Saturday!

Wow, it’s busy already.   Ryan has a bunch of guys in the showroom looking at the Special Edition RX3s, and I’m back here in the service area doing my thing….

I was up super early this morning…too excited to sleep, I guess, thinking about the day.   I wrote another chapter of 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM, I had a cup of coffee at the house, and I pushed my RX3 out of the garage and rode in to the plant.

My RX3 is running like a Swiss watch.  No, I take that back…I have couple of Swiss watches, and the RX3 runs better.  Gerry serviced it after our Western America Adventure Ride, and it was so smooth on the 210 freeway this morning I wanted to get out and run another 5000 miles.

After we posted our blog on the new billet aluminum skid plate, one of the guys on the ChinaRiders.net rider forum asked if you had to remove the new skidplate to change the oil.  The answer is no.   You actually have better access to the oil drain plug with the new skidplate, and access to the oil screens and the oil filter remains the same.   You can see this in the photos below.

Here’s the oil screen plug on the left side of the bike…

Here’s the oil screen plug and the oil filter cover on the right side of the bike…

Here’s the oil drain plug (as you know, it’s magnetized, and on this particular bike, it’s actually picked up some iron dust outside the bike)…

It’s not necessary to remove either the stock skidplate or the new aluminum one when changing the oil.   I’ve changed the oil on my bike three times already, and I’ve never had the skidplate off the bike.   You will see some spillage from the screens that gets inside the standard skidplate (and you probably will on the new skidplate, too, if you opt not to remove it).   I use a shop rag to wipe up any oil that spills into this area.  It’s no big deal for me.   The way one person described it, though, you’d think the Exxon Valdez had run ashore in Alaska again (there’s a lot of drama on the Internet forums).  Here’s the bottom line:  The new aluminum skidplate is no different than the stock skidplate with regard to the need for removal when changing your oil, and if anything, it provides better access.     You don’t need to remove either to change your oil, but if you want to, you can.  It’s your call.

That’s it for now, folks.   Duty beckons…on to the pages describing our ride into Zion National Park last month…