I asked Lisa for a hand putting the belly pan back on the GT. She asked me why I don't just bring the bikes in to get the oil change. Since learning how to do the oil, I've had the shop do it once or twice on the GT, the last time was in January and it was in for service anyway. I realized that I have failed to teach my daughter that there is a huge sense of accomplishment learning to master maintenance tasks on your own.
Many years ago a friend showed me how to change the oil on my bike, the task seemed daunting just reading the manual. So this time I brought my camera along. If you've never changed the oil on your bike, I hope you might be motivated to give it a try.
(these are not step by step instructions, just a little humor, a few real tips, and pictures they don't put in the manual)
An old pot will do for dropping the oil. Call it Yankee Frugality, but why buy another oil pan when this pot does a fine job?
Oil draining from K75. It will have plenty of time to drip as I attempt to remove the plastic parts from the GT
On to the GT
How to remove the belly pan:
- Spend lots of time finding the right tool for the job.
- Promptly misplace that tool.
- Search all over; find it under a paper towel.
- Find the hardware connecting the Tupper Ware and remove.
Lower belly pan, remove that one last screw you missed.
Is that crack or rock salt falling out of the belly pan? Either way it's probably a bad thing.
That’s really black…ok, so I messed up a little. My maintenance spreadsheet has a little error on it…the cell that told me how many miles until my next oil change (or how much I was overdue) was pointing to my 2007 miles. Which of course means I never needed an oil change. I was, shall we say, a little over due…
View from below. Despite the 16 year gap in their ages, the oil change for both K bikes is the same, sometimes it's hard to distinguish the pictures. At this point, the oil has drained from the drain plug, the cover that protects the filter has been removed; now I’ll just take the filter out.
Taking the filter out is easy enough; the trick is not letting it dump into the waste oil. I’d been out riding all morning; even after sitting 2 hours, the oil in the GT was still quite warm.
Twin Killing…out with the old
In with the new. Despite the 16 year gap in their ages, the oil change for both K bikes is the same. Same filters too. That's either great or kinda lame.
Drink Up. Before putting in the new filter, give it a little drink.
Going for a spin. Once the filter has oil in it, spread a little bit on the seal. Load it into the wrench. If you forgot to flip the dial on the wrench, try to do so without flipping the whole thing upside down. DOH!
Right to Tight. Hand tighten only! I went through a lot of gloves.
Forget something? If the oil filter wrench gets stuck to the filter just give it a tap with the wrench to loosen the seal.
Cap it Off. I'm sure this has some sort of official name. All I can tell you is that the screws on this cap are not symmetrical, it only goes on one way. It took me about 3 years to learn that the BMW roundel needs to be at 9:00 (if you are facing the headlight).
Fill ‘er Up. Filling up the bikes differs greatly! The K75 has a perfect design, you don't even need a funnel to put the oil back in.
Getting Oil into the GT is just plain foolish. The one good thing about doing an oil change on a hot day is the oil is more viscous.
Check the spy glass, clean up and enjoy a refreshing adult beverage.
