This place in NYC is charging me the following. Way too expensive right? How much should these cost?
FLUSH & BLEED THE FRONT BRAKES TWO CALIPER SYSTEM $55.00
FLUSH & BLEED AN HYDRAULIC CLUTCH SYSTEM - BASIC $45.00
CLEAN, LUBE AND ADJUST THE CHAIN DRIVE $55.00
440024 TR BRAKE DOT 4 FLUID PU #3703-0020 $9.50
They also charged $85 for a "general check of everything"...and now want me to pay another $220 for "full service"
eh its not that far off.
if you figure labor in NYC is about $110ish an hour that isnt that far off.
with a vaccum pump it would take me about 45 mins to do all that after jacking the bike up, but they need to make money some how, thats why book values were created for those line items.
this is why it pays to learn how to do all those small little things. its $9.50 for the fluid and it costs you a 8mm wrench and a hose and a catch bucket for the old fluid.
and you should be doing your own chain maintenance on a ~500mile basis. thats like checking an oil stick in the motorcycle world. the most neglected common maintenance item.
Yeah I told them I'm going to do the chain myself, I'm considering flushing the brakes and clutch on my own too...are they both easy and done the same way?
Rough estimate here on DC Metro from small independent mechanics to dealerships
Flush and Bleed Front Brakes : $45-95
Flush and bleed Hydraulic Clutch : $45-105
Drive train check and adjustment : $35-120
The DOT 4 Fluid is WAAAAAYYYY too much, they probably wont even be using 1/4 of the amount of that bottle.
Invest on tools and do it yourself.
Tubing and bag for brake bleed : $5
Wrench to adjust the brake bleed: $10
Old Toothbrush to clean the chain: Free
Chain Lube: $10
Torque Wrench: $65 & 1/2 inch Breaker Bar and Proper Socket: $30
Everything pays for itself after the first maintenance, and you'll be doing it tens of hundreds of times. But yeah too mcuh.
Agreed - and you should really have a basic tool kit for doing stuff like that. Wrenches and metric allen keys will let you do a lot on your bike. Some circles recommend chain lube at 300 mile intervals with cleaning as needed, but pretty regularly and checking the chain slack should be part of that - then those tools will cover their cost quickly.
I have torque wrench and sockets and stuff, and I'm assuming it's easy to find lube, fluid, and tubes and whatever.
Is it easy to flush the brake and clutch systems, esp if I have never done it before?
A bit tricky the first time you would do it. But definitely not something you couldn't handle. [thumbsup]
DOT 4 fluid can be had at any auto parts place. Both the brakes and clutch use DOT 4. YouTube motorcycle brake bleeding. It's really very simple once you know the couple 'gotcha' items. Brake and clutch will be the same basic procedure. Just make sure when doing the clutch to hold the larger banjo bolt below the bleeder in place when you first loosen the bleeder just a touch. It's a combo banjo bleeder set up and you don't want to loosen the banjo portion.
For the chain lube I like the DuPont teflon chain lube. Yellow can available in many hardware stores in addition to moto store