Do you change your own oil?

[slimcolo]

HYPERR
Not that new pre-Knuck flathead VL.

The 2 strokes are a 80cc Yamaha and a Vespa.










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[society909]

I do my own oil changes on my bikes cars trucks dogs cats wife or whatever ( o sorry I got a little carried away). I also do all repairs of almost any kind if I don't know how ill get a manual or post online to learn how. I haven't paid a mechanic to do anything in the last 10 years
I don't think anyone is strong enough to over tighten an oil filter by hand so tighten it till it stops turning and check for leaks.

[Whip Lash]

Just changed the oil in my Yamaha 1000 and in my Harley Davidson Road King. Also changed the transmission fluid in the Harley. It was easy to do and fun too. Gives you a nice feeling of independence and accomplishment. Now for the pickup, suv, and 300zx. Good Lord I gotta get busy.

[spydercanopus]

I had my dealer do an oil change while he replaced some servo in the exhaust. The bastrd charged me $75 for it!

I'll be learning to do my own, no doubt.

[HYPERR]

I had my dealer do an oil change while he replaced some servo in the exhaust. The bastrd charged me $75 for it!

I'll be learning to do my own, no doubt.

That's really not too bad. I just did oil changes on all my bikes and on the CBR, the filter was $15 and it took 3 qts and change of synthetic oil at about $10/qt. So they basically charged you about $30 more than it would have taken you to do it on your own.

[totalmotorcycle]

Lucky people living in North America paying so little for a quart of oil. I just purchased a quart of full synthetic oil (store brand name) for £23 ($39 CDN). Back in Canada I was buying a 5 gallon tub (19l) of Shell Rotella-T for $55 CDN.

Can't wait to buy oil again for those prices.

[Grey Thumper]

I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I can at least change consumables, including all the fluids (engine, tranny, final drive oil), except for brake fluids (the bike has ABS, which - supposedly - makes maintenance a PITA).

I'm pretty amazed at all the "rule of thumb" advice I've read on tightening stuff like oil filters (hand tight + 1/4 turn, etc). Since I have no mechanical instincts whatsoever and can't trust my own judgment, a torque wrench and a Haynes manual (or even a list of torque numbers downloaded from the net) are cheap insurance.

[HYPERR]

I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I can at least change consumables, including all the fluids (engine, tranny, final drive oil), except for brake fluids (the bike has ABS, which - supposedly - makes maintenance a PITA).

I'm pretty amazed at all the "rule of thumb" advice I've read on tightening stuff like oil filters (hand tight + 1/4 turn, etc). Since I have no mechanical instincts whatsoever and can't trust my own judgment, a torque wrench and a Haynes manual (or even a list of torque numbers downloaded from the net) are cheap insurance.

Our R1150R is quite an easy bike to do maintenance on.

[Grey Thumper]

Our R1150R is quite an easy bike to do maintenance on.

Yep, one of many reasons why I love em.

A bit OT but I've been tempted by the 1200, except it has lots of weird maintenance issues. One example; the shaft drive oil drain plug is at 9 o'clock, not 6. So to drain the oil, you have to take out the rear wheel, unbolt the rear caliper, and partially detach the final drive so it hangs down to drain the oil out of the plug that's now oriented at 6 o'clock. Eventual solution; newer models have the drain back at 6 o'clock, just like it's always been on the 1150s.

[HYPERR]

Our R1150R is quite an easy bike to do maintenance on.

Yep, one of many reasons why I love em.

A bit OT but I've been tempted by the 1200, except it has lots of weird maintenance issues. One example; the shaft drive oil drain plug is at 9 o'clock, not 6. So to drain the oil, you have to take out the rear wheel, unbolt the rear caliper, and partially detach the final drive so it hangs down to drain the oil out of the plug that's now oriented at 6 o'clock. Eventual solution; newer models have the drain back at 6 o'clock, just like it's always been on the 1150s.

I didn't know that. It's probably because BMW originally intended it to be a permanently lubed shaft. Then with some shafts failing they figured they better make changing the axle oil part of the maintenace.
I have to say, I've had no problems with the bike whatsoever. I've had my R1150R since October 2001, and it still looks and runs like new.