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Maintenance costs

22K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  Firepath 
#1 ·
Someone at work brought up a good point about getting an MV - maintenance and repair costs.

Does the F4 require any extra maintenance over Yamahas and Hondas? What maintenance is required, and how much am I going to expect to pay - in relation to the more common jap bikes?

I know valves need shimming - when is this done / how often - how much is it going to cost?

My mate also gave me a little scare with having to change chains and sprockets "a lot" as he put it. How often do chains get replaced and do sprockets need changing every time?

That also made me think of tyres - what mileage do you get out of them, and how hard is it to get them changed? People on the R1 forum seem to be on a quest to change tyres in the most drawn-out out fashion - take wheels off themselves, buy the tyres, take it somewhere else and get them changed, holding a gun to the head of the tyre changer so the wheels don't get scratched, putting them back on themselves... Sounds like a pain in the ring just to perhaps save a couple of dollars and reduce the chance of scratching a rim. Is it really necessary? Is it THAT hard to find somewhere to just get them changed? I've never really thought twice about getting car tyres changed, I just go, select tyres and have them mounted. (I've recently learnt to make sure a torque wrench is use to put them on too, not an impact wrench.)

What else is there?

It's all very well to spend 1.5 times as much as a jap bike on an exotic, but I want to be able to afford to actually use it, not just buy it.

Cheers!

Brad
 
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#2 ·
I assume this is your first bike, and while I don't recommend starting on a bike as fast and powerful and exspensive as an MV, they are incredible machines.
The maintenance is more involved than many Japanese bikes, but less so than say, a Ducati.
Tires are a separate issue altogether, an the miliage you receive depends mostly on the type of riding you'll do, and the tire compound. Life can vary greatly and is very subjective. However, undoubtedly you will be changing them much more often than on a car, and it is always cheaper to have tires installed if the wheels are removed from the bike, than having the shop remove the wheels for you, and many people install their own tires.
 
#3 · (Edited)
It won't be my first, I'll learn on something smaller, I might get an F4 for x-mas 2007. I like curvy roads for driving and it's what I'll enjoy for riding as well, but I don't enjoy going flat out usually, I like to cruise at a good pace I guess - not slow but not stupid. I'll probably ride to work a lot too though, will that wear the tyre out faster - since it'll be on the middle of the tread more?

Will the actual costs of the maintenance be higher than a jap bike because it's an MV - less common, more specialised knowledge required?

EDIT: - I would probably take my own wheels off if it was worthwhile, and knowing it was put back together with the right specs would be good to know.

How frequently I'm going to have to take it in to have valve shims done, new clutch, etc and how much it will cost is what I would like to know. I would probably do brake pads myself and definitely oil and filter, and coolant and brake fluids when neccessary.
 
#4 · (Edited)
If longevity is your concern for sprockets, get steel ones. They'll last a bit longer, at the expense of being slightly heavier.

As far as maintenance goes, if you follow the maintenance schedule of even a CBR, you're supposed to have the valves checked at the very same intervals as an MV. 99 times out of 100 (better odds than 9/10 :laughing:) the valves don't need adjustment, but in the case of MVs, they are checked for the sake of peace of mind. You get a bent or burnt valve on a jap bike, so what. You get a bent or burnt valve on an MV...you're gonna be fishing DEEP into your pockets. It's more preventive maintenance than it is service maintenance.

Another reason it's considered high dollar is the labor rate at Italian dealers, and parts are more expensive. It's not the fact they're higher maintenance per say, it's more of it being more expensive per service.

Ducati's, after moving on to the Testastretta motor have become about as low maintenance as Jap bikes. Not quite there, but the new Monster 695's first service (obviously, after the 600 mile service) is 7500 miles, and every 7500 after that. Pretty impressive.


As far as service intervals go:
http://www.mvagusta.net/articles/22
That's the owners manual to F4....which is the same for all MVs as far as the maintenance schedules go. Again, keep in mind, if you follow the maintenance schedule of even a jap bike, it's nearly identical to that of the F4 or MV for that matter. Again, it's more preventive maintenance than actual maintenance...
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the link to the manual!

It looks pretty much like a car service checklist I guess. Myself and my family having only owned secondhand cars (over 5 years old) the only things that I have seen done is oil changes, brake pads, a coolant change here and there, and a rarely a brake fluid change.

I accept that bikes need a little more attention than cars, with chains and sprockets, etc, and I'm also prepared to pay a little more for things like I would if I bought a Ferrari.

I just got a little worried that I'd be doing something to it / spending money on it every second week when talking to my friend at work.


About the sprockets - are the standard ones Aluminium? I'm a CAD programmer at a laser cutter, I could perhaps cut my own sprockets, from spring steel, with different numbers of teeth too, of course I would probably have to get the teeth machine finished, and put a bevel on the points of the teeth but I know someone who could do that on the cheap.
 
#6 ·
Yeah...they're aircraft aluminum usually anodized. If you have access to the hardware, go for it. I know a guy on the R6 forums that has a 4D CNC machine in his house. Yeah, in his house :laughing: He makes his own rearsets, sprockets, and other misc stuff for his kids and whatever around the house.

Here's a thread where he machined for his kids wagon!!!!

http://www.r6messagenet.com/forums/...l_wheels_for_my_kids_wagon.html?highlight=cnc

Anyhow, if you have the resources...go for it.

But as far as the bike goes...it's nothing out of the ordinary. It's just all nitpicky preventive maintenance mainly. There's more preventive maintenance done to offset having the possibility of having that one catastrophicly costing failure....in the end, it's probably about the same. Only, your bike is ALWAYS running in tip top shape, and not leaving you stranded because of neglect, or breaks that ONE TIME when you seriously could have gone without it breaking...we all know that feeling :laughing:
 
#8 ·
Couple of things to add to the comments already made... the cost of a new MV will be 2x the price of the average Jap 1000cc machine...
I don't see why the stock sprockets and chain would need more attention, nor replacing sooner than any in-line four...
As for the wheel paranoia, the MV needs a 'special' socket to remove the rear wheel nut, its been posted that a unwise tyre fitter may use an inappropriate tool to remove this, also the nut itself is easily marked by same ham fisted tyre fitter.
The nut also needs to be torqued correctly, not just an air gun guess!

As with any exotic machine, maintenance and service cost is at a premium, and in my view worth every penny done well.... :)
 
#9 ·
What's your annual mileage Brad? If you are planning to do high mileage on your MV you will obviously need services at more frequent intervals than someone like me, who will cover may be 4 - 5000 miles per annum (if it ever stops raining long enough to get out on the bugger! :bawling: ). I certainly wouldn't be put off buying a MV because of the service costs unless they were astronomic. Ring your local dealer and ask them what they would charge.
 
#10 ·
john said:
What's your annual mileage Brad? If you are planning to do high mileage on your MV you will obviously need services at more frequent intervals than someone like me, who will cover may be 4 - 5000 miles per annum (if it ever stops raining long enough to get out on the bugger! :bawling: ). I certainly wouldn't be put off buying a MV because of the service costs unless they were astronomic. Ring your local dealer and ask them what they would charge.
Annual mileage for me is almost 100% just going to work, which at the moment is 20000km. I'm going to move closer to work so that should be about halved, but I will start riding on the weekends when I have a bike, so I might average 15-20k anyway. BUT I won't be riding every day, when it's rainy I'll have a day off riding, during really cold winter times I won't ride - probably for a month or even two every year, when I feel like driving instead, etc, so total bike mileage will probably only be less than 10k.

Now my play car hardly gets used unfortunately, due to the gearbox needing a trip to the dentist (it's missing a few teeth lol). I'll drive it more when I live closer to work, but my point is, I bought a set of tyres for that thing about 4 years ago, drove it to uni four days per week for two years and drove it to various jobs for the next year, and finally slowed to a day or two per week to work and the tyres still look new. I drive hard round corners, I like cornering, and the tyres still have a quarter inch of tread. My previous car was the same - took it with brand new tyres on 4 1000 mile journeys, plus two years of uni and the tyres were untouched. It buggers me.

AAAnyway if you read through all of that thanks, and I basically said my mileage will probably be around 10k on the bike per year. :king:
 
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