Rang my local mechanic today to get a quote for some work...
List goes as follows...
New exhaust put on + tuning.
Fork seals.
New oil, oil filter + airfilter.
Chain + sprockets.
New plugs put in (supplied by me)
Coolant flush.
brake fluid flush
and to put my new fairings on..

For all that i was quoted $1500 and would take 2 days to do.
So for all that work is that the going price or am i being taken for a ride?
Located west of sydney australia...

Probably not being taken for a ride mate, being as these are fiddly V4s (that they probably know nothing about). Labour aint cheap.

But to be honest, you could do it all yourself between a Haynes manual and the friendly folk on 400GB if you have the time. It's not hard - even for a numpty like me

But unless it's RB Imports, I wouldn't let any old mechanic 'tune' anything on your bike. We're not talking Commodores here

superlite wrote:Probably not being taken for a ride mate, being as these are fiddly V4s (that they probably know nothing about). Labour aint cheap.

But to be honest, you could do it all yourself between a Haynes manual and the friendly folk on 400GB if you have the time. It's not hard - even for a numpty like me

But unless it's RB Imports, I wouldn't let any old mechanic 'tune' anything on your bike. We're not talking Commodores here

I know i could do it myself as im a apprentice car mechanic. But thing is, is that is my only drive to and from work, and if i did it myself then i know it would take a lot longer then 2 days even with everyones help on 400GB.

Then take your time. If you don't have a tools to do the chain, then get them to do that, but you can do the rest easy enough. Oil change one week, coolant next week etc etc. It doesn't take too long once you get going.

Only problem is i have knuckle busters which my mum calls tools...

I would love to take her apart and learn her back to front but without proper tools & space then it is quite hard..

I reckon you could do all that in 1 day if you got your shit together.

The only ballache would be if something broke (like an exhaust stud)

I'd get a day off, get the parts together and get on it.

Spray a lot of WD40 on the exhaust studs - 10 mins
Take the fairings off, warm the bike up. - 10 mins
When it is warming start to take the forks and brakes off. - 10 mins
Once warm, undo the sump, take the oil filter off. - 20 mins
Finish taking the forks off and do the seals. - 1hr
Put the sump plug and new oil filter back on, fill with oil. - 15 mins
Take the rads off, put them in a bucket of water to soak... - 15 mins
Take the exhaust system off - 1hr
fit the new plugs - 5 mins
Have some lunch..... - 1 hr
fit the new exhaust - 1hr
fit the rads - 20 mins
refit the forks - 20 mins
fit the brakes - 10 mins
bleed the brakes - 20 mins
run a hose through the top rad and out the water pump - let it go til the water is clear.
fill with 70/30 water to coolant - 20 mins


Long day...have a beer...and be glad you saved lots of money and learned a lot about your bike.

Ride to the shop with your chain and sprockets, get them to fit them as they are a ballache...sorted

iSparkzz wrote:Rang my local mechanic today to get a quote for some work...
List goes as follows...
New exhaust put on + tuning.
Fork seals.
New oil, oil filter + airfilter.
Chain + sprockets.
New plugs put in (supplied by me)
Coolant flush.
brake fluid flush
and to put my new fairings on..

For all that i was quoted $1500 and would take 2 days to do.
So for all that work is that the going price or am i being taken for a ride?
Located west of sydney australia...

There is nothing there that you could not do yourself, I would say allow 2-3 days if you are not mechanically minded.. The most daunting thing for most people that are new to wrenching is the fork seals but there are many online vids to follow..

Oil and filter is a bread and butter job and very straight forward, the plugs are very easy to change with only having to remove two bolts on the top rad... This job however has been given a bad rep esp when a well known UK bike mag said you need to "drop the engine" to get the front plugs out simply not true..

A chain breaker is a tool that will pay for it's self within two chain and sprocket swap's so well worth the investment...

Use youtube for tutorials like this (how to rivet the soft link)

As everyone else has said, Haynes manual and a half decent tool set and you can do most of that.
I know how you feel about working on your drive, ive only got my garden to work in and the weather has been horrible here atm so it hasnt been fun working in the wind and cold.
But trust me you learn so much from working on a bike yourself, if your in any doubt just make sure you have a friend near by that you can call if you become stuck with anything. I didnt know a thing about working on a bike before i got mine, now i try and do any work myself as it saves alot of money and you end up learning so many new skills that you can put in to practice in the future.

Well as i have said before.. i know i am capable of doing most of this, but its just mind over matter. I am a apprentice mechanic so im sure if i ask my boss then he would let me use the workshop for the weekend, and i know one of the boys there is willing to help me.. But its more mind over matter..

Your be fine, all those jobs only require basic mechanical knowledge and a little bit of common sense