Servicing Questions

[SupraGuy74]

Alrighty gentleman i just bought my first ducati on friday . Ive always been one to do my own servicing on my vehicles, dad was a mechanic and its been instilled in me to take proper care of my own equipment. Now thing with ducatis is they require more service then most bikes(which is fine) and the more records you have, the better off you are. Thing is how can i do my own servicing such as oil changes and valves, on my own and keep a record of it that is professional and if i do ever have to sell the bike, will pass to someone who is purchasing it. How can this be done? Suggestions?

[Buckethead]

Basic log book and a folder of dated receipts.

[bigiain]

In my opinion "home done maintenance" is always (rightly or wrongly) going to be viewed with more suspicion than receipts/logbook stamps from a dealer - so I'd advise being prepared for that up front if you choose not to pay "a professional" to do the work.

Having said that, if you had a notebook containing stuff like oil/oil filter/air filter/fuel filter/tires/chains/sprockets/brake pads/rocker gaskets/valve shim receipts, along with dates and notes (especially vale clearance measurements/calculations) matching your receipts and perhaps photos - all in a fairly convincing looking "built up over several years" collection, rather than something that looks like you might have just bought 3 or 4 different pens and written the whole thing up when you decided to sell the bike, I'd personally treat that as significantly better than a bike with no receipts at all (and if you convinced me you were genuine and capable, I might treat it as _almost_ as good as a dealer-stamped logbook). There's nothing there that _couldn't_ be faked by someone diligent enough, but I'd judge a realistic looking "home service record" to be enough work to fake that the sort of person who'd be tempted probably isn't the sort of person who'd consider it worthwhile for the price difference if might add to a 2nd hand bike sale.

big

[bigiain]

… and the more records you have, the better off you are.

On a not-regarding-resale-value front…

The two records I keep which are of most value to me are:

1) regular ongoing valve clearance measurements (including pre & post adjustment measurements).

2) regular ongoing fuel consumption measurements.

Regularly updated historical records of those two things are a very easy way to reveal general bike health information. I can see in my record the couple of times I put the valve collets in backwards. I can easily_ see the time I somehow completely screwed up the measurements and had to go back and do them again. I can see in the fuel consumption figures when my needle jets need replacing.

big

[SupraGuy74]

Thanks for all the info man, in the end it all comes down to the buyer, and i have a really really good bike i just bought to start off with so i like to keep her that way. Ive never in my life been someone to pay somebody for mechanical work, to me im not going to pay someone to do something that i could learn for myself. But thanks for bringing up the photos thats a good idea. And i have no intent whatsoever to sell the bike, but if something bad were to ever happen and i had to, i want the buyer knowing i respected it and took proper care from a maintenance stand point.

[Slide Panda]

As a computer nerd, I have a spread sheet. Just a few columns Maintenance, Mods, Notes, Date/Milage. Simple as that for me. I just log what I did/changed and when