Shouldn't be that hard right?

(Warning, geeky motorcycle stuff following) So, I have a motorcycle track weekend (2 days in a row) coming up necessitating an oil and coolant change. The modern day sport bike is basically as close to a race vehicle that you can buy meaning everything is minimal, compacted, and only done in a way to enhance performance.

This means, doing an oil change sucks. First, you have to take off the fairings on the right side. That involves 7-8 allen head bolts which are no big deal. It’s the 4 plastic tab things which are a pain in the ass! I managed not to break any. And then, since everything is squished together, you have to move the coolant reservoir out of the way to get to the oil filter.



Changing the coolant is more of a pain than changing the oil. I couldn’t find a drain for the coolant system, so I ended up pulling a hose off the water pump to drain it. Now for the most annoying thing, the radiator cap is right under one of the air ducts to the airbox. So there’s less than a half inch of clearance. Requires a bit of forcing stuff out of the way to take it off. To fill back up, I had to get a funnel with a tube, and bend some fairings out of the way.


It's ironic, it's harder to work on a motorcycle than on a car sometimes...