Quote:
Originally Posted by Meloman
Megadan, given your OCD maintenance schedule I would expect your bike to live longer than you.
I’d be more curious to hear from people who, after the initial adjusting, lubricating and tweaking, just ride the bike and do the basic scheduled oil change and valve adjustment. That would represent a more realistic reliability index.
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Uh, you mean me? Most of that work was done during assembly, and at the start of every year I do what should be done to every bike. Check and change fluids, grease/lubricate things, and get the bike ready for a new season of riding.
Those 7 initial oil changes? One was done immediately to drain the factory "oil" before running the bike. The second was done after the initial run and break in of about 30 minutes. After that I did a progressively harder break in, which meant I changed the oil as it was contaminated by hydrocarbons.
After the 6th oil change I had gone 400 miles, then parked the bike for the cold months. I just changed it for the start of this year and it won't get changed again for at least 500 miles (the realistic oil change interval). I was not gentle to my bike in it's early life, hence the OCD fluid checking and changing.
Nothing abnormal about that or any other the other changes/upgrades done.
Kind of like checking and adjusting the spokes. I do this once a week, but ideally it should be done as part of a pre-ride.
Beating the snot out of a bike and not doing any of the things I have done, which has lead to me finding out the cause for the sprocket failures btw, results in posts like "My bike just died or exploded," "My wheel just came off," or "Misfires and wont start." Or me complaining about my brakes not working right, breaking a spoke, saying my suspension sucks, or something started leaking. All things I have seen with bikes with less than or up to 1000 miles.
So, think it is "unrealistic" all you want, but I will continue to rack on the trouble free miles because I track things and I am proactive about potential issues. Maybe one day I will ride by you on the side of the road.
