motorcycle maintenance?

[bUnMaNGo]

For those of you guys here who ride, do you perform your own maintenance on your bike? Stuff like brake pads/fluid, coolant, oil, spark plugs... I regularly perform general maintenance on my car with the help of my Haynes manual, and am wondering how much harder it could be on a bike. I have yet to purchase the service manual direct from Honda and Chiltons doesn't make one for my bike yet (as far as I know) Skimming through the owners manual it kinda shows how to take apart the bike piece by piece to reach areas like the spark plugs and stuff but it seems like a much more tedious job to do so. If I remember correctly the manual says to remove some fairings and then move the radiator just to reach the spark plugs. Seems like a lot of work What can I do to make this easier? Should I get one of those pit bull stands? As I mentioned before I'm pretty competent when it comes to car maintenance so I don't think it would be too hard to figure out how to do stuff. Is there anything I should look out for? Also, how often do you guys lube your chain? Thanks for any input.

 

[Brutuskend]

I thought this was going to be a ZEN and the art of...thread!

So, just passing though I guess!

 

[The Stigenator]

if you got time, space and the right tools its easy.

I recently cleaned my airfilter.. however the chiltons said it was a 10 minute jobs.. year right.. well it took me and my brother almost an hour.

Problem was we had a leaking "fuel line' that I have to replace.. but only after I empty the tank fully. When I lift the tank the fuel line extends and then a small leak shows up and starts leaking to the outside. its the reserve line that has a leak. When the tank is placed back it does not leak. The hole gets exposed when the line gets pulled and the hole goes past the metal "slip on" of an output.

I do the basic maintance (lubing chain every 600 miles, oil checks, air check etc etc). I havent changed oil yet but I will the next time i need to do it (which will be october). My bike is easier to work on - no fairing - so i have it easy. However the right tools do help. A pitbull stand will help a lot. The next week I am going to check the spark plugs to see how they are doing. But so far i havent had too much trouble and so I havnet done too much. My next few upgrades = a ignition advancer and a fairing.