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I honestly have no idea where you guys came up with "Doing it yourself isn't hard, but likely will void your warranty..." It is purely fictional that doing the work yourself will void your warranty. Granted if you break a piece in the process or do something completely backwards causing something to break, that problem will most likely not be covered. However, if you actually read your warranty statement you won't see anywhere that you are required to have YamSuzKawHonH-D perform routine maintenance on your bike in order to keep your manufacturer's warranty. The reason for that is because it would be illegal for that requirement to be made. You guys might want to consider talking to someone who actually knows what they are talking about before spreading rumors. I think Motorcycle Consumer News is the best publication for factual information, that's where I got this information from.

 

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Re: Shoot, Vern, it used to leak oil...

Like you said, California's Lemon Law requires dealer service, not the manufacturer's warranty. I'm sure the experiences you have had indicate that the manufacturer can do whatever they want when it comes to honoring warranties. But look at it from their point of view. They know that it would cost more for a consumer to hire a lawyer to get what is his/hers under warranty than it would to pay for nearly any repair. So why should the big company do anything for individual consumers if they have any excuse not to. They have a tiny chance of being taken to court. However, none of this changes the fact that you are not required to have maintenance performed at the dealership in order to kep your warranty. Obviously, if you are 'all thumbs' you should go to a professional every time.

One situation that I think could be solved with the law is the 00-01 Bandit 1200 oil burning problem. This couldn't be done with individuals as it appears that some have been helped by Suzuki/dealerships, while others seem to be getting stonewalled as you mentioned. I think a class action lawsuit would be a good solution to this situation. That way individual owners don't have to shell out tons of money on a lawyer, while Suzuki will be made to admit the truth that there is a manufacturing defect. I don't care what silly standard was set up 50 years ago, if a bike burns a quart of oil in 700 miles these days, it is broken.