How often?

[carlosthejack...]

I'm doing about 50 miles a day commuting to work. How often should I be changing my oil and other fluid and oiling my chain?

Is there an idiots guide to daily/weekly/monthly/yearly maintenance tasks I need to be doing in between services that will keep my Hornet sweet?
____________________
Responsibility. It's a difficult reality for some. I'm running the 2014 Sheffield Half Marathon on behalf of Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice. Please sponsor me, even if it's just a quid.
DonnyBrago: "I think you may be confusing rain and napalm..." Paulington: "It's not what you ride, it's how you ride it."
Current rides: '05 VFR800 VTEC, '57 Mondeo 1.8 TDCi #58LEGEND

[.....]

Your bike manual will have the service intervals in it with what needs doing and how often. Probably around 4000 miles for the oil and filter. Obviously use your eyes as well as the book and do things as and when they need doing.

For the chain I'd get a Scottoiler.

[Vincent]

[carlosthejack...]

[TUG]

Got asked this a lot.

1. I cleaned & lubed my chain every 200-300 miles, keeps chains and sprockets happy for a long long time.
2. Brake fluid, change that when it starts looking a bit darker brown (it should look amber and/or clear)
3. Oil, well, oil should be translucent brown like you would expect to see fresh oil to look, again when this starts looking alot darker to the point you cant see through it get it changed, but I would suggest you look at a manual for mileage, I would say every 3000-4000 miles? But don't quote me on that.
As for an idiot's guide, a workshop manual will have all the basic information in on basic maintainance/servicing.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!

[TUG]

[.....]

[carlosthejack...]

Better get that chain oiled then, I've put 800 miles on her in less than a month!
____________________
Responsibility. It's a difficult reality for some. I'm running the 2014 Sheffield Half Marathon on behalf of Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice. Please sponsor me, even if it's just a quid.
DonnyBrago: "I think you may be confusing rain and napalm..." Paulington: "It's not what you ride, it's how you ride it."
Current rides: '05 VFR800 VTEC, '57 Mondeo 1.8 TDCi #58LEGEND

[TUG]

[DrDonnyBrago]

I have a scottoiler and clean my chain every 3-400 miles or so, good splash of paraffin agitated with a brush, once spankingly clean relube with gear oil and let the scottoiler apply supplementary oil until I clean and lube it again.

We aren't ALL lazy bar stewards .

[Robby]

I normally find a scottoiler has the flow rate set too low if the chain isn't staying vaguely clean. You should be able to get the flow at the right rate to keep your chain looking clean, but not fling loads of oil onto your tyre. I managed this with a scottoiler and a loobman.

Belt drive FTW, though.

[TUG]

I do often forget BCF is the place were all the real bikers are that actually perform maintainance and are pretty clued up.
I'm just going off experiance.
I've never had a scottoiler because I dont go touring and do 400 miles per cup of tea on one journey. I also don't struggle at putting a bike on a centre stand or side stand + jack to manually rotate my wheel to clean it with a rag and a spot of brake cleaner then apply one rotation of lube.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!

[DrDonnyBrago]

[TUG]

I have connections. No money required.

Scottoiler fluid is cheap, but is a bastard to clean, like chewy when it comes into contact with dirt, my fave chain lube is either Putoline ceramic chain lube or some TL-45. One rotation good to go, doesn't fling bad and is easier to clean. A large Tin of either will last me about 100 chain services if not used for other applications.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

One thing often put on the back burner are brake and clutch fluids.
If they look like wee in colour they're fine. If they look this...
https://www.sportbikes.net/forums/attachments/zzr-mods/180525d1232326585-change-your-brake-fluid-dscf3812_1024x768.jpg
...then it's worth changing it. Costs a fiver.
____________________
Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[temeluchus]

Get your cans of linklyfe on the stove!
____________________
Some shite cruiser. Now with guns and FREEDOM!

[neil.]

I do 60 miles a day in the week. Clean the chain with paraffin and oil it once a week with a paint brush, so that's every 300 miles. I have recently started using 90w gear oil and it doesn't fling much and stays on when it has rained, does its job of protecting the o-rings much better than engine oil did, althouth it worked well too. I was using a Loobman oiler but in all fairness I still got around 17'000 miles out of my C&S either way before something was worn out (last time the chain seemed to be great but the front sprocket was very worn) and I always replace them as a set.

As for servicing, just stick to the intervals from the manual as a guide, although 2 years for brake fluid might be a bit too long - I did mine once a year. You might also want to get the calliper off every service and pump the pistons out a little bit to clean it all up/grease with red rubber grease around the dust seal - especially if you ride in winter it's good preventative maintenance as so much crap gets in there and doing a proper seal and piston (if it's pitted) replacement can be expensive and a pain.

[calyx]

[dangerousdave]

changing the engine oil every 3 months is good insurance for your engine.

Change the filter every second oil change.

If you do this you should get a very long life out of your engine.
____________________
1988 Kawasaki KMX 200

Previous: Yamaha YZF1000, ZZR600, KMX200, DT50, KX80, CG125, PF50

[Teflon-Mike]

50 a day is 250 a week, 1000ish a month.
Honda's usual oil change interval is 1,250, so doing that once a month would probably be worth while.
Chain tension & lube, weekly clean down.
Main thing is to remember that that kind of commuter miles, one sunday jaunt can bring everything forward a week.... so you need to keep your eyes on the oddometer and keep track of the service works done.
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[DrDonnyBrago]

[neil.]

2'500 for oil and 5'000 for a new plug on the CG and CBF125, according to Honda, Mike, but a lot of people change it sooner.

[Teflon-Mike]

[temeluchus]

Thats down to Honda constructing late 70s and early 80s top ends from soft cheese and starving them of oil. They employed drunk bonobos as designers in that period. Remember the lecture on honda build quality?

Look at a contemporary GS750 or a GSXR750F etc and the intervals are 4000 ish, as Suzuki could design an oil feed system properly. Even if they lost interest by the time the thing came to be wired and painted X-D

I think a very conservative oil change regimen for a Hornet would be every 3000 miles or so.
____________________
Some shite cruiser. Now with guns and FREEDOM!