Oil Change Complete!

[Dragon on Wheels]

I have changed the oil in my bike!

I'm not that mechanically inclined so it was an achievement for me. It took a while mostly because I had trouble getting the filter bolt unscrewed. I ended up borrowing a longer wrench from my neighbor which made it MUCH easier(I'm going to have to buy one of those sometime). After that though, it was quite simple. I'm letting it sit right now hoping that it won't leak.

There were also two tubes that I never noticed before on the right side of the bike about where the rear brake pedal is that just hang down. I hope they aren't supposed to be plugged in somewhere. According to the maintenance manual that I have, it says that they could be the battery vent hose and the coolant reservoir tank vent hose. If anyone else has a Ninja250 could you check to see if there are two tubes that just point to the ground in that area? I'll try to get a picture up soon too.

If it works out(the hoses are fine and there's no leaking), I'll probably ride tomorrow to see if I've done it correctly or if I've hurt my poor bike in the process.

[paul246]

Good work doing the oil change yourself, makes you feel good knowing you have helped your bike and saved some money, right?

As far as the tubes, yes, they are either for gas overflow, battery vent, or coolant overflow.

[Amdonim]

My Shadow has hoses hanging down in a similar fashion. Sounds normal.

[Wrider]

Congrats! Sometimes those drain bolts can be REALLY stuck in there. I had a V-Star 1100 come in the other day, put my torque wrench on it because I needed extra leverage, torque wrench maxes out at 125 ft/lbs and the bolt broke loose way after that.
And yeah, those are definitely drain hoses, you should see the WR250 I worked on today, thing had 7 drain hoses coming down through the rear swingarm area.

[Tennif Shoe]

congrats on he il change, don't you feel better doing the work yourself and not spending the extra $50 having someone else do it

[Dragon on Wheels]

As long as I didn't do any damage to it myself(heheh) I'll feel pretty good about it It was definitely not as difficult as my mind was making it out to be before I got started and it's good to get your hands dirty and involved in this type of thing. I think I got ripped off on my previous oil changes since it wasn't only an extra $50 (a bit more than that even if I included the time spent yanking on that bolt...which was why I decided to try it myself this time).

Here are the photos of that tube by the way (it just seems to stick out more than it should, but I really haven't noticed it before yesterday):

ninja tube 1

ninja tube 2

[Wrider]

Yep just drain tubes for sure. Don't even worry about it.

[RocketGirl]

I have changed the oil in my bike!

I'm not that mechanically inclined so it was an achievement for me. It took a while mostly because I had trouble getting the filter bolt unscrewed. I ended up borrowing a longer wrench from my neighbor which made it MUCH easier(I'm going to have to buy one of those sometime). After that though, it was quite simple.

+1 and congratulations on your achievement. I'm new to maintaining a bike or anything with an engine too. I did a lot [for me anyway] on my bike this weekend and I'm sure it's my imagination, but my ride today just seemed to be that much more smooth and sweet!

[jaskc78]

Yep just drain tubes for sure. Don't even worry about it.

+1. I got the exact same bike as you, Dragon, and had the exact same question when I got it. Talked to a mechanic friend of mine and he just laughed and reassured me that it's just for drainage. They're typically shorter than the ones on our Ninjas so you don't ever see them, but they're completely normal just hanging down like that.