Servicing Costs?
Author
Discussion

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
Need the GSXR600 services, and would like to get a few bits, but do these costs sound reasonable...?

Service - £220
Chain/Sprocket set - £160
Sprocket Carrier - £107

Sounds a lot to me! Any thoughts?

Cheers.

dern

14,055 posts

302 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
Why does it need a sprocket carrier?

Difficult to know whether the service cost is excessive without knowing what it covers. If it's for an oil and filter change it's very expensive but possibly not for a full valve clearance check and the rest.

Mark

catso

15,881 posts

290 months

Friday 13th January 2006
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Sounds like you've gone to a Ducati dealer.....

rsvmilly

11,288 posts

264 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
catso said:
Sounds like you've gone to a Ducati dealer.....
If he had, the bil would be four times that

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
dern said:
Why does it need a sprocket carrier?

Difficult to know whether the service cost is excessive without knowing what it covers. If it's for an oil and filter change it's very expensive but possibly not for a full valve clearance check and the rest.

Mark


Doesn't really "need" a sprocket carrier, but mine is just scruffy and has minor paint chips/cracks on it.
I told them that I was taking the bike to Spain for a week, and that I wanted it giving a "seeing to" just to make sure!

Robbo SPS

195 posts

257 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
Just spent £860 for a service !!

Although thats

New fluids, brake pads, scuff re-paired, new stainless down tubes, new K&N filter, F7ull dyno run, many little bits fixed and....


It kicks out 111.4 bhp at the back wheel.

CBR 600 - Even they were impressed

james_j

3,996 posts

278 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
chilli said:
Need the GSXR600 services, and would like to get a few bits, but do these costs sound reasonable...?

Service - £220
Chain/Sprocket set - £160
Sprocket Carrier - £107

Sounds a lot to me! Any thoughts?

Cheers.


What service? If just oil and filter plus check over then that's a bit expensive, but if valve clearances also then not too bad.

rsvmilly

11,288 posts

264 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
My R6 was around £120 for an intermediate service and £220 for a major so it sounds in the right ball park.

dern

14,055 posts

302 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
chilli said:
I told them that I was taking the bike to Spain for a week, and that I wanted it giving a "seeing to" just to make sure!
Impossible to say whether it's good value or not without knowing what they're doing.

ninjaboy

2,525 posts

273 months

Friday 13th January 2006
quotequote all
chilli said:
Need the GSXR600 services, and would like to get a few bits, but do these costs sound reasonable...?

Service - £220
Chain/Sprocket set - £160
Sprocket Carrier - £107

Sounds a lot to me! Any thoughts?

Cheers.


A valve check and MOT cost me £250 last year on the ZX6R that was from chell in stafford and hes an offical Kwak dealer sounds about right too me. The chain & sprockets sound pricey though unless that OE stuff for renthal or similar i would say about £100-£140 for the set

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
Well, I've told them I wanted to take the bike to S[pain this year, and prob a few track days, so I wanted it to be in tip top condition....... still a bit of a shock though....might forget about the sprocket carrier!!

dern

14,055 posts

302 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
chilli said:
Well, I've told them I wanted to take the bike to S[pain this year, and prob a few track days, so I wanted it to be in tip top condition....... still a bit of a shock though....might forget about the sprocket carrier!!
My sprocket carrier spends all of its time covered in road grime and lube so personally, unless it was a show bike, I wouldn't bother.

Bike servicing seems to be even more of a license to print money than car servicing. It really isn't that difficult to do yourself if you want to save money and the workshop manuals are freely available. I've been servicing my blade since the warranty expired and it's saved me a fortune. You will knock value off the bike but then I've already done that with mine with its 'starship' mileage (ie, I do more than 500 a year) and the fact that I've been riding it through winter and therefore it's gone a bit crusty.

Regards,

Mark

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
dern said:
chilli said:
Well, I've told them I wanted to take the bike to S[pain this year, and prob a few track days, so I wanted it to be in tip top condition....... still a bit of a shock though....might forget about the sprocket carrier!!
My sprocket carrier spends all of its time covered in road grime and lube so personally, unless it was a show bike, I wouldn't bother.

Bike servicing seems to be even more of a license to print money than car servicing. It really isn't that difficult to do yourself if you want to save money and the workshop manuals are freely available. I've been servicing my blade since the warranty expired and it's saved me a fortune. You will knock value off the bike but then I've already done that with mine with its 'starship' mileage (ie, I do more than 500 a year) and the fact that I've been riding it through winter and therefore it's gone a bit crusty.

Regards,

Mark



Might be worth thinking about. I'm not that clued up on bike maintenance, but used to service the car with my old man "back in the day"!!
Probably doesn't need a good going over, but would "be nice". I've just looked at www.bargain-biker and their chain and sprocket sets start at £58 for the O-Ring, and £73 for the X-Ring.
Can't believe Suzuki are gonna charge me £86 for labour, when I've been told it's a 45 min job (and that's prob for the cheaper chain).
Still...If you can't do it your self, you don't have a lot of choice really......

dern

14,055 posts

302 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
chilli said:
Might be worth thinking about. I'm not that clued up on bike maintenance, but used to service the car with my old man "back in the day"!!
Probably doesn't need a good going over, but would "be nice". I've just looked at www.bargain-biker and their chain and sprocket sets start at £58 for the O-Ring, and £73 for the X-Ring.
Can't believe Suzuki are gonna charge me £86 for labour, when I've been told it's a 45 min job (and that's prob for the cheaper chain).
Still...If you can't do it your self, you don't have a lot of choice really......
It's all about having the right tools and also not being in a rush. The main problem is that if you find you need a tool or a bit at any other time at the w/e than a saturday morning you're going to struggle finding that bit so you can easily put your bike out of action while you track the bits down but if you don't need it come monday morning that that's not an issue.

Maintaining a bike is only slightly more difficult than doing a car and that's only because access can be tight. Oil/filter changes are dead easy. Changing wheel bearings is very simple etc.

It gets a bit more involved when you want to do things like check valve clearances because you have to take a lot of stuff off and it can be tight. It's not difficult but you want to take your time. You also want to make sure that you do all the checks that a dealer would do and do all the periodic tightening and lubrication of swing arms and all that jazz... not that I think they do it unless you ask them.

You can go a long way with a paddock stand, a socket set and a torque wrench.

The chain is not that difficult to do. Search for a thread on here that I started asking for advice on chain breaking tools. Basically most of the tools are pretty shit and break almost immediately and you can easily 'break' a chain using an angle grinder if you have one and you can put one back together with the assistant of a ball hammer and you'll probably end up with a better job than if you'd used one of the 50 quid tools.

Mark

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
Mark,

Really appreciate your comments, I'll "do" some investigating! Just seems a bit mental to spend £500 on a bike worth about £2k!

Thanks again.

crankedup

25,764 posts

266 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
IMHO if you feel the bike is OK but you have told the dealer to give it a right going over, you may as well have told them to have a right old forage around in your open wallet. If your 100% sure that the safety aspects are 100% then save your cash for more track days

dern

14,055 posts

302 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
chilli said:
Really appreciate your comments, I'll "do" some investigating! Just seems a bit mental to spend £500 on a bike worth about £2k!
No problem... bear in mind the risks you take are you own and I'm just an enthusiastic amature and cannot guarentee that my advice is either accurate or indeed sensible

Steve_T

6,356 posts

295 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
I'd definitely echo Mark's sentiments re. picking up the tools and having a go. I'm in a similar position to you Mark, in that I do 10k a year of commuting, so the bike is high mileage and far from being a garage queen. Since picking up the tools, I'd estimate I've saved the difference between dealer and private sales prices already. I may get someone else to do the tappet service if it's particularly fiddly to do, but that's about it.

Steve.

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
dern said:
chilli said:
Really appreciate your comments, I'll "do" some investigating! Just seems a bit mental to spend £500 on a bike worth about £2k!
No problem... bear in mind the risks you take are you own and I'm just an enthusiastic amature and cannot guarentee that my advice is either accurate or indeed sensible


Oh, absolutely...understood!
I'll ask my neighbour to take it for a spin. Being my first bike I wouldn't know if the handling/performance is right or not!

chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

259 months

Monday 16th January 2006
quotequote all
crankedup said:
IMHO if you feel the bike is OK but you have told the dealer to give it a right going over, you may as well have told them to have a right old forage around in your open wallet. If your 100% sure that the safety aspects are 100% then save your cash for more track days


Yeah, good call. Now that the BM needs £600 worth of tyres, and tax on everything runs out on 31st Jan, think it's the bare min all round!!

Never rains, eh??!!