DIY or Dealer?
 

Do you maintain you own bike(s) or do you take it to the shop?

I've always been a DIYer....

Either do it myself or have a friend help. A good friend worked at a dealership as a mechanic for most of his life.

So far its DIY. Hopefully by Tuesday I will have another bike that will eventually need maintenance at the shop.

There's no option for Leon doing my maint. :lol:

all my regular maintenance and small repairs are done at home, any large repairs (engine rebuild sorta thing) I would prolly leave to a dealer. But as a testament to my amazing abilities, the only thing I ever have done at the dealer is to have them change my tires for me.

all the regular stuff... unless I'm time pressed... which seems to be the case alot.

on the DRZ though... I'm doing all...

I've never taken a bike to a dealer...ever.

Dealer? :scratch: Oh! the boneheads you have to go to for a new bike!

Nope, I do my own work. If I had space for a NoMar, I'd do tires too.

There are only a select few shops I'd ever let touch my motorcycle (long distance trip emergencies excepted). One of the reasons I have a motorcycle is that I can work on ALL of it without too many specialty tools or the need for a "shop".

I do 90% of my own work. Ducati valves scare me...

Not a dealer but I go to a mechanic.

I'm mechanically challenged and own no tools. I'm trying to learn though.

I adjust the valves, change most of the fluids on everything thing I own.

Throttle bodies, abs system, and clutch fluid is the only thing I don't do myself on BMW.

Do most myself. Go to the dealer if I can't do it; TPS reset and headlight recall so far.

So far our 07's bought in 07' have never been back to the dealer. I do it myself...so far...so good. If I need a tire mounted I take the wheel and old tire off of the bike and take it to a shop and have the tire mounted/balanced and then take it home and reinstall it myself.

Maintenance(oil, brakes, plugs...) is always DIY. If under warranty, let the dealer fuck with it. Tires, that's also a job for the dealers.

Most stuff, Chris does. If he can't, then we take it to our friend Jimmy's.

It depends.
I do most stuff, but anything really big or requiring special tools, I will take it to a mechanic(but not a dealer)

I am learning to do it all myself or with the assistance of friends or my mechanic, the FIL. Havent found anything between the 2 of us we couldnt fix yet.

The few times I have let a shop handle my bike didnt go so well. Crashed it once, tightened everything to the point of damage another time, failed to finish maintenance another time...

dealer does recalls and the first service. I do the rest.
Thinking I'll get a NoMar when I build the addition on my garage.

<- is NOT a ''wallet tuner''

I agree with warranty stuff. Otherwise, I do everything! That should be obvious for anybody that knows me or has viewed my lift thread.

I have done everything except the actual tire change. I take them off the bike, but then let the dealer do the rest.
I have a mechanic, not at a dealer, do my forks.. which need re-done this winter because the seals are leaking already.
Erik helps me with the other stuff if I ask for it.

I havent had to do much work on my bikes (dam you Honda), but everything is DIY for me unless I absolutely can not do it my self. I had to have a dealer press on my fork seals, but dissassembled/reassembled everything myself.

FYI. 35,000+ mile fork oil smells like Tater's whore of an ex's you know what.

DIY, plus I do my own paint, powder coating and anything else I can.

do you do powder coating for others? ie... I know this guy... who has a DRZ... that wants his rack powder coated black... as he tried to paint it and that lasted all of about an hour... and 59 min of that was it drying.


oh... and that guy is me.

My bikes don't go to dealerships. Carolina's won't either now that I'm taking care of them as well.

The only thing I haven't been able to do myself are tire changes, and I'm going to pick up a NoMar and fix that problem shortly.

I change the oil, that's about it........It's not worth my time to attempt other things, especially since I don't have a garage.

DIY and it doesnt hurt having free mechanic (dad)

Both - DIY and Dealer, although in my case DIY = a friend. :whistle:

I like to learn... and I like to curse and throw things. I'm a DIY'er all the way.

With HD's ridiculous fucking rates? :lol: Ill turn my own wrenches, thanks.

The nearest shop wants 195$ dollars for an oil change, I shit you not :lol I left with my bike, and only brought it back once for a recall on a bolt.

Yeah the services at HD are expensive. I always take every vechile in for its first, car/bike/truck. Always have. Then its all me unless its a warrenty item.

My first service was actually free, and I did bring it in for that. It was funny too, because I was out back in the shop, and the tech's were telling me how 'hard' it was to change the oil on a HD. OH NOES! Theres oil in 3 places! How will I ever manage!

Mine will never see a dealer. Might have something to do with it being 20 years old.

Even when I had a new one, it never made it to a shop. Paying 20k to MMI might have something to do with it, also.

Oil changes is not hard. Doing the rest of a complete service is more time consuming.

Holy crap! I just about choked on my water. Ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well... then prepare yourself... this is for the sportsters. Trust me the larger bikes are more money.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...r/scan0002.jpg
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Not that this is going to help win anybody over on the HD band wagon. But take note, its not just oil changes.

Also, the 2500 intervals are optional. HD doesn't recommend them but the dealer does if you dont run synthetic oil.

The shop saw my bike for the first service.

Then I bought the service manual, and one of the techs cautioned me,"you sure you're confident with that?" the service consists of looking the lines of the bike over for leaks and chafing, adjusting a bolt to adjust the primary chain tension, changing the oil. And that's about it, all for the low price of 300 bones!

Ya, I'm confident I won't be paying those prices.

Most ppl walk in there and say, "here's some money.." I walk in to borrow wrenches to install parts in their parking lot.. :lol

:lol

Probably why you dont have your Buell anymore...

I'm in the both category. if it's under warranty or involves opening the motor or if I'm pressed for time, they do it.

if it's basic/fun/have lots of time/ or I just feel like I want to try it i'll do it. brakes,chains,oil,tires,exhaust,intake etc i can do all that easily enough.

Too bad aside from the oil change, they just look things over and change a few seals and o-rings.

I understand what you're saying, but at the same time, even at 100 dollars an hour the 150k mile service should take at the most three hours. And that's with two quadripilegic techs working on it.