Kia Ora

As the only manuel I have is written in German and I speak German as well as I sing I was wondering if someone could suggest what regular maintenance I should be doing to Hubert.

For example, how often to oil the chain, change oil filter, brake fliud etc. I have also never had a bike with settings at the clutch and brake levers, whats that all about?

Any hints and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

C

Kiwis can fly!

Chain oiling all 500 km and after each raintrip.
Brakefluid should be changed latest after 2 years.
I do change the motoroil every 2500 - 3000 km, with every second oilchange I change the oilfilter.
The abrasion of the brakepads depends on your way of driving.
Brakepads should be changed when there's just 1 mm left. The brakedisk should be changed when there's less than 2.8 mm left. (I can't notice any appreciable abrasion even after 23000 km on my Estrellas).
The airfilter should be cleaned or changed after 5000 km latest. On my Estrellas I clean it with the oil change. Don't forget to coat the filter with a smooth oilfilm after cleaning and drying it.
The sparkplug should be cleaned after latest 2500 km, I change it after 2500 km on both of my Estrellas.

The adjustements on clutch- and brakelevers allow you to adjust even these levers for the dimension of your hand / your fingers. A few drops of oil on the joint of the levers make sure a correct function of these adjustements.

Kia Ora Claire,

I sent you a pdf file where I translated the German check list.
Hope I always found the right expressions!

But Dirk's explanation is much better and more relyable than the Kawasaki list!!!

You wrote about the clutch and brake settings.
They have no "technical task" / nothing to do with the "wire adjustment"! They are only for the differnet hand sizes and have nothing to do with wear and tear! You can adjust them so that they fit to you hands best.

Something Dirk and the Kawasaki list didn't say: Change tyres at least every 7 years! The BT45 look too modern, but they offer a great performance at the Estrella!

By the way; I don't think my break fluid or fork oil has ever been changed at the 11 y.o. Estrella! But she'll get new soon!

CU
Andreas

Thanks for all that great info.

Now I will try to put into action.

C
Kiwis can fly!

Well, Andreas, fork oil should be changed after a few years respectively after 10000 km. Especially the fork oil is stressed by mechanical forces like dirt, dust and especially abrasion of the oil caused by steady motion. So there is no MUST to change periodicaly but a change means better function of the fork, a better response characteristic and therefore more comfort and safety in driving service.

For the brake fluid there IS a MUST to change indeed!!!

Reason: brake fluid absorbes water, even if the motorbike is not in use. When you use the brake in motion, the brakepads and also the brake fluid get warm (fluid up to 160°C). That means, the dispersed water starts cooking and you get steam bubbles in the break fluid. That bubbles can be more or less big. The effect is the same as air bubbles in the brake fluid: malfunction when you use the brake, especially in hard brake manouvers.
The difference to air in brake fluid is the following: Bleeding doesn't work with the water, because you do not see anything in the fluid in normal use. You will also see no difference in colour or consistence of the brake fluid if you check it. Only when you actuate the brake it takes effect. That makes it quite dangerous.

So the change of the brake fluid after 2, latest 3 years is a MUST!

Hope, my English is understandable even for a native English speaker.

Thanks Dirk for all the good information and suggestions.

Your English is very good, a thousand times better than my German.

Cheers

Claire
Kiwis can fly!