While I have no intention of skimping on service when it comes to a very expensive investment, I am curious as to how closely most riders follow the factory's service intervals as far as 2500, 5000, etc.

I always follow the oil recs to the tee but according to the service manual, there is something to do every 2500 miles, which is fine if it's necessary.

Someone mentioned to me that the first 3 or 4 services are the most critical and once the bike has a little more miles, cables are basically stretched and things are where they should be as far as break in.

I am nearing my second oil change and bought the bike with 22000 miles, so I don't have a reference point as far as service and the dealer wasn't able to tell me much more than all oil services were performed and the 10000 mile service was done by them.

I am thinking about trying to get on a 5000 mile interval service schedule and change the plugs about every other service and was wondering if this would be stretching it as far as the experienced members are concerned?

Thanks for anything you might be able to offer as far as advice. Again, if following the manual to the exact specs is best, I am happy to do it, but would be glad to avoid overkill as far as service goes, if there is such a thing.

Have a great weekend.

 

I dont have that many miles yet, 11900, but I had the dealer do the 1k service. After that, I do all the rest. I change oil (dyno) every 3k, give or take a couple hundred. The manual explains all the "critical" fasteners and what to check. But I regularly check my bike anyway, so that in itself helps me stay pro-active on any maybe developing issues.

I just dropped my bike off for some hopefully warranty work this AM. They had asked whose been doing the services and I told them "me". They sort of gave me a funny look, but I'm not paying them to do what I can. I was thinking of letting them do the 10K just because it was a kinda major service, but when I saw the 370 dollar price tag, I said "nope".

 

Not sure about the 2000, but there is no every 2500 mile service on my bike. I do all the recommended services in the manual(1k, 5k, 10k, 15k, etc...) and change the oil every 3k miles.

 

I did the 1k and 5k and will do the 10k when it arrives. I want my bike to last a long time so I do the service when recommended. I don't know what a 2500 mile schedule is but if you put synthetic oil in your bike 5k should be more than frequent enough on oil changes.

 

actually, I was talking about oil every 5000 and spark plugs every 7500, so if I had it in at 5000 for oil, I would have to return in 2500 miles for plugs unless I did them every 10k.

 

Do a search and you'll see links for theHD service schedule. It gives you a checklist for each service.Spark plugs are done every 10k.

 

I'm actually going off the HD manual I bought after it was suggested I do so every time I asked a question like this one and the chart has a "R" for replace every 7500 miles in the spark plug section in my manual which is why I had this question. I had thought 10k was about right and will probably go with that.

 

I'm not sure about the 2000 model, but my '06 says to replace the plugs at every 10k mile service. If your manual says to replace them every 7500 miles, I'd do that. But I doubt doing them at 10k would make much of a difference.

 

Thanks!