Time for first service. What to check?

[A-DAB-will-do]

My new Super Meteor 650 just rolled over 320 miles(515 km) on the odometer while riding home from work yesterday. As expected, that little wrench icon is flashing on the odometer display.

Today I plan on going down the owners manual checklist of service items. In addition, I was planning on checking the six fasteners that hold the rear sprocket on. I saw teacher Thailand’s video about those being found loose on some RE bikes.

I have a factory oil filter and a gallon bottle of Motul 15W50 semi-synthetic oil. I am also changing out the front brake pads. I have an annoying squeal coming from the facotry pads every time I come to a stop. I am swapping in EBC‘s semi metallic pads. Hoping for a bit more stopping power from the front brakes as well.

I think Im going to give the factory chain a thorough cleaning and then relube with my preferred chain wax lubricant. I dont know what the whiteish goop is they lube the chain with at the factory Or the dealer I purchased from. But my gut says get rid of it.

What’s the word on whether or not a valve adjustment is required at the first service? I’m reading lots of comments here about the other RE 650CC models no longer requiring a valve adjustment at 300 miles (500km) because customers overseas were complaining about the cost of the first service. Sounds like its unnecessary. Any official word from the factory on this issue for the 2024 Super Meteor 650?

What’s the latest rumor on a factory service manual for the 2024 Super Meteor 650? I dislike having to estimate fastener torque for critical nuts and bolts based on their size alone.

Is there anything else I should be checking out?

ride safe y’all,

Dave

 

[Sliphorn]

.
Do the valve adjustment. Period. Any number of them will be tight which is not good and will likely tighten as the miles pile up. There is a thread on this very topic.

 

[Milemar]

I think even the official RE garages don't know what to do. When I got mine a few weeks ago I was told the valve inspection is not needed anymore.
Although when I booked mine for the first service, the guy told me they need to do this. I think I prefer the option with the valve inspection TBH.
Will let you know next week if they did it for mine or not.

 

[Sliphorn]

I think even the official RE garages don't know what to do. When I got mine a few weeks ago I was told the valve inspection is not needed anymore.
Although when I booked mine for the first service, the guy told me they need to do this. I think I prefer the option with the valve inspection TBH.
Will let you know next week if they did it for mine or not.

.
There should be no option. It should always be done @300 miles. I think RE is shooting themselves in the foot with this one.

 

[Bazza]

My new Super Meteor 650 just rolled over 320 miles(515 km) on the odometer while riding home from work yesterday. As expected, that little wrench icon is flashing on the odometer display.

Today I plan on going down the owners manual checklist of service items. In addition, I was planning on checking the six fasteners that hold the rear sprocket on. I saw teacher Thailand’s video about those being found loose on some RE bikes.

I have a factory oil filter and a gallon bottle of Motul 15W50 semi-synthetic oil. I am also changing out the front brake pads. I have an annoying squeal coming from the facotry pads every time I come to a stop. I am swapping in EBC‘s semi metallic pads. Hoping for a bit more stopping power from the front brakes as well.

I think Im going to give the factory chain a thorough cleaning and then relube with my preferred chain wax lubricant. I dont know what the whiteish goop is they lube the chain with at the factory Or the dealer I purchased from. But my gut says get rid of it.

What’s the word on whether or not a valve adjustment is required at the first service? I’m reading lots of comments here about the other RE 650CC models no longer requiring a valve adjustment at 300 miles (500km) because customers overseas were complaining about the cost of the first service. Sounds like its unnecessary. Any official word from the factory on this issue for the 2024 Super Meteor 650?

What’s the latest rumor on a factory service manual for the 2024 Super Meteor 650? I dislike having to estimate fastener torque for critical nuts and bolts based on their size alone.

Is there anything else I should be checking out?

ride safe y’all,

Dave

Deff do valve clearances. And as you've headed this theme," what to check " check everything. I found disc screws loose, front and rear, and some frame mounting bolts less than secure. Beware !! some not all bolts, screws and what have you may be fitted using a red threadlock substance. My screen screws, the tiny 4mm ones, had that red shit used on them. Had to drill them out to remove screen, now replaced with marine grade stainles cap screws. Headlight side screws, the same. So take it easy undoing stuff, as tthe button head screws will probably round out. Happy tinkering.

 

[Woodstock]

I've said elsewhere so repeating; just paid the extra to get The Bullet tappets/valves checked at 360 miles. They were described as "tight." I could hear the difference on the ride home. I would advise doing them. My 22 Interceptor had 'tight" valves at the first service which is why I opted to do them on this bike too, despite the factory recommendation to wait.

 

[davidw99]

I've said elsewhere so repeating; just paid the extra to get The Bullet tappets/valves checked at 360 miles. They were described as "tight." I could hear the difference on the ride home. I would advise doing them. My 22 Interceptor had 'tight" valves at the first service which is why I opted to do them on this bike too, despite the factory recommendation to wait.

They did do the valves cold, right? I'm asking because you said you road the bike home so I'm assuming you road it there. Warm/hot valves will always be tight. I trailered mine to the dealer just so the valves would be cold. The dealer said trailer it or leave it over night. I have a couple of old VWs that I adjust the valves on so I fully understand the need for the values to be cold when adjusted.

 

[A-DAB-will-do]

So just a few comments or updates to my own post. Completed oil change last weekend. See photo of odometer and magnetic drain plug. Definitely worth doing. I dont recall seeing to much glitter in the oil drained from the sump. The oil that drained out looked lightly used in terms of color compared to oil fresh from the container. As I think I mentioned previously i refilled the engine with Motul’s 15W50 semi synthetic blend. I believe that the engine sounds smoother and like it’s running better.

i also swapped the front brake pads. I installed a set of EBC semi metallic pads that someelse on the forum suggested. They appear identical to the OEM brake pads in most respects. The OEM pads looked normal. for those curious the OEM front brake pads were stamped Brembo in the metal backing plate.
i installed the new pads after coating them with this product on the metal backing plate.

CRC® Disc Brake Quiet, 9 Wt Oz

Disc Brake Quiet forms a water resistant, high-temperature film that absorbs noise while quieting squeaks & squeals. Specially formulated to dampen the vibrations that cause brake noise. For use on the back of non-shimmed disc pads.

www.crcindustries.com

Ive used this for years in all kinds of vehicle disc brakes with success. Place the pads friction surface down on a clean sheet of cardboard and liberally spray the back side of each pad. Note dont apply so much that it puddles. Just an even coat. Then set the pads out in the sun for about 10 minutes before installation.

note I also transferred the clip-on stainless shim plates from the OEM pads to the new EBC pads. Then applied the CRC product to the shim as well And repeat the setup or drying time.

Clean rotor with a lint free cloth liberally dosed with brake clean spray or similar solvent. Inhought the front rotor on my bike was dirtier than I expected.

Clean and re lube the pin that retains the pads with your preferred brake assembly lube. Reassemble pads into caliper and reinstall caliper to the mounting bracket. I used some blue medium threadlocker compound on the bolts and torqued them to 22-23 newtonmeters. Indont know if this is correct, since there isn't a factory service manual available. Ill keep tabs on them just in case. That torque spec came from the service manual for my Bandit, which uses a similar size fastener for its front caliper bolts.

 

[A-DAB-will-do]

Ran a few more miles on the bike during the week to lower the fuel left in the tank. The valve inspection and adjustment is next on my list. Ill post my findings on valve clearance when thats done.

Ride safe.

 

[A-DAB-will-do]

Would one of the forum moderators review and approve my post on this thread, then delete this post? Thanks.

 

[A-DAB-will-do]

So, I completed the valve adjustment this afternoon. My thanks to all the previous posts and Youtube content creators who covered this. Made the whole process of completing the valve adjustment easy. i did wind up pulling the cover and gasket entirely from the head. I used a few smal dabs of blue RTV to tack it to the valve cover. It went back in without a hitch.

Thanks Sliphorn for firming suggestion that I do the valve inspection. All the exhaust valves were tight. Left side .06mm too tight. Right side .03mm too tight (see notes below) note these metric dimensions are from my imperial set of shims. So there might be some rounding errors as I used the closest shim to the value spec’d. where that rounding was to the small side I allowed for a looser fit for the shim.

I adjusted the exhaust valves and left the intake valves as I found them.




Now the constructive criticisms for any Royal Enfield staff lurking in the forum.

The fuel tank vent lines are too damn short! I spent entirely too much time fighting with them when the job was done and all I needed to do was put the fuel tank back on. This quest lead me to remove the battery in a vain attempt to follow the left side hose to its other end so I could perhaps detach it there instead. The right side vent or drain hose is just barely long enough. That left side hose goes down a rabbit hole and into a parallel dimension. Never to be seen again…

So, instead I rummaged around in my shop, and lo-and-behold, I found a double end hose barb exactly the right size! I cut the hose, installed one piece on the tank. Then finished installing the tank and spliced the hose with the hose barb. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Next time this will be much easier…





During reassembly, I think I might have stripped one of the aluminum rivnuts that Royal Enfield use to attach the coil bracket to the frame. I don‘t care for rivnuts. since there are two pairs of socket head cap screws that hold that bracket in place, i‘ll replace that rivnut with a thru bolt and nut if necessary. As I write this I am wondering why they used rivnuts in the first place?

Everything finally went back together…

Aaannnddd, I find an evil check engine light glowing at me when I start the bike to check my handiwork. Now I have an OBDII scanner and adapter on the way from Amazon. But, I’m going to try cycling the ignition and riding it tomorrow. I did let the bike idle for a few minutes and then rode to the end of my driveway and back. All felt and sounded fine.

I see from other posts that turning on the key with the tank disconnected will set an error code. I did this to snap a photo of the odometer, and of course when I pulled the battery I cut power to everything. So hopefully a few restarts will clear the code. Tomorrow I‘ll have the adapter and the scanner(which I should have bought a long time ago). so if the code doesn't clear I’ll be able to get clue about the problem.

That about covers it. 2 hours to do the job. At least another hour exploring the bike for the other end of that stupid hose and putting the battery back. Note to self: take a photo of the battery so you don’t have to try all the orientations possible to find the one correct way to position that battery. Grrrrr.

 

[Woodstock]

They did do the valves cold, right? I'm asking because you said you road the bike home so I'm assuming you road it there. Warm/hot valves will always be tight. I trailered mine to the dealer just so the valves would be cold. The dealer said trailer it or leave it over night. I have a couple of old VWs that I adjust the valves on so I fully understand the need for the values to be cold when adjusted.

I don't believe I ever answered you so apologies for that. I got there two hours before they opened. They did the valves/tappets as the last item of the service and had a fan going in the interim. The crank cases felt stone cold to the touch.

 

[Roy Gavin]

I am old enough to remember when cars also had adjustable tappets which needed done at service time.
Can't recall ever being told to trailer my car in or leave it over night!
Expansion co-efficient on valve steel is usually around 0.000018 so the difference between cool and cold is probably less than the margin of error if using feeler gauges.
That is, you would need over 55C difference to make one thou difference , per inch of the part of the valve which gets hot.
One poster on this site experimented and couldn't detect much difference between cold and hot!

 

[A-DAB-will-do]

I debated posting this here or starting a new thread. But these are comments and thoughts related to how the bike performs during the ‘break-in‘ Period. So here seems reasonable.

I noticed that my SM rolled over 1100 miles(~1700km) on my commute home last night.

everything is running well. No noticable oil consumption by the engine. I have pushed the engine a few time for short sprints on the interstate highway. The bike accelerates well up to ~90mph (~140kph) and handles well maneuvering through rush hour traffic. With no windscreen, I don’t intend to spend much time on the highway. My typical commute is more like 40-50mph on two lane asphalt country roads.

ive noticed that the trnsmission shifts seem a bit smoother. This is especially true for the shift from 5th to 6th gear. When the bike was new, this shift seemed vague and happened with a lack of feedback to the rider that the shift was successful. I might describe it as ‘mushy’ although I don’t know if that makes sense to the rest of you. Anyway, this condition has improved. The other shifts are firm and to me confidence inspiring. By this I mean that the trans feedback is clear that the shift completed. Some might not can for a clear ‘thunk’ as the shift happens. I prefer it.

Like past motorcycles I’ve owned, a slight lift on the gearshift lever, prior to pulling in the clutch lever, makes for smooth, effortless shifts.

The OEM tires seem to run and perform well. I notice a distinct flat band on the rear tire already at 1000 miles. I predict a new set of tires next summer.

The touring seat fits my frame perfectly and my 20-30 minute commuting rides are completely comfortable. As my confidence and comfort level have increases I’ve ridden with more spirit through some S curves and such. I have noted that i feel like I’m in the saddle and connected to the bike, raher than just riding on it. What more can you ask for?

I knew this would be a different riding experience from past bikes. I’m happy to say that the Super Meteor’s performance is really well suited to riding on the street. There is a good match between engine power and torque, and riding within the typical speeds of public roads. I feel like I can use all of the engine’s range of throttle without exceeding the speed limits by a ridiculous margin. This is in sharp contrast to the performance of my Bandit 1200; where anything more than half throttle in almost any gear means a high risk of a speeding ticket.

Anyone else have any observations?

Ride safe.

 

[Sliphorn]

.
I have an SG and it is a great motorcycle. Easy to ride, comfortable and very character filled. I recently did a 2300 mile trip from the Ozarks, where I live, to the driftless region of WI. Three full days of riding in the driftless and the bike never missed a beat. Just like the Ozarks, the driftless is twisty, twist, twisty! We did about 230 miles every day while there. Yes, pre-loading the shift lever before the shift works a charm. Like many, I’ve had plenty of bikes over the years that were more powerful than my SG, but none were as fun as this bike. It’s a bit heavier than I’d like, but such is life. I’m a fan. I replaced the tires around the 2200 mile mark or so because I did not like them. I also put on a new chain at the same time because I found the stock chain to be crap.
.

 

[Woodstock]

I am old enough to remember when cars also had adjustable tappets which needed done at service time.
Can't recall ever being told to trailer my car in or leave it over night!
Expansion co-efficient on valve steel is usually around 0.000018 so the difference between cool and cold is probably less than the margin of error if using feeler gauges.
That is, you would need over 55C difference to make one thou difference , per inch of the part of the valve which gets hot.
One poster on this site experimented and couldn't detect much difference between cold and hot!

Very good point Roy. I had forgotten driving the EH in for a service with tappet adjustment. It was never a big deal.

 

[michaelh]

I totally agree! Today every simple minor task is pumped up to be some kind of rocket science. The basics of a combustion engine haven't change since their invention.