6k (mile) service

Now I would normally undertake everything that is on the service schedule myself.  There is nothing difficult there and although I have never done a Guzzi, I look after my BMW R1200S with no problems.  The only reason I'm letting a dealer do it is because it's only 3 yrs old and it's the first major service and I might be selling it in the not too distant future.  So, having spoken to them, they are looking to change the engine oil and filter, adjust the valves and then just tweak everything and check as per the book.  For this they are going to charge me £380 inc VAT.  Man that really burns.  That stuff is a doddle and I do that on the Beemer every year.  I do the gearbox and FD every other year.  

The schedule shows FD, gearbox and fork oil as well but if they do that then I'm  looking at £500+ all in.  That's madness. Even the £380 is madness.  Thing is, I'm struggling with comfort and I think I might have to sell it after this season, and that is why i'm thinking it would be good to have an official stamp in the service book.  If I knew it was a long term keeper like my Beemer I would just do it all myself and not worry.  As it is, I shall be changing the gearbox and FD oil myself anyway.  I'm not sure about the necessity of the fork oil change right now.

Any thoughts.  Do I just 'suck it up' and pay the man, or do it all myself and have a future potential owner squirm because it doesn't have a main dealer history?

FWIW, I love the bike.  The way it looks, handles, sounds.  Everything except the fact that I can't manage more than a couple of hours without losing the ability to walk afterwards.  I must be a glutton for punishment though as I'm taking it to Mandelo for the Guzzi open weekend in September!  I have bought myself an Airhawk seat in the hope that I can make the trip to the end!


Cheers
Steve

What about balancing the throttle bodies and brake and clutch fluid? Has the swingarm and shock linkage ever been serviced? Sounds like a lot of money for an oil change and valve lash adjust and what does 'Tweak everything' mean ffs?

If that is all they are doing, you should do it yourself. Sounds like your service would be better and more complete than the shop/dealer. Should be easy to explain that to any potential buyers in the future.

I doubt if paying £500 for dealer service will add £500 to the resale price just because you can say & show a dealer stamped service sheet, compared to DIY with photos & receipts & much more detailed commentary about what you did & any observations (I write up with pics all work/changes/adjustments - it reads like a loved machine !)

Especially with the standard of dealer servicing nowdays ! An authorized dealer was always the last place I would go for servicing and now even more so, the standard has dropped so quickly and so widely under the new local distributer in Australia, all the providers who knew their job and the product, they seem to have been systematically removed. I would always prefer a small, maybe now unofficial service provider.

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Pete Roper wrote:

What about balancing the throttle bodies and brake and clutch fluid? Has the swingarm and shock linkage ever been serviced? Sounds like a lot of money for an oil change and valve lash adjust and what does 'Tweak everything' mean ffs?

Exactly. They’re only doing the basics and when I first booked it they weren’t even aware of the valve check.  I would love to use Baldrick here in south London but unfortunately he only does weekdays and I’m self employed so the cost goes up a days money.  I think I’ve decided to do the oils and brake/clutch fluid myself. I’ll print off the service checklist, keep the receipts and take photos of the work for any future owner.   I’ll just have to  find a  better Guzzi dealer for the stuff I don’t have the facilities for at home.  I have a ‘twinair’ that I use on the beemer so balancing the Guzzi shouldn’t be too hard. There must be some instruction in the web somewhere. I wouldn’t mind paying a good independent to do it and get a stamp in the book but it just burns too much to spend that sort of money knowing I can do a better/more comprehensive job.  I’d like to do the swing arm and linkage but I just can’t with my set up. The only thing that stumps me a bit is the Filter housing oil drainage pipe that needs flushing?  I wish I was just down the road from you Pete, that’s for sure!

P.S. I should mention that ‘tweaking’ was my term for going over the bike and checking wheel bearings, fasteners, headstock etc. The usual checks.  Apologies for inferinginfering bthat was the dealers term.

Thanks all. I’ll be doing all the straight forward stuff myself and keep a record.

If you are going to sell then no point spending £380 let alone £500 in my view, but if you do decide to go ahead then I recommend Twiggers in Loughborough. you can ride up on a Saturday early and they will do it while you spend a few hours in Starbucks. They need seem notice as I think Saturday slots get booked up a few weeks in advance. Cant remember what they charged me to do it all inc. Throttle Balance, valve clearances, oil and air filters, oil, brake and clutch fluid but I seem to remember the bill began with a 3, and I though the bike ran smoother afterwards - I had a highish tickover when I went and they somehow managed to adjust so its now 'normal'. One valve was 'clicking' and they confirmed one needed a bit more adjustment than the others. You could also leave the bike with them for a week and go fetch it the following Saturday if that suits.

grief I was charged £180 by a main dealer for that service

Yeah, an appropriate space in cities is a problem, but networking is a solution, there are hearts of gold in the Guzzi community and the common reluctance to impose feeling just gets in the way of making friends. Put some feelers out in the various Guzzi forums & see what happens. Even though there appears to be a particular dearth of any such facilities in southern England, there are those around who manage.

Blow by blow instructions for everything you would want to do will be on here somewhere. Seek & Ye shall find.

A fork oil change could make a difference to your comfort level, not necessarily a lot, but some, especially as you're planning a long trip. Playing with the bar angles may help more. A minute change can make a big difference. Tweak & test, tweak again & test. Hope the airhawk helps.

Labour was around 4+ hours and £45 per hour plus VAT, add parts - oil, filter, air, brake fluid and consumables, and it quickly gets to £300+. I wasn't surprised by the bill and thought it was very fair! I also thought Twiggers were very thorough and knew what they were doing. Would go back again and I am a southerner so its not easy or convenient but to me it was worth the trip. But then I am not a home fiddler, and hopeless with spanners.

MalG wrote:

Yeah, an appropriate space in cities is a problem, but networking is a solution, there are hearts of gold in the Guzzi community and the common reluctance to impose feeling just gets in the way of making friends. Put some feelers out in the various Guzzi forums & see what happens. Even though there appears to be a particular dearth of any such facilities in southern England, there are those around who manage.

Blow by blow instructions for everything you would want to do will be on here somewhere. Seek & Ye shall find.

A fork oil change could make a difference to your comfort level, not necessarily a lot, but some, especially as you're planning a long trip. Playing with the bar angles may help more. A minute change can make a big difference. Tweak & test, tweak again & test. Hope the airhawk helps.

Yes. Guzzi dealers are few and far between unfortunately. There are a couple of new ones but untested is in my eyes, untrustworthy.  I had one just a few miles away from me in North London (Slocombes) but sadly they dropped the franchise last year.  

As for comfort, no amount of handlebar or suspension tweaking will make a difference I’m afraid.  This is a butt/saddle problem and I’m not about to uglify my bike by having the saddle rebuilt into a sofa.

I have come to a decision now that I’ve been able to talk it out in the forums. Cheers to everyone.

An update.

I didn't have time to take it anywhere before I left for my trip to Mandello so I changed the oil myself and set off.  It was a great trip (albeit a little different to the one i'd planned) and i'll try to submit a post in about it in the week.  On my return I spoke to 'Baldrick' who is a revered Guzzi expert in the UK and arranged for him to do the whole 6k service, grease the swingarm bearings and fix the leaking condom on the blowby box. I also had the oil changed again even though i'd just done it two weeks previously as i'd just thrapped it over Europe for 2k miles in nine days and new oil is always better than used oil.   The day I dropped my bike off I knew I could trust him and he just gave off a good vibe.  He even let me leave all my bike gear with him as I was getting the train home and would collect my bike a couple of days later.  He did the whole lot (including a couple of little jobs he saw along the way) for the price originally quoted and it was all for £70 more than main dealers (that I don't trust) were asking for the standard service.  It was still a chunk of change but great value compared to the main dealers and I had peace of mind leaving it with him.  If you're in the South of England I would strongly recommend him over a dealer.

If the bike has a full MG service history, then there is very little difference between the running in service, first, second or third etc. Air filter is at 3 years but is just about the easiest job on list. Fork seals and oil are not usually serviced as per schedule (at least in the UK). Everything else - full fluid change, valves, TB’s etc are on every service starting at 600 miles.
Decided to do mine at the start of year 3. The supplying dealer went pop, a respected UK specialist left me feeling underwhelmed (also found that they didn’t charge the oil filter or fit a washer under the carc filler plug) and an Italian bike indi told me that balancing the TB’s / resetting the TPS was unnecessary (I don’t think they had the cables or software).
It’s just a bit time consuming to do properly. Work in a logical sequence and it should take around 5 hours including brake clean and fresh fluid.
Getting the correct 85/90 GL5 is difficult but westway lubricants can supply a 5 litre for around £30.