The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Wow, doing my own maintenance is turning out to be much, much more costly than a Honda dealer's servicing.

I have just ordered the 2013-2017 manual for my '15 LED PCX
Sit down before you read this:

Sit down!

$200.23

Yes, that's two hundred dollars.
Manual is 43
Handling is 40
Shipping is 117 (to Japan)

That is the most expensive book I have ever bought!

I am almost tempted to cancel it, but the alternative is the local Japanese language version at THREE HUNDRED dollars.
Combined with all the tools I keep buying to do infrequent jobs, the 'economy' of a scooter is fast becoming a joke.

Who is a bigger thief, Honda (Helm) or The Clinton Foundation?


I know someone who'll be very tempted to scan the entire thing, just to spite Helm, and post it on some torrent site somewhere.
Not me of course... watch this space.

You simply don't need the service manual to do routine servicing.
Complete waste of your cash.

Not the '17 version but US '15 coverage, http://www.service-shop-repair-manual.c ... air-manual
$35 and they charged about $30 post to the UK whereas Helminc wanted $110 shipping.

Holy cow... I feel your pain.

pxc-in-japan wrote: Who is a bigger thief, Honda (Helm) or The Clinton Foundation?

Harley Davidson makes the world of Honda look like a trip to the thrift store. Your new manual will be very handy and comforting. I could not have done the valve check without one and that alone recovered the manual cost in dealer fees 3-4 times over. Like every hobby we pay something outrageous somewhere to someone.

btw how are your fuel costs over there in Japan town. Count the flowers, not the weeds.

Sheesh, I paid $25 for mine with free shipping off eBay. Of course, I didn't have to ship it to Japan.

Wow! I bought mine from the site Iceman showed a link to. It is a copy, and probably a bit illegal, but it has everything, including the wiring diagram. Again, of course, it isn't being shipped to Japan. However, they do ship to anywhere in the world, so you might check them out and cancel the other one.

Mel46 wrote:Wow! I bought mine from the site Iceman showed a link to. It is a copy, and probably a bit illegal, but it has everything, including the wiring diagram. Again, of course, it isn't being shipped to Japan. However, they do ship to anywhere in the world, so you might check them out and cancel the other one.

Yeah, disappointed to find that it was a copy but probably one of the best copies you could get - it does not have the spine holes punched through but is bound extremely professionally and all the text and pictures are superb quality - very hard to spot any differences from a real manual (and i had an older pre LED original shop manual so could compare page/page flicking through the engine drawings).

Mel46 wrote:...... It is a copy, and probably a bit illegal ......

What is a "bit" illegal?

Oops, I just checked mine and it looks like a copy as well. I can't recall having noticed that before. I can't recall, but I think I got it off of eBay.

gn2 wrote:You simply don't need the service manual to do routine servicing.
Complete waste of your cash.

I am only half in agreement with you.
I find many posts and videos somewhat vague.
I hope, of course, that I never have to do anything more than routine servicing, and so you may be right, but my other choice is trial and error or the Japanese version of the manual. I have the Japanese version of the Suzuki Address 125 manual, and while my Japanese is quite solid, when I want to service a bike and I am not that experienced, I don&t want to have to learn new words and phrases at the same time.

Hey pcx-in-japan, please know that I am not suggesting you paid too much. I also live overseas and know the challenge of ordering things. It is unfortunate that you had to pay so much for shipping, but you do what you have to do. I was fortunate enough that I was able to get mine delivered to the US and picked it up on one of my trips back. I don't know what labour costs are in Japan, but if you use it only once, it will likely have still paid for itself.

kramnala58 wrote:Hey pcx-in-japan, please know that I am not suggesting you paid too much. I also live overseas and know the challenge of ordering things. It is unfortunate that you had to pay so much for shipping, but you do what you have to do. I was fortunate enough that I was able to get mine delivered to the US and picked it up on one of my trips back. I don't know what labour costs are in Japan, but if you use it only once, it will likely have still paid for itself.

Hi. Labour costs here are high. I have 3 2-wheelers and one is a Suzuki DL660 'V-Strom', whose servicing, all of which has been done by the main dealer where I bought it new, costs an awful lot of money. I have the English manual for it (PDF), but I figured (originally) that a fully-receipted bike would fetch a good price if I were to sell it, but in fact the market here is not like that. Dealers give almost no money for bikes with more than about 10 or 20 thousand kilometres on the clock, so it may not be worth it in that regard, but a fully serviced bike is worth much more to me than one whose servicing is sketchy. With the PCX though, although I got it almost new, now that I know it would get no money for me 2nd hand regardless of service history, I have decided to do it all myself, but I want the right advice to do it. I don't like trial and error. As you say, the book will have paid for itself by the end of the bike's useful life in my hands.
I was a Toyota (motor company) apprentice for a mere 6 months when I was 18 (1990), so I am aware of most of the concepts involved in servicing and repairing, but at the same time I am never confident that I will do a job as well as a pro, although that's what I want of course.

You bought this?

http://www.hondampe.com.au/docs/owning_ ... 5_2011.pdf

lust wrote:You bought this?

http://www.hondampe.com.au/docs/owning_ ... 5_2011.pdf

Hopefully he got something a little more detailed and illustrated in pictures than that and he needs 2015 version... but hey that's free to those who have older bikes!

homie wrote:

lust wrote:You bought this?
http://www.hondampe.com.au/docs/owning_ ... 5_2011.pdf

Hopefully he got something a little more detailed and illustrated in pictures than that and he needs 2015 version... but hey that's free to those who have older bikes!

That's one of the many free older owners manuals not the shop (service) manual which runs to many hundreds of pages and for the US version, covers everything. In the UK the PCX '15 model shop manuals were split into a new 'revised' and tiny one covering '15 version changes and your having to acquire an older '13 sgop manual for engine and most other things. I went with an original '15 revision and the great copy (but not original) one from the outlet mentioned as Helm charge crazy shipping outside the US.

iceman wrote:

homie wrote:

lust wrote:You bought this?
http://www.hondampe.com.au/docs/owning_ ... 5_2011.pdf

Hopefully he got something a little more detailed and illustrated in pictures than that and he needs 2015 version... but hey that's free to those who have older bikes!

That's one of the many free older owners manuals not the shop (service) manual which runs to many hundreds of pages and for the US version, covers everything. In the UK the PCX '15 model shop manuals were split into a new 'revised' and tiny one covering '15 version changes and your having to acquire an older '13 sgop manual for engine and most other things. I went with an original '15 revision and the great copy (but not original) one from the outlet mentioned as Helm charge crazy shipping outside the US.

Ah ok. =)

lust wrote:You bought this?

http://www.hondampe.com.au/docs/owning_ ... 5_2011.pdf

No. That is an owner's manual, which gives very basic information, and comes free with every bike.
I bought the 2013-2015 (now known as the 2013-2017) Service Manual (also known as a factory manual or a workshop manual) which covers all things a mechanic or technician would do with very few exceptions.
I would not have paid $2.00, let alone $200.00 for an owner's manual.

I never bought a manual but do ALL work on my scoot thanks to the good people of this forum. Every question asked has been answered (even the dumb ones) why waste money on a book which probably does not give as much detail as you can get here . (watch homies video on how to check valve clearance !!!!) Thanks to maddiedog and All the the others for keeping our scoots " scooting " !!!!!!!!!

I've got the same book but haven't read it yet. Don't give away the ending!

GlassMan wrote:I never bought a manual but do ALL work on my scoot thanks to the good people of this forum. Every question asked has been answered (even the dumb ones) why waste money on a book which probably does not give as much detail as you can get here . (watch homies video on how to check valve clearance !!!!) Thanks to maddiedog and All the the others for keeping our scoots " scooting " !!!!!!!!!

where in Chicagoland are you? I just now see this. Here put a pin in it please https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mi ... PwAXmfB7vU