So today I finally got around to that 7500 mile servicing on my bike, now at 8550 miles. Whups.
I have a tire on order, a Bridgestone Battlewing. I had planned on putting a Metzeler Tourance on the back of the bike, but the new Battlewing which was released in Europe a while back has been getting rave reviews. My current tire is BALD. I should take a picture. It is flat and smooth across the center, which is not good, especially for rain. The new Battlewing has 9mm of tread, which is quite a bit, so i hope to get some good mileage out of it. Getting 8500 miles out of a motorcycle tire is a small feat in and of itself. I’ve been running some Ride-On in my tires for about 5000 miles so far which I think has helped the wear. I’m not nice to the tires, my wrist is far too snappy 
Read on for what amounts to me being a gear head about my bike. I’ll understand if you skip it. But I thought it would be interesting to share.
Anyway, that tire is slated to be here tomorrow. I had to dig around to find a US supplier of it. Jason in Albuquerque has scheduled me a slot to install it on Saturday, so I’m looking forward to a new meat on the back.
I went to Autozone to get an oil filter and an air filter. I knew these were a long shot to have on the shelves, but I was sure they could order them. However, Autozone has taken motorcycles out of its computers! Luckily the part numbers were in the K&N catalog. I ordered both the oil and air filters. On my bike, I understand that a K&N air filter doesn’t give me much more bang, but I like the fact that I don’t have to buy another $20+ filter from Suzuki every 11000 miles. Also, it turns out I don’t have to replace the filter for a while yet, but, whatever.
Filters came in today. The next step was getting oil. Dear god. There is a lot of different oil out there. Do I go with a $1.50 a quart car oil? A $3.00 a quart semi-synthetic? Or do I man up and stump up $7.00 a quart for motorcycle specific oil?
I turned to the internet, and found this link. I recommend you read it if you have at all wondered about oils. What it basically boiled down to was me riding down to Wal-Mart today to buy a gallon of Rotella T Synthetic. $12 a -gallon-. I like. My bike takes about 3.1 liters of oil, so a gallon is a little more than one oil change. I also have a little bottle of oil under the seat for the Pro-Oiler, which is an automatic chain oiler.
I dumped the old oil, which ran out of the engine like water. I’m pretty sure I went with generic 10W-40 Quaker State last time, and I’m sure the VI modifiers have pretty much completely broken down. The drain plug had more metal shavings on it than I have ever seen on an oil change. I don’t know what to think about that… the engine is probably still breaking in, so unless it goes out, I’m not going to worry about it.
I yanked off the gas tank and swapped the air filter, which is no small feat, but doesn’t take long. The manual also said it was time for a spark plug change, so I pulled the back plug, which was about finger tight (!). I called Autozone to see if they could cross it, and DumbAss on the phone said that not only did they not stock it, they couldn’t get it. I checked online at Napa, and they said they had it in the stores. I fired up my old XT600 bike and rode up to Los Alamos. I had forgotten just how torquey that little bike is. Regardless, Napa didn’t have it but could order. Nevermind. I got home, called the Suzuki dealer in Albuquerque, and they didn’t have any in stock. “We’re ordering them like crazy, we’ll have more next week.” They always do that to me… never… “We’ll order you some,” just… “try again later.” Whatever. I’ll take my chances with Cycle Gear on Saturday.
I put the plug back, and buttoned up the engine. Filled up the oil and cranked it over. Took a tad bit to fill the filter, which is always scary, but the oil light went out and I ran it for a bit, and killed it. Topped off the oil, and fired it up and let it warm up.
Next step was the throttle body sync. On my bike, the computer reads all the engine data off the front throttle body, ie, position, vacuum, etc. So it infers what the back throttle body is doing. It is therefore critical to vacuum balance the two throttle bodies. You do this with a TB sync tool, which you can buy from Suzuki for $megabucks, or make one yourself, like this. Basically, you want to get the vacuum pull of the back TB the same as the front. There is a screw helpfully placed where you can’t get to it without contorting your hand just right and using a screw driver bit to adjust this. The trick is to move it a bit, blip the throttle, check the level, and get it within an inch or two before the engine gets too hot and burns the snot out of your hand.
I only burned my hand mildly this time before I got it done. Finished up putting it together, geared up, and went for a ride.
WOW.
I always forget how much power this thing has when it is tuned. It was like having another engine in there somewhere. Although, launching is much more timid ‘cos the back tire is just spinning instead of biting (didn’t get the front end in the air any). A new tire will ‘rectify’ this, hah. I’m also curious how some new plugs will help out as well. I guess we’ll see.
Anyway, boring post I know, but no one else to talk to about it
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