Bike Maintenance: Oil Change and Stuff

For a complete motorcycle newb, I’m getting into the guts of my bike far more than I’d expected.

When I dropped off the bike at the shop, I forgot to tell them to change the oil. So when I got it back, Masukomi asked if I’d had them change the oil, and I hadn’t. She’s just registered her new bike, finally, so we decided to change the oil in both of our bikes. And then we decided we probably needed new oil filters since we were changing the oil anyway. (Turns out that’s standard procedure for changing the oil in a bike.)

So on Saturday, we rode around on the bikes collecting things like oil filters, oil, tools (I got some sockets I’d need for the oil change, and Masukomi got a Dremel for some stuff she wants to do with her bike). By the time we got home from running errands, it was around 5PM, and we decided it was probably too late to start the oil change stuff.

So we changed our oil yesterday. I used the Oil Change Procedures from the Ninja 250 Forum (again, I’ve got so much love for that place) and it turns out it was really easy. I had a little trouble loosening the drain plug, but Masukomi was able to get it and drained the oil with a minimum of mess. When I loosened the oil filter bolt, a bit more oil spewed out than I was expecting, and I had to adjust the drain pan and missed a little, but it still wasn’t a real problem.

It turns out that changing the oil and replacing the oil filter in the Ninja 250 is super easy. I did take off the lower fairing just so I’d have room to work – it took me like 3 minutes – and I’m glad I did. Everything was pretty straightforward. Because changing the oil was a spur-of-the-moment thing, I wasn’t able to get some replacement gaskets that I’d like to have replaced, so I’ll order those so I have them on-hand next time I change the oil. Which I will do again, because it was totally easy. My oil definitely needed changing, but it wasn’t nearly as black as Masukomi’s oil. She bought a BMW F650GS with a little over 7k miles on it, and it looks like the oil hasn’t been changed at all – and it’s a 2003. Gross.

Anywho, I had no trouble installing the new filter, buttoning everything back up, and putting in the new oil. I was a little freaked out when I’d filled the oil, started the bike, and the oil got sucked into the engine and the sight glass went empty. Turns out that’s completely normal, but it caught me by surprise.

After refilling the oil, I ran the bike for a bit just to make sure there was no leaking or seepage, and I discovered that something was dripping – but it wasn’t the oil. The fuel intake hose that goes from the fuel tank to the engine was leaking quite noticeably. Gasoline was seeping over the top of the hose where it comes out of the fuel tank in little waves, and within a few seconds, it was collecting on the hose and dripping. I had to go back to the auto store to take our used oil for recycling, so I grabbed a new fuel hose and good clamps, and installed it on the bike when I got home, and now it’s not leaking anymore. It was cake. We just turned the fuel tank off, removed the hose and put the new one on. No more leak.

I also installed the new custom windscreen I got from Mike’s Shields. I’m still not thrilled with the fact that it took 5 weeks to get my new windscreen, but I really like the windscreen, and my bike is starting to look like my bike again. The Ninja 250 looks so strange without the fairing, mirrors and windscreen – it looks sad. My bike doesn’t look sad anymore.

I rode it around on Saturday while we were running errands, and realized I’ve got a long way to go to overcome my discomfort caused by my crash. I’m just not as comfortable with the bike, now that I’ve crashed. I’m nervous about approaching corners too fast, and I’m not all that comfortable going particularly fast on the bike – my comfort zone is between 30 and 40 MPH. I got up to 45 MPH for the first time on a major artery across town, and it made me nervous. To be fair, I also didn’t have a windscreen on the bike at that point, so I was getting quite a bit of buffeting, and the wind was also gusty that day – gusts up to 30MPH. So I was antsy about the wind. But I think I’m just gonna need more time to really be comfortable on the bike, since my first real experience with the bike was crashing it.

But I want to ride more – particularly now that I’ve changed the oil and got the custom windscreen installed. I really enjoy doing all this bike maintenance stuff, and I feel like I know the bike really well for a newb. I’m dying to ride today – it’s around mid-70s and gorgeous – no wind gusts today – but I have a ton of work I need to get done.

This is the dilemma of being a freelance writer: I dictate my own schedule. I have deadlines to meet, but I can do it on my terms. So I really want to go ride, even though I have a ton of work to do. Ultimately, I think the deadlines are speaking too loud today for me to justify a ride – but I’ll be riding as soon as I make some progress on this project I need to complete. I really want to ride more, at my own pace, so I can get comfortable with the bike.

I’m definitely still a newb when it comes to riding.

But I’m getting to know this bike really well, from crashing, repairing it and doing maintenance on it. I think my “Ninja 250” newb-ness is wearing off.