Devauld.ca

Immediately after I purchased my motorcycle I rode it as much as I could. I would take the long way home from work, and go meandering around town. Over the span of a few days I racked up quite a few kilometers. Very shortly after I indulged, the safer part of my brain convinced me that no longer could I ride on the tires that were currently on my bike

I could tell when I first saw my Buell that it's previous life of 7300 kilometers were very strenuous, and that the bike was probably wearing all of the parts it walked out of the shop with. Not that it mattered, the second that I heard the V-Twin engine roar to life, I knew that that bike was as good as mine.

Looking at the maintenance, I quickly knew that I would be doing it myself, as the Harley stealership charges a whopping $100/hr, and required 2 hours to change out tires. Add that to the fact that good old Calgary Harley wanted $150 more for the rubber, and I figured I'd be doing all the maintenance on my bike. This lead to a dry spell in my riding, as was missing some tools required to get the job completed (like a 7/8" hex driver).

After a couple nights of cussing, and swinging about a breaker bar, I have managed to change out all the fluids, put in some better filters, and get some nice sticky rubber on my bike. It's really fun to drive, and I notice marginal increases in performance with each little bit of maintenance I complete. This evening was the largest improvement I have experienced, knocking the replacement of the air-filter from the top of the list.

When considering the bike as a purchase, I did all my research, and found that one of the largest complaints with the bike was the gearbox. People complained of it being clunky and heavy, and the first time I rode the bike, I did find the shifting a bit stiff, and most often I would need to take a couple stabs at getting into neutral. I didn't really think there was going to be much of a difference, but I had reached chapter 1.9 in the maintenance manual which meant time to swap out the transmission oil.

It's a super quick job, three screws and the transmission's contents were all over the floor of my shop. The oil within was the blackest I have ever seen, save raw crude. It was just disgusting. I replaced the abused fluid with some golden synthetic, and as soon as I had the plate back on, I thought I would take it for a slow speed test drive to ensure I didn't just screw over my bike.

I backed out of the garage and, I'll admit, held my breath as I pulled in the clutch and pressed down on the shifter. It was butter. I pulled out onto the road and pulled hard on the throttle. It never takes very long to close the gap between first and second gear, and I pulled up on the shifter in an attempt to skip neutral right into second gear. At that moment, I'm sure glad I had my visor down, as I'm sure my smile would have blinded any oncoming traffic. I was no longer riding the same bike. My heavy footed, tempermental and noisy gearbox has been replaced with a swift, effortless and noisy gearbox. The shifts still clunk into place, but no longer do I have difficulties changing gears. With changes like these, It's no wonder I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the way through the maintenance manual.