| Author | Message | ||
     Chris_motion |
anyone have a good method for changing oil? i'm an old school guy that's used to building the bikes i ride. this is my first new bike and i've already changed the oil once. the manual says to drain from both plugs, tilting the bike to get all the oil from each side. this seems hard to do while on any kind of stand. the dealer (Orange County Harley) told me you only need to drain from the left plug. i did both and quite a bit came out of the right side. it's pretty tricky to get any type of "suitable container" under the drain with the kickstand exactly in the way. i also found i couldn't drain with the kickstand down without getting it covered in oil. i had my girlfriend holding the bike up while i removed the left drain plug then tilted it. cheers, chris  | ||
| Crazyhawk99 |
Chris, The preferred method seems to be to drain it with the sidestand in the container and cover the sidestand with foil prior. Cheers on getting your gf involved in your maint. Greg | ||
| Fresnobuell |
the dealer (Orange County Harley) told me you only need to drain from the left plug. Horrible advice, but unfortunately that's pretty common. As far as a container to get the oil as it drains, I have found a plastic gallon jug for milk or water works great--the cheaper and thinner the container the better. Cut off the bottom and you can bend it in to catch almost all the oil as it leaves the motor. Actually, the only oil that makes a mess now is the oil filter when it comes out. I don't know if there is a way to makes that process a bit cleaner. | ||
| Ccryder |
Chris: No wonder it didn't work right, as we can see from your picture, you removed the wrong bolt! Anyway, steal some tin-foil from the kitchen, that will help in reducing the mess. The LH drain plug shoots oil a LOT further than you would think. Later | ||
| Tbones1125r |
For what it's worth, the 1125R I bought came with Syn3 in the bike. I'm not sure what other dealers use to prep them but I've been changing oil in my bikes with the understanding that it may not be the best thing for the bike to go from syn to dino and back to syn when changing oil. Once you go syn, you never go back...Any truth? | ||
| Xbud |
http://www.lubesolution.com/myths.aspx Just a quick link I found about synthetic myths | ||
| Kirb |
Investing in a rear bike stand or condor can really help with the lack of a center stand on many bikes. I went the overboard route and have a handy lift in the garage...I never change oil anywhere else these days (lets you get under the bike and do some cleaning when the oil drains). |
