over 60 years, there have been lots of bikes I have appreciated for their ease of maintenance.
The NT, for its vintage, was actually a pretty easy bike to maintain.
Now I am faced with the horror of doing the 15,000 mi maintenance on the V strom.
4 Sparking plugs, none of which are easy to get to. To get the tank to at least lift up to get to one/two plugs and the air cleaner, 5 or so panels have to be removed.
I will watch vids and take careful notes. The owners manual has the proceedure and the maintenance manual has more info and there are youtube vids of various quality.
And of course the forum. I will not be using this bike for more touring this year so I will order the coolant, plugs and air cleaner....
There is a guy called "Mr Vstrom" on youtube who looks like he knows what he is doing. He shows how you can use a spark plug socket with TWO swivel joints, put together in just the right way, to reach the top plug on cyl. # 1. After loosening the radiator bolt and using bungi cords and bubble rap to protect it. I feel that if I remove the radiator hose, I will get an added advantage, since I am going to replace the coolant anyway.
Now I am scared on why Triump wants $1800 to set the valves. Not gonna set the valves on the V strom. Ingnorance is bliss. It was kind of fun on screw type adjuster bikes to keep track of valves and see how they were going. Shims arent fun.
The NT, for its vintage, was actually a pretty easy bike to maintain.
Now I am faced with the horror of doing the 15,000 mi maintenance on the V strom.
4 Sparking plugs, none of which are easy to get to. To get the tank to at least lift up to get to one/two plugs and the air cleaner, 5 or so panels have to be removed.
I will watch vids and take careful notes. The owners manual has the proceedure and the maintenance manual has more info and there are youtube vids of various quality.
And of course the forum. I will not be using this bike for more touring this year so I will order the coolant, plugs and air cleaner....
There is a guy called "Mr Vstrom" on youtube who looks like he knows what he is doing. He shows how you can use a spark plug socket with TWO swivel joints, put together in just the right way, to reach the top plug on cyl. # 1. After loosening the radiator bolt and using bungi cords and bubble rap to protect it. I feel that if I remove the radiator hose, I will get an added advantage, since I am going to replace the coolant anyway.
Now I am scared on why Triump wants $1800 to set the valves. Not gonna set the valves on the V strom. Ingnorance is bliss. It was kind of fun on screw type adjuster bikes to keep track of valves and see how they were going. Shims arent fun.