Defer maintenance 1000 miles?

I picked up a 2012 yesterday, wil 9000 miles, after reading the forums for three days staring to have a couple questions. I got the bike form a dealership and it has no service history, the oil isnt dark but the brake and clutch fluids are getting there. I was looking at the custom maintenance schedule on FJR1300.info and my question is this, will it be ok to run another 1000 miles so Im on the custom schedule or should I dive right in and be worried? The bike runs great, starts stops , no leaks, no drips but I know that I need to be mindful of the maintenance. Id like to at least get it fitted to me before I have to take it apart. I ordered a maintenance manual. It should be here next week. Thanks for your advice!

I picked up a 2012 yesterday, wil 9000 miles, after reading the forums for three days staring to have a couple questions. I got the bike form a dealership and it has no service history, the oil isnt dark but the brake and clutch fluids are getting there. I was looking at the custom maintenance schedule on FJR1300.info and my question is this, will it be ok to run another 1000 miles so Im on the custom schedule or should I dive right in and be worried? The bike runs great, starts stops , no leaks, no drips but I know that I need to be mindful of the maintenance. Id like to at least get it fitted to me before I have to take it apart. I ordered a maintenance manual. It should be here next week. Thanks for your advice!

I swear I only hit enter once.... let the flames begin ‍

A thousand miles won't make much difference unless it is a series of short trips. However, since you don't know how long the bike sat unused before you bought it, it would be a good idea to change the fluids now. You can then run the new oil an extra thousand if you want to match up with a schedule.

If it were me, I would change the oil so to have a baseline (then every 5,000 miles) then ride the heck out it until you have 25 or 30,000 miles on it before you start worrying about any major maintenance.

Oh, I disagree. I recomend changing most of the fluids before riding it much. If it is important to you that your services line-up with the odometer, then ride the extra 1000 miles at the end of the first service you do. I'd be particularly worried about the brake fluid and especially the ABS module. The fluid needs to be flushed and the module cycled and then the fluid at least partially flushed again. You have fluid sitting in that module 6+ years and it probably is not in good shape. There are ways of cycling the ABS pump that involve delving into the wiring or you can have a dealer do it. I take mine out on gravel and engage the ABS a few times. Gets the job done. The clutch fluid should also be flushed; it seems to get contaminated quickly. And while you are messing with the brakes, clean the pins in the calipers that the pads ride on and coat their threads with copper anti-seize. At least check and clean the air filter and check the coolant level. These are the things I would do right away. Before too long I think you should pull the pumkin and lube the splines and u-joint, disassemble and lube the lower suspension linkage and replace the fork oil. Valve Check, TB synch and new plugs can wait until the normal mileage.

Good point. Does anyone know how much brake fluid is moved when you do the ABS test? The brake and clutch fluid concern me more than the engine oil, based on the color of them all.

Buy a pint of DOT4. As long as you dont introduce any air into the lines, youll have some leftover. The system holds surprisingly little fluid.

FWIW - I have no problems using old brake fluid. Conventional internet wisdom says to always throw out the fluid after the foil seal is broken. Thats a bunch of rubbish. As long as you resealed the bottle cap tightly it will not absorb much H2O from the small amount of air in the bottle. As usual, YMMV.

I merged your duplicate threads because both had replies in them.

As with everyone, new members are encouraged to read and understand the pinned posts in the Rules and Software And Board Operations sections of the forum. The pinned posts are there to help people minimize recurrent faux pauseseseses (like dupe posting). Occasional review by "seasoned" members ain't a bad idear neither.

When a post had BOLD text in it, it's extra double specialness, so pay attention, please.

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/150102-avoiding-doubletriple-postings/

https://www.fjr1300.info/maint/

Yamaha FJR1300 Periodic Maintenance

I wouldn’t defer fluid changes on a bike with unknown history. Once that was done, I would not sweat going a thousand miles over. I did 5,000 mile intervals for much of the life of my last fjr.

Bill Lumberg said:

I wouldn’t defer fluid changes on a bike with unknown history. Once that was done, I would not sweat going a thousand miles over. I did 5,000 mile intervals for much of the life of my last fjr.

Click to expand...

UK and several other markets specify 6000 mile intervals (or 10000 km, 6200 miles) for oil changes. Maybe that's because we do fewer miles over the perceived life of the bike, however a few here have done high mileages without issue.

I’m not an engineer, but I think 4,000 mike intervals is crazy short.

Bill Lumberg said:

I’m not an engineer, but I think 4,000 mike intervals is crazy short.

Click to expand...

I am an engineer, and I agree!

mcatrophy said:

Bill Lumberg said:

I wouldn’t defer fluid changes on a bike with unknown history. Once that was done, I would not sweat going a thousand miles over. I did 5,000 mile intervals for much of the life of my last fjr.

Click to expand...

UK and several other markets specify 6000 mile intervals (or 10000 km, 6200 miles) for oil changes. Maybe that's because we do fewer miles over the perceived life of the bike, however a few here have done high mileages without issue.

Click to expand...

Probably because the overall average ambient temps in the UK are lower than the US. When was the last time you did 4000 miles in 90-120ºF?

Bounce said:

mcatrophy said:

Bill Lumberg said:

I wouldnt defer fluid changes on a bike with unknown history. Once that was done, I would not sweat going a thousand miles over. I did 5,000 mile intervals for much of the life of my last fjr.

Click to expand...

UK and several other markets specify 6000 mile intervals (or 10000 km, 6200 miles) for oil changes. Maybe that's because we do fewer miles over the perceived life of the bike, however a few here have done high mileages without issue.

Click to expand...

Probably because the overall average ambient temps in the UK are lower than the US. When was the last time you did 4000 miles in 90-120ºF?

Click to expand...

Never!

Most of my riding is between 0C and 25C (32F to 77F). One of my riding friends has ridden in 40C (104F) on a couple of his European jaunts - he didn't like that.

But Yamaha do specify different oil viscosities depending on ambient temperature, which should mitigate temperature effects to some extent.

Change all the fluids now, then work your way to the maintenance schedule you want. Be careful when doing the brake and clutch fluid changes, it a bit of a headache if air gets in the lines.

A '12 was an excellent choice by the way!!

Also keep a very tight hold on your wallet, this place is very good at spending your money!!

I agree with Dean ^^^

Do the fluids now, and then change the oil again the next time you pass a 5k mile interval on the odometer. That makes remembering when to do your changes so much easier. (5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, etc.). If you are only 1000 miles from a 5k now, just wait the 6000 miles. Any decent motor oil can last 6000 miles easy.

Do the valve checks on the 25ks, and change plugs and coolant during the valve checks. Do brake and clutch fluids every 2 years regardless of miles.

As for us helping you spend money, if you read about things on the forum closely it may actually help you avoid certain things that arent so great and actually save money. For instance, on my first FJR I tried 4 or 5 different seats before I finally listened to the forum wisdom and bought a Russell. If I had gone right for the Russell I could have saved a bunch. Which is what I did on my second FJR. Live and learn!

What Fred said!