I always do my own service work, on all m vehicles, bikes, cars, trucks, Atv's,
3 tractors, etc. I have saved thousands over the years doing my own repair work.
It's a great feeling to save money, and an excellent way to get to know your bike.
The best factor of all to me is not letting some inexperienced youngster touch
my bike, and possible do things wrong, miss important items, or what I hear a lot,
damage the bike's paint when the work on it, or even wash it with their crappy sponges and rags.
NO freaking way am I taking my bike to any dealer!!

Get the basic tools you need, and make sure you cover the tins when your working on it.
and most of all , it's fun!

 

You should only do the service on your bike if you want it done right

 

You should do all the maintenance you feel comfortable doing. Just take your time its really not that hard. honestly your gonna be way more careful than a tech at the dealer.

 

For me it's the only solution.

 

If you can remove a drain plug and then put it back in without cross threading or under/over torque it and the same with the filter you should be good to go.

But then that leaves over or under filling the oil level.

Darn! Life is so complicated. I think we should all just pay the dealer $3 to $4 hundred dollars to relieve us of all this technical complicated stressful work.

 

I've always do my own, but yes, one of my first purchases is always a service manual, harley is good at giving descriptions on how to do it. If you take your time and read thru everything your should be fine. Just don't go out of your comfort zone.

 

And don't forget You Tube and similar instruction videos too. When I did my gear drive cams 4 years ago, I read the Andrews instructions (gears,) the S&S instructions (cams) and watched a couple of videos observing the whole process from start to finish before I laid a wrench on the cam chest bolts. Lots of good information out there.

 

I was intimidated at first, but with manuals and this forum most things can be done. I know a lot of us would buy a digital tech if we could.
After rebuilding and synching 6 carbs, swapping 4 cams and adjusting 24 valves(more than most dealers done at that time), then running to over twice the RPM, I figured I could maintain this 1940's JD technology.(yes,JD)

 

If you got the time, know-how and like to, then yes.
It is a good idea to have @least 1 good indy though to go to in the event that you find something that you cannot do or do not want to.
Dealerships like indy's are hit and miss.

 

I don't like getting my hands dirty ... so my girlfriend does my work.