Hi Chaps,

I was hoping I could get some advice, I've had a read around the forums, but couldn't find all the answers. My bike (nc30) is due a major service, unfortunately, i don't have the tools or the smarts, but i'd love to be able to learn and do it myself.

I'm in south west London, and the local honda dealership quoted me £530 - their price included valve clearances, but still seemed steep. Ideally i'd want to get the carbs looked at too, as the bike is in great condition and i want to keep it like that.

Can anyone recommend a good garage in the london/south west area? i'm willing to travel anywhere though if it's worth it.

Cheers

If you wanted to bring it over to kent I'd do it and show you the basics if you wanted. Certainly wouldn't charge you £530

that sounds like a quality idea much appreciated!

i'll drop you a PM

Quite honestly, that's not excessively expensive if they're doing valve clearances. You'll find out why when you do them... It regularly used to cost be that sort of money to have mine done before I managed to get it done at mate's rates. The job isn't exactly easy, but it's not rocket science either. It's just bloody fiddly in places, and you'll spend almost as long stripping the bike and rebuilding it as you will checking the actual clearances. I did this fairly recently, and it took me a couple of Saturdays and a Sunday to get it done as I was learning on the job. I suspect next time it's only going to take a fairly relaxed day to do it. So far... it hasn't blown up and seems to go a hell of a lot better than before, despite none of the valves needing adjusting. I think it's because I tidied up all the wiring around the airbox inlet so it was as far out of the way as possible for the best induction. Or I could just be imagining things.. .lol

Just got to say what a top chap Drunkn Munky is for that offer. Top skills brother!

Hi speedy -thanks for the extra info, very useful to know!sorry for the late reply - i didn't get a notification saying you'd posted a reply . And yes CMS, a fooking good offer, from a top fella!

Luke86 wrote:Hi Chaps,

I was hoping I could get some advice, I've had a read around the forums, but couldn't find all the answers. My bike (nc30) is due a major service, unfortunately, i don't have the tools or the smarts, but i'd love to be able to learn and do it myself.

I'm in south west London, and the local honda dealership quoted me £530 - their price included valve clearances, but still seemed steep. Ideally i'd want to get the carbs looked at too, as the bike is in great condition and i want to keep it like that.

Can anyone recommend a good garage in the london/south west area? i'm willing to travel anywhere though if it's worth it.

Cheers

Even though it is a lot of money, I dont think that price is too bad. lets say 40 pound an hour to labour charges + parts and a time of around 10 hours and your there.

It is a lot of money though and the good news is the parts dont cost a lot and its quite an easy job to get done once you have had some practice so you can save the bulk of the cost (which is labour) by doing it yourself.

It's nice of DM to offer to help.

Have a chat with DM about what your going to be doing together and order all the parts up ready. (oil, plugs, filter, air filter, coolant etc)

wow, don't think i've paid more than £120 labour for a full service inc valve clearances in cardiff (plus parts of course)

Drunkn Munky wrote:If you wanted to bring it over to kent I'd do it and show you the basics if you wanted. Certainly wouldn't charge you £530

I could do with a slice of that action also when I finally get a day off to finish the bike off. Never done valve clearance for a start

Yeah no problem, im pretty busy getting a couple of bikes ready for the may day run at the minute but after that i will have some free time.