Test rode a Pan American yesterday

[Rusty Shackelford]

How the **** do you spend $4k a year on maintenance? Do you put 50k miles a year on the bike? Tires, oil, filters, chains, and other fluids don't cost that much! Shed time is free!

Closer to 20k miles a year.
- Valve job $1800 (every 12k miles so about 1.5 jobs a year)
- Tires every every 8-12k miles not counting tires destroyed by road debris. About $500 a set with install
- oil changes $120 every 4-5k miles
- chain/sprockets every 2nd or 3rd oil change (about $200)
- brake pads
- coolant service

Their are people that buy motorcycles to ride and not just to decorate their garage.

To my point above, the HD's valves are self adjusting, reducing maintenance cost by just over half.

 

[William Wolfen]

Closer to 20k miles a year.
- Valve job $1800 (every 12k miles so about 1.5 jobs a year)
- Tires every every 8-12k miles not counting tires destroyed by road debris. About $500 a set with install
- oil changes $120 every 4-5k miles
- chain/sprockets every 2nd or 3rd oil change (about $200)
- brake pads
- coolant service

Their are people that buy motorcycles to ride and not just to decorate their garage.

To my point above, the HD's valves are self adjusting, reducing maintenance cost by just over half.

That answers it very simply: you're paying someone else to do the work. Stop doing that and it won't cost so much. Like I said, shed time is free. Parts alone wouldn't cost even a third of that.

 

[humanrace]

If I were in the market for a big ADV bike the Dirt Glide would have to be near the top of my list.

Me too. I liked everything about the bike except the weight and the sidestand. I guess I could fix the sidestand.

 

[woodsguy]

Valve job $1800 (every 12k miles so about 1.5 jobs a year)

Checking valves or actually doing work on them? That's a lot.

 

[humanrace]

That answers it very simply: you're paying someone else to do the work. Stop doing that and it won't cost so much. Like I said, shed time is free. Parts alone wouldn't cost even a third of that.

I've reached the point where I'd rather pay someone else to work on the bike while I ride another bike. Cost of labor is important to me when it comes to what bike I'm going to ride.

 

[humanrace]

Checking valves or actually doing work on them? That's a lot.

I thought that was a lot also. My last Triumph needed valve adjustments much more often than 12,000 miles, but new valves, valve guides and valve seats were required about every 15,000 miles. It was a 1970 Bonny, the pretty purple and white one.

 

[woodsguy]

I've reached the point where I'd rather pay someone else to work on the bike while I ride another bike. Cost of labor is important to me when it comes to what bike I'm going to ride.

I agree, just can't afford it. Some of my friends ride so they can work on their bike, lol. I just like riding. But necessity makes learn to do as much as I can.

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

Me too. I liked everything about the bike except the weight and the sidestand. I guess I could fix the sidestand.

The side stand is a tribute to Rube Goldberg.

This YouTube video was used in the design phase but the part with the phone calling the other phone was removed because the Harley app only works 49% of the time.