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Made my purchase
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:29 pm
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.
Re: Made my purchase
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:25 pm
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.
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:12 pm
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
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 6:10 am
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.
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:38 am
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.
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:28 am
by RTR
Congrats on your purchase. Hard to go wrong following your service manual for fluid change intervals.
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:36 am
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.
http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/p ... path~2.asp
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:08 am
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.
Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:53 pm
by Coastiecb
Thanks for all the quick replies everyone. I will be sure to get an owners manual.
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:59 am
by MotoF150
USE "AMSOIL" !!!!!!! All the HD Owners use Amsoil!