A word of thanks...

Greetings, all. I lurk here a lot and post occasionally. I've been a SWing owner now for about 4 years and it's been a very good motorbike throughout.

I must first admit that I am really not much of a handy guy...I don't work on cars at all, anymore...they're just too complex. With the motorbikes, I noted that commercial service costs were also expensive, so I resolved to do as much routine maintenance as I could and leave the complex stuff to the professionals.

With the SWing, I've done oil and filter changes, final drive oil changes, air filter, etc. I have the factory manual and it's great, but sometimes, it directs you to do things which are not necessary. For example, in the final drive oil change, step one is to remove the left rear footpeg mount, then remove some sheet plastic and the CVT dust cover. By snooping around here a bit, though, I discovered a pictorial on how to do the work without doing all that. I found out that there's actually no need to do all that and the final drive oil change is really pretty simple.

So anyway, this is just a long way of saying "thank you" to the website owners, moderators and mechs here for your hard work and your very helpful pictorials, hints and other help. You've saved me a lot of money and, more importantly, helped me to become a bit more self-sufficient.

Thank you!

Jinglebob,

Thanks for the post. Many members here are very good at helping others. I did the Pictorial for the final drive oil and after I read the manual and then looked at the bike I wondered... why wouldn't an open end wrench work. So I tried it and it worked without removing anything at all. The manual is good but it difficult to read at times. But thanks for post.

Experience is often the best help there is. Another example would be the replacement of the fuel pressure regulator, which on older high mileage engines does frequently fail. The service manual suggests that the intake manifold must be removed. That means draining all the coolant, among other tedious parts removals. The first time I did a fuel regulator, I saw two nuts that needed loosening. I asked myself why the intake manifold had to come off. Seeing no reason, I proceeded with the open end wrenches and the job was done very quickly. The key point you make here is that forum members disseminate these tips to others.

Sheesh, they have to justify stealership prices some way!!!  :lol!: