Made my purchase

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Coastiecb
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Made my purchase

#1 Unread post by Coastiecb »

About a week ago I bought my first bike. A 2005 Harley davidson 883 Sportster. The previous owner had done some things to her like vance & hines straightshots, forward control kit, and some chrome here and there.

My questions are.....

How often should I change the oil?
What about the other lubricants?

The previous owner used 20w-50 oil bought from harley. Should I stick with that or should I switch to the synthetic?

I learned first hand that I need a battery tender cause we had a couple of days of 30 degree temps and it has zapped the battery pretty good.
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jonnythan
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Re: Made my purchase

#2 Unread post by jonnythan »

Coastiecb wrote:About a week ago I bought my first bike. A 2005 Harley davidson 883 Sportster. The previous owner had done some things to her like vance & hines straightshots, forward control kit, and some chrome here and there.

My questions are.....

How often should I change the oil?
What about the other lubricants?

The previous owner used 20w-50 oil bought from harley. Should I stick with that or should I switch to the synthetic?

I learned first hand that I need a battery tender cause we had a couple of days of 30 degree temps and it has zapped the battery pretty good.
Nice bike.

Just go by the manual.
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Social Distortion
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#3 Unread post by Social Distortion »

congrads!
Either go to the dealer of keep an eye for a used manual form Ebay.
It should give you the maintance schedule and what to do.
You may also want to find and join a Harley specific internet forum.

the yamaha forum i belong to has yielded lots of good info and i've been able to meet some local riders too!
good luck
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#4 Unread post by KingRobb »

Social Distortion wrote:congrads!
Either go to the dealer of keep an eye for a used manual form Ebay.
It should give you the maintance schedule and what to do.
You may also want to find and join a Harley specific internet forum.

the yamaha forum i belong to has yielded lots of good info and i've been able to meet some local riders too!
good luck
PM gummiette we have a harley specific forum right here on tmw.
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#5 Unread post by Sev »

I'll ask around the shop tomorrow. With out anything even remotely resembling facts or manufacturers directions to back me up. Oil aprox every 5000km, and other fluids - fork, brake etc every 2years or 24000km.

I'm not really sure about the transmission or clutch fluid though... assuming the Sportster has enclosed/separate clutch and transmission.

Your Harley dealer should have it posted on the wall in the service section as well... and most any Harley forum should have someone with the manual floating around who will help you out if you ask there.
Of course I'm generalizing from a single example here, but everyone does that. At least I do.

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#6 Unread post by RTR »

Congrats on your purchase. Hard to go wrong following your service manual for fluid change intervals.
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#7 Unread post by Ninja Geoff »

Got the owners manual? Check under the seat if you don't, there's a chance it could be there.

If the dealer wants an outrageous amount of money for a service manual (they wanted $80 for my XR200R and was MAYBE an inch thick) grab a Clymers manual.
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#8 Unread post by Nalian »

It won't be under the seat. I have an 06 custom but 05/06 pretty much the same. You can get a new one here for $20. If you have any specific questions i'd be happy to answer them.
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#9 Unread post by Coastiecb »

Thanks for all the quick replies everyone. I will be sure to get an owners manual.
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#10 Unread post by MotoF150 »

USE "AMSOIL" !!!!!!! All the HD Owners use Amsoil!
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