Servicing

[hondaboy]

hello all
As I am new to biking was wondering if a full dealer service history is as important with bikes as it is on cars.

My CG125 has full dealer history but is due its 7500 mile service in next couple of months. Personnally i would like to get the bits and do the work myself - its a very simple machine (like me lol) and the ownersz manual has a comprehensive guide for what to do and when to do it.

my plan is to keep all the receipts and sign the book myself, i'm an ex car mechanic so no probs doing the work.

my main concern is will it lower the resale value and/or make it harder to sell when i decide to change it.

thanks in advance for your advice

[Manky Cat]

Hi Hondaboy, getting it serviced at a dealers & having the book signed will definately keep the value up, not sure about doing the book yourself though? I'd definately pick a Bike that has been serviced at a main dealers over one that has been maintained by the owner.

The guy's on here that really know their beans when it comes to Bikes might dis-agree though as thay would probably know what they are doing...

[Spree]

I'm not a great lover of dealer workshops myself - too expensive. There was an article in MCN I think about the same thing. The consensus seemed to be that if the bike looks and feels like its been looked after then the drop in value would be very little. Keeping the receipts would be a good idea just to back up your sale in the future.

I was looking to buy a new bike last year and asked the dealer what the bike was worth. I then asked him if it would be any higher if it had a full dealer history. He said no, he makes the judgment on the bike itself because he comes across forged history all the time.

[jonnywombat]

For my money it depends on the circumstance. If you buy a new bike and you plan to only keep it for a year or two then the extra cost of dealer services will be offset buy the extra resale value..

But if you keep a bike for say 5 years then there is no way you will recoup the extra servicing costs in addition resale value.

Personally, I do the bulk of my own servicing, but leave big jobs, like having the cams shimmed, and the like, to professionals (whom I trust).

[hondaboy]

thanks guys, i'll be doing my own servicing for sure as i'll be keeping the bike for another 2 or3 years i expect

[indie]

i do all my own servicing, did the valve clearances on the zx7r few weeks ago, worst bike ive ever worked on lol u have to remove everything and even then its hard, a mate whose a car mechanic told me that the main dealer garage he works in, that on a full service, if the car is running well they only change what they have to and only what you may notice, which i find shocking cause they still charge u for everything, but then saying that before i moved to huntingdon the bike garage i used to use, when u collected your bike after a service they had all the old parts ready for you in a bag, but that was a small local shop
so now i do everything my self, the worst was a suzuki gsxr600 when the clutch basket exploded, that caused one hell of a mess but only took 2 days to sort out, i also have a stamp and ink set so i can make my own stamps which i use in my service history books, i know its wrong but i also know that the servicing has been done properly

[hondaboy]

i fully understand the comment about dealer servicing and only doing what the customer will notice but still charging for everything.

i did my apprenticeship in a main dealer where they had service sheets specific to the type of service and vehicle and the cuustomer was always charged full price for every item on that sheet but often jobs like brake fluid, steering oil and coolant changes were merely checked and if the colour looked ok they were left as they were.

always makes me a bit annoyed on car programmes when they stress a main dealer service history is very important, lets face it the job may have been done by a mechanic or apprentice who isnt that clued up on the specifics of the paticular vehicle. the best servicing i ever experienced was at a friends garage, it would be classed as a back street garage by most people but every check was carried out at every service no matter how many miles had been covered since the last and the customer only charged for what was done. and he charges about a third of the main dealers prices.

[grotbag]

Originally Posted by hondaboy

i fully understand the comment about dealer servicing and only doing what the customer will notice but still charging for everything.

Well that's me fooked then coz I know nowt about nowt!