New Rider - Hello

coach59 wrote:

Also, and this may sounds a bit silly, the first things I was planning on doing was to wash, clean-up and polish the bike. Is there any magical process for this - or is it relatively straight forward. Are there any recommended products - or is this too a personal choice.

Nope, not silly. Its much easier to spot a small problem before it becomes a big problem on a clean bike. As far as products, yes its a personal choice. I use meguiars 3 step for the paint, a product called glass-x (iirc) also from meguiars which cleans up all clear plastics like indicator lenses and windshields, etc, and on the engine covers/forks/aluminium I use Mr Buffer , works great for me!

Got it....thanks Ed.

Another maintenance question....does it make any sense to change all the fluids, and other tune-up related items now and have the bike sit for the upcoming winter? Or should I wait until early Spring to do all of that?

I probabaly won't be riding the bike much the remainder of the summer/fall...but I don't know if there's any down-side to getting the bike changed-out now, just to let it sit in my garage over the winter.

In looking at the manual interval schedule, many of these items should be performed every year and/or every 5,000 miles...so perhaps it's expected that the bike won't be used all year round. I live in Utah (our winters aren't the time to be doing much riding). I would also like to find a local mechanic who could provide some trainng for me and offer some pointers from a more experienced perspective. I simply don't know...what I don't know. The service manual looks helpful, but it would be nice to have some hands-on experience to rely on as well.

I'll keep plowing forward...I've got lots of questions.

Be safe..

TH