Posted by WD on August 10, 2003 at 09:33:40:
1) Yamaha sealants are the best on the motorcycle market, even outlaw style HD shops/mechs use Yamaha goop.
2. Good aftermarket brake components are stocked and sold by your local Suzuki shop, and are less expensive than the iffy stock pieces. Buy European components if you want everything to work well and last a good long while.
3) Factory maintenance intervals are RECOMMENDATIONS, not requirements. If you ride alot, service fully, frequently. Run the belt looser than recomended and it will last at least several thousand miles longer than expected. Factory lube specs is what they recommend, but experiment, every bike has different production tolerances and something else may (likely will) work better for your particular scooter.
4. As shipped parts on new bikes have short service lifes. They are supposed to die right after the warranty runs out, it is called planned obsolescence. Change your fork oil, fuses, tires, shocks, battery, bulbs, oil and filter at the first sign of iffy operation. Fork seals are cheap, change them when you upgrade your fork oil ( type F ATF works great for anti-dive, but eats seals quickly) from factory to god aftermarket fluid. I realize it galls some of you, but Harley Davidson fork oil, grease, engine oil, silicone pivot point lube, and cable lube seem to be among the better products out there. Yamaha and Honda petro-chemicals work very well also, Suzuki/Kawasaki (same company) petro-chemicals not as well.
5) Obviously thread locked fasteners, be it with nylock nuts, air craft nuts, chemicals, or metal deformation, should be left alone unless obviously loose. The factory owners guide is poorly translated, some of the Clymer specs are dead wrong. By messing with locked fasteners, you destroy the strength built into the part, be it a nut or a bolt.
6. You are invisible. Bikers get hit here all the time, even on radioactive yellow/orange/green bikes that a blind man would call too bright. Maintain your space, but if a car wants your spot, let him have it. Do what you need to do to get out of the way.
7) I am down until I get a multi-level lumbar fusion, which so far, the state hasn't approved, and will likely take another year or so to happen (on the job injury, don't get hurt in Washington state). My thanks for the e-mails and forum postings that let me stay active in the Savage world. Keep your heads up and your wheels down.
-WD