Here's my report:

You might be interested in my observations of my first oil change.

First, if you have a centre stand which I don't have but am getting, the job will definitely be easier. With my bike on the side stand, my oil drain pan barely fit under the belly pan. I couldn't remove both the drain bolt and the filter at the same time. There was zero clearance for my hand or tools.

The manual suggests removing the lower cowling for access. After reading on the forums that it can be done without removing the lower cowling, I dug in. After seeing the tight quarters with the cowling in place, I decided to remove the lower cowling. I started with the 2 push pins. I pushed with my finger and finally a screwdriver, but I couldn't get the push pins to budge. So much for that idea. If anyone has any tips on removing tight pushpins, I'm all ears. The heads of the pins were several mm above the pin body, and I could not push the heads in to get them level with the pin body. If you don't remove the cowling, you won't be able to use a longer oil filter or a torque wrench on the drain bolt.

The drain bolt is easy to get off, but with the restricted cowling to drain bolt clearance, a ratchet and socket would not fit. I ended up using a 17mm box end wrench for both removal and tightening. To remove the oil filter, I had to use a wrench like this: http://wingstuff.com/products/2065-o...ce_parts_tools


The small opening of the wrench is also made to fit the 17mm head of the drain bolt.

I tried to use the longer non-OEM oil filters that I had used on my Silverwing. I have used both Purolator PureOne and Wix. With the cowling in place, there is no way to get a longer oil filter enough room to screw on. I had a Honda OEM oil filter on hand, and it screwed on no problem. I couldn't get my hand around the oil filter to hand tighten it like I do all my oil filters. I had to use the oil filter tool above to tighten the filter.

Everything else was non-eventful. I didn't ride the bike afterwards to see if clutching and shifting were any different with the synthetic Rotella T6. I'll let you know.

I hope my report was of interest/use to you