These pages are about My Suzuki TL1000S

and information about my bike.

Contents
Modifications	Accessories	Maintenance
Costs	Economy	Problems

Click here for my Modifications and accessories page. The list is constantly growing so I've moved then all to a page of their own.

Maintenance has been pretty straight forward. The first and second services were carried out by the dealer while the bike was under warranty. I performed the 12,000km service myself. I did this with the aid of the workshop manual and some documents gleaned from the internet.

At the 12,000Km service I replaced the air and oil filter, oil and spark plugs. Checked the throttle body synchronisation and the throttle position sensor (TPS).

The air filter wasn't due to be changed until 18,000km but I changed it anyway. It looked quite serviceable. I Dynoed the bike before I had serviced it and was disappointed that it had lost 6 Steve powers since the last time I gave it a run (122 vs. 116). After the service it had increased to 128.2 Steve powers. Analysing the graphs all point to the air filter as the graphs were identical until the 8,000rpm mark where the post service run pulled away to the peak of 12 Steve powers higher.

I've created a page to keep track of routine sericve history and costs. It only includes basic service items. Mods etc aren't included in the table. Click here if you're interested.

I've created a page to keep track of valve clearance history and shim sizes used. Click here if you're interested.

Being a nut case I can calculate how much this bike costs me to run. The figure is slightly inflated by the registration and insurance costs. If I did more miles this figure would drop and the fuel, tyres and service costs would remain fairly constant. Make sense? Fuel, tyres and service needs do not add up while the bike isn't being used but the rego and insurance runs down. Accessories haven't been taken into account either, this is purely for the upkeep of the bike.

Registration and insurance	$0.22 / kilometre
Service (labour and materials)	$0.06 / kilometre
Tyres (Always been Metzeler MEZ3)	$0.14 / kilometre
Fuel (guessed average from average mpg and cpl)	$0.06 / kilometre
Grand total (ouch)	$0.48 / kilometre

The registration and insurance costs and the so few miles I do annually really inflate the running costs of the bike, if I doubled the amount of miles I did in a year the $0.22c / km would halve to $0.11c / kilometre.

Here is a list of how many kilometres I got from each tyre fitted. All the front tyres were the Metzeler race compound. The 2nd front I put on it (the bikes 3rd front) was a MEZ-3. The bikes fourth front was a Metezeler Sportec M-1. The first rear I put on it (2nd tyre) was a non race compound, but all the rest were. I changed over from MEZ-1's to MEZ-3's on the third rear. Click on the kilometre value to see a picture of the tyre. The bikes 6th rear was a Metzeler Sportec M-1.

	1st		2nd		3rd		4th		5th		6th
	Bike km	Tyre km	Bike km	Tyre km	Bike km	Tyre km	Bike km	Tyre km	Bike km	Tyre km	Bike km	Tyre km
Rear	3855	3855	7273	3418	10802	3529	13489	2687	18095	4606	20945	2850
Front	5980	5980	12015	6035	18095	6080

Now for my analis of the tyre wear. The first tyre at 3855 on a sticky OEM had 1000km of running in on it. With the second rear the surprise is how little miles the non race compound tyre gave me, this tyre also came home from it's last ride punctured and down to the belts. When I left for the ride it had tread on it. The ride was a damp one too. I was told by my dealer that the "not so soft compound" and wet roads killed it as the V2 torque would have had it slipping slightly on each power stroke and tore it to shreds. Made sense to me. I didn't do one burn out on this tyre, I felt it slipping taking off from traffic lights on the way home but did realise the severity of the damage until I saw it at home. You can see the beginnings of the tearing of the rubber on the first tyre. Although I've done no touring on these tyres I am impressed at how well they hold their profile all the way until they're shagged. There is hardly any flat-spotting in the middle section.

The bike has now got 12702km on it and I know the rear has now done 1900km. So without having to look at it I can tell you how many miles to go before I'll have to change it. I've got to get a life.

Yeah OK, I was wrong. I wished I had another 1900km left in that tyre. A day at the track saw a premature end to it at 2687km

Because I'm such a nut I've logged all the fuel I've used for the last 14,457km. What type of fuel and where purchased. The following table would have to give a fair average for the amount of fuel used and the distance covered.

	MPG	km/litre	litres/100km	Max tank range	Realistic tank range
Average	43.2	15.4	6.6	252 km	237 km
Best	56.7	20.2	4.9	344 km	324 km
Worst	33.0	11.8	8.5	200 km	188 km

The best ever was obtained with Brenda using that particular tank. I have had the mileage drop to about 28mpg but didn't include it as it was at a track day.

Click here for a graph of the last 103 tanks of fuel I've used. It is in miles per gallon using British gallons (4.54 litres / gallon). The high peaks are getting to where I'm going and the lows are while I'm there.

Leaded = Leaded fuel (Super).
PULP = Premium unleaded.
Optimax = Shells Optimax high density, high octane fuel.