I’ve owned my Honda VTR 1000 SP2 for about 11 years now, since 2008. Back in 2010, after a bumpy and extended trip in the Swiss Alps and Italian Dolomites, one of my front forks started leaking a bit. I took out the forks, a race shop serviced them, and that was that: brilliant ride quality. 2 years later though, the left leg started slightly leaking again. Not a lot, but you could see a slight oily film on the inner leg. I brought it away for another service, they checked it and replaced the seals again. Fast forward another 3 years and.. yep.
At that point, I was slightly fed up with spending €150 for a seal service every 2-3 years. And more importantly, taking the forks out of the bike every 2-3 years. I looked up how difficult it was to do a Honda VTR 1000 SP2 front fork service myself. Turns out, there’s a bunch of things you can do wrong and wreck, but it’s not rocket science! Queue a DIY front fork service!
I keep track of the fuel consumption of most my vehicles. It’s a habit that I inherited from my dad, and it’s a habit that’s reinforced by a life in IT. Fuel consumption stats give you some insight in how your motor is running, how much a vehicle costs per kilometer, what the impact of fuel types and prices is on range, etc. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I also track my Honda VTR 1000 SP2 fuel consumption. Initially I jotted everything down in an Excel sheet (together with maintenance costs). That’s a bit 90’s style though; and I’ve recently exported everything into Spritmonitor.de. It’s a German website that I stumbled onto recently while researching real-world fuel consumption for a future new car. Compared to the manufacturer fuel specs, SpritMonitor offers much more realistic fuel consumption statistics.