revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Zero plus bits

A_morti wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2026 9:08 am Watching that video again, it's actually £949 for the first 3 services. Not cheap still, but I had understood nearly £1k for the third service.
Even so, mine will likely get the first one for the stamp, then oil changes at home around annual/ 4k miles. 8k is pretty brave especially as mine will mostly do short journeys.
I doubt I'll still own it past 16k miles, I'm hoping electric bikes will be where I want them by then.

A notable part of that was vat iirc? For a (shimmed) valve service I don't think £7/800+ is unreasonable. On ADV and Sports bikes there's lots of time consuming panels to come off. Plus I think a lot of people are living in yesteryear when it comes to prices. Dealerships have always had lot of overheads compared to Bobs Bikes under the railway arches and mobile Mikes servicing etc and now there's a hike in business rates, employers costs for NI contributions etc blah.

Bikers seem to lament the passing of old dealerships, but actually do little to support them. Perhaps if dealerships had been better supported and kept a big customer base, prices wouldn't have hiked so much?

Taipan wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2026 12:01 pm

A_morti wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2026 9:08 am Watching that video again, it's actually £949 for the first 3 services. Not cheap still, but I had understood nearly £1k for the third service.
Even so, mine will likely get the first one for the stamp, then oil changes at home around annual/ 4k miles. 8k is pretty brave especially as mine will mostly do short journeys.
I doubt I'll still own it past 16k miles, I'm hoping electric bikes will be where I want them by then.

A notable part of that was vat iirc? For a (shimmed) valve service I don't think £7/800+ is unreasonable. On ADV and Sports bikes there's lots of time consuming panels to come off. Plus I think a lot of people are living in yesteryear when it comes to prices. Dealerships have always had lot of overheads compared to Bobs Bikes under the railway arches and mobile Mikes servicing etc and now there's a hike in business rates, employers costs for NI contributions etc blah.

Bikers seem to lament the passing of old dealerships, but actually do little to support them. Perhaps if dealerships had been better supported and kept a big customer base, prices wouldn't have hiked so much?

All true.

To be honest - that video could have been shot 30 or 40 years ago. Nothing about the relationship between big bike shop and bike owner has changed much since the 50s.

I'd much rather trust my spannering than what most dealers offer, but then I've mostly had older bikes & little money.

As long as I can, I'll be doing it myself. I have the time, I need some better space. The way I look at is that it's a learning experience and I essentially get some new tools for free.

I paid for a service once. Never again.
After years of two strokes and shitters I bought a Triumph Sprint and intimidated by tales of temperamental FI etc I booked it into Pidcock's they charged me an arm and a leg, fucked up the bike and charged me another arm and a leg for bits I didn't need. By the time they'd done I was well over a grand out of pocket.
Bastards stripped a thread on the IACV so the cap sat at a jaunty angle and didn't notice the cracks in the air tubes but insisted I needed a new engine management computer (forget the correct name) for which they wanted 300 for a second hand one.
When I learned how the FI worked, I fixed the IACV and all the air leaks and the old computer worked fine
Cnuts.

I'm back to doing my own servicing at least I know the valves have really been checked, not just a quick compression test.

I bought a new Firestorm in 2004 and it went back to the dealer for the first service. Apart from that I do everything myself

porter_jamie wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2026 11:56 am Zero plus bits

Ditto.

£300-400, depending on parts needed, every 6k miles on the V85TT. Valves need checking/adjusting every time. Central London rates. I could probably do some of it, but don't fancy it and don't have a garage. And the £200 labour saved isn't hugely significant out of a c.£2.5 k cost pa of running the bike.

Like many others, I don't think I've ever paid for a bike service.

FWIW I worked as a mechanic in a main bike dealer for a year (about 30 years ago!). To be fair it's probably all changed since then. But I think if you can change the oil, filters and keep on top of the brakes that's the majority of it.

I do pay to get the Prii serviced. It's almost always between one and two hundred quid. And I don't like going under cars since one collapsed the jack and went over sideways. Fortunately I wasn't under it at the time.

I'll pay for the first service, after that it's all down to me. That's with bikes, cars get serviced when they need to be, by someone else. I CBA getting under a car or van, at least not without a 2 or 4 post lift (which I don't have).

MyLittleStudPony wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2026 10:30 pm I do pay to get the Prii serviced. It's almost always between one and two hundred quid. And I don't like going under cars since one collapsed the jack and went over sideways. Fortunately I wasn't under it at the time.

No jack stands?

ZRX61 wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2026 12:13 am

MyLittleStudPony wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2026 10:30 pm I do pay to get the Prii serviced. It's almost always between one and two hundred quid. And I don't like going under cars since one collapsed the jack and went over sideways. Fortunately I wasn't under it at the time.

No jack stands?

I've never used them, they sound good. I might go back to ramps, I had some big wooden ones in the past and they felt very safe.

They sound good???? dude...