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I can't seem to get a straight answer from any dealer. What are the maintenance intervals on some 400-500cc beginner bikes, cruiser or standard style?

different bikes will have different maintenance intervals, depending on what type of motor it has, number of valves, final drive type and rev limit.

for example, my bike (2005 KLR650) calls for valve adjustments every 10000km, oil/filter changes at the same interval, coolant replacement every 2 years, brake flush/fluid replacement every 2 years, swingarm inspection/maintenance every 30000km, etc....


[size=small]some of these numbers might be a little off, as I don't have my manual near to hand[/size]

RTFM of the bike

sharpmagna wrote:RTFM of the bike

I hate abbreviations. They seem to have really taken off in the last few months. I'm only guessing you mean reading the fantastic manual of the bike, but you could be saying roll the foormate of the bike or randall twain feigns memories of the bike.

IMHO IICR TAI RTFM OTB which may address the question or mean
Indiginous mammals hold oranges in indigo colored rays taking aim in right triangular formations making oddly tinted beams

Sorry, I thought RTFM was pretty common place and you sir have too much time on your hands too make up those acronyms...

I'm a colorful person, which you'll find out as soon as I get the new head gasket on the magna, or the painted parts for the Vision back.

storysunfolding wrote:

sharpmagna wrote:RTFM of the bike

I hate abbreviations. They seem to have really taken off in the last few months. I'm only guessing you mean reading the fantastic manual of the bike, but you could be saying roll the foormate of the bike or randall twain feigns memories of the bike.

IMHO IICR TAI RTFM OTB which may address the question or mean
Indiginous mammals hold oranges in indigo colored rays taking aim in right triangular formations making oddly tinted beams

Me too.

Regardless, you're asking a question that has as many answers as there are bikes availible to the rider. No two bikes are built the same, and no two two bikes can have the same maintenance intervals.

Best you can do is ask about a specific bike, usually on a specific forum... OR wander through the store and ask to see the manual of a bike you're looking at buying. All we can do here is offer you generalizations.

Okay, let me restate the question: I'm about to buy a new bike, a cruiser, standard, or dual purpose 500cc or less. Though I have over 600,000 miles of riding experience, I have only ridden a few thousand over the last 25 years since I had children to raise. My last bike was a Honda CB750K4, and I found the 1000-mile spark plug replacement annoying. I've searched online, but have been unable to find maintenance intervals for any bike I might be interested in. When I go to the dealers, the owner manuals are sealed in plastic bags and the salespeople do not wish to open them. Therefore, RTFM, which I assume means "Read The Firetrucking Manual", isn't going to work, because I don't have access to a firetrucking manual. Also, the salespeople haven't a clue what the maintenance intervals are, or they are at least pretending not to know. I've been to Honda (3), Kawasaki (2), Suzuki (2), Yamaha(3), and Harley-Davidson/Buell (2).

If you have or have had a good beginner bike, cruiser, standard, or dual purpose, 500cc or less, would you be so kind as to post the make and model and a little something about the maintenance intervals? If you've found a particular bike to have an unusually difficult or super easy maintenance regimen, that would also be good to know. I intend to put many miles on the bike commutting and pleasure riding, and don't want to have my riding time eaten away by tedious and time-consuming maintenance chores.

I am especially interested in the Buell Blast because of it's hydraulic lifters, which pretty much take valve adjustments off the maintenance schedule. I'm partial to thumpers, anyway, but the smoothness of a multi is nice. Decisions, decisions.

Find a bike you are interested in and do a search on the Internet for an electronic copy of the manual. Even for my 1987 Honda I was able to find a PDF version of the owners manual and the service manual. Both those manuals will have the service intervals and what needs to be done on each interval.

As technology has made advances, the service intervals have increased some so if you buy a bike now you won't need to do nearly as much work on them as the older bikes. My 87 calls for spark plugs every 4k miles but I've seen newer bikes that had longer intervals. For a spark plug change, it doesn't matter much as it takes all of 5 minutes to swap out 1 plug and that's if I'm taking my time.

I know there are two members on the forum that have buell blasts and use them for commuting. They should be able to tell you from their manuals what the intervals are or where to point you to find it for yourself..