 33k miles), and
being taken apart to have a thorough clean and check for any niggles before they become problems.

This work will take me a few weeks but should be back on the road in Feb.

Have a great New Year.

Crazyhorse

At Aerostich in Duluth 2015

[crazyhorse]

Hi

Just a note to say that I removed all four spark plugs this afternoon, and all four are within spec, and I fitted these at the

second valve check at 31k miles. So 70k miles on these iridium plugs seems good to me. They will be cleaned and put

back in.

Crazyhorse

[kwackboy]

Out of interest , in all the valve checks that have been done how many shims needed replacing ?

When I reached 100k on my old cb500 I checked the valve clearances and only one really needed changing but because I'm fussy I changed them all to the top end of the scale. I owned this bike from 30k and it was thrashed to an inch of its life on many trackdays so I was surprised as to how little was needed. 

[crazyhorse]

Hi Kwackboy

So far in the 100k I have changed two shims to get clearances to the looser end of the spec, and both were exhaust shims.

I will check the clearances in a coupe of days, and post here.

Hope this is helpful.

Crazyhorse

[crazyhorse]

Hello Again

Just finished checking the valve clearances, at 100k miles, the front cylinder readings are exactly the same

as I left them when last checked at 61k miles.(intakes between 0.15mm and 0.20mm, exhausts 0.25mm and 0.30mm)

Now the rear cylinder.

The intakes clearances were also where I left them at 61k miles (between 0.15mm and 0.20mm) but the exhausts have moved from between 0.25mm and 0.30mm to 0.30mm to 0.33mm.

Now I expect, and am sure a lot of you would expect, the ex. valves to recess into the head and the clearances would slowly close up, but this does not seem to be the case.

Putting aside the possibility that I left them too wide at the 61k mile check, and that the bike was running quite sweetly when I ran it into the garage a few days ago, I still propose to leave them all alone and button the whole thing up.

If anything else unexpected turns up during this service I will let you know.

Have a great holiday and a beautiful New Year.

Crazyhorse

[kwackboy]

Impressive, just two exhaust shims in a 100k .. 
 

[Asmith61]

Very impressive