Well my trusty steed is in for a service in the morning, so it will be an early start for my good self. I only wish i had the experience to do it for myself, i have an extensive tool kit and i'm not afraid to use it LOL Seriously though, talking as a novice in the mechanics department, can you guy's tell me on a scale of one to whatever, how hard a service on a ZZR 600 is ? I know you all have bags of experience in the tweeking and tinkering department, but i'd like to have a crack at the servicing myself next year. I've never been shy when it comes to fixing things and i've done welding (yes i was a welder for a time !!) changed bearings and a clutch on my old cage, but i'd really like to do my own maintainance on the bike. So what do you reckon, should i leave it to the professionals or give it a go myself ?

Piece of piss, go for it. With a reasonable toolkit and a set of vacuum gauges you can do anything a shop can do. And you know it's been done.

Have you got a manual Pussy Cat?
basic servicing is simple enough as long as you go at it methodically- if your 600 is similar to my 1100 half the fairing & tank & airbox will have to come off to change the plugs.
oil changes are easy enough-just make sure you dont over tighten the sump plug when you put it back IN
haynes manuals are better than clymer IMHO, & if you have a friend who is more experienced at "tinkering" ask them to check over your work when you're done.
if you've done clutches & wheel bearings on cars, then most of the routine servicing stuff should be within your grasp.
we're always here if you get stuck-wether you get a proper answer or not is another matter

As opposed to an automatic one?

I just KNEW i should've used punctuation

its a doddle!
its pretty straight forward, just a pain in the arris when you have to remove things just to get to other things.
on mine just to change the plugs, i have to remove the rear seat, to get to the front seat, to get to the tank, to get to the plugs. but i cant remove the tank untill ive removed the side panels first.
i wont pay anyone to service my bike.
i dont trust anyone for a start!
ive had mates whove had back tyres put on the wrong way round, fairings cracked, ive had my own bike repeatedly kicked from behind by some one trying to adjust the back wheel, i had to stop him and told him its got a two way adjuster and you turn it either way to move the wheel back AND forward. he then asked me to hold the front of my bike and put the brake on so he could take a good run at it . so i explained for the second time! and then had to show him how to adjust it.

diy mate! you know its done properly then. and youll save a few bob

I try to do as much of my own servicing as I can but that's because I'm tight.  :blush:

I try and do all my own servicing.
1 because as BD says, i'm too tight.
2 as everyone else says, at least you know it's done right.

Thanks for the feed back chaps, its' very much appreciated, the service was done by a nice chap (Darren of DP Auto's, plug, plug ) and i had the beast back by 1.30 in time to go out and play  :devil: I also decided to get the break pads changed while i was there, thought i'd save myself the bother and what with the service, parts (plugs, etc) and the break pads, it only set me back £165, which i thought was fairly good. When the service is due next year, i'll have a valve service done, but my local Kwaka dealer reckons it will cost about £320 OUCH !! is that reasonable for this sort of service or have they seen me coming ???

I really should learn to spell......Brake pads  :mad: