Thinking also that I should replace the coolant while I've got the fairing off but not overly confident about doing that myself.
I decided to have a go at doing this myself, today...
I'd tried ringing my local mechanic yesterday and even called around to his place of business but was unable to get hold of him so can only assume he's made a long weekend of it with it being Melbourne Cup day today.
Oh well, how hard can it be???
I probably made it even harder for myself by deciding to swap from the oem green coolant to a long life red.
And, as I didn't have any replacement copper washers for the engine block drain bolts I decided I'd just do multiple flushes until all the green was gone.
I ended up doing 4 flushes, running the engine for at least 5 minutes in between each flush. By now the water was close to clear so I figured it was time to add a bottle of Penrite's Radiator Flush.
After running the bike for 15-20 minutes I drained the radiator flush out and then, for good measure I did yet another flush...
Water was now clear so I figured it was now time to refit the radiator hose, tighten hose clamps and refit the overflow bottle.
Speaking of the overflow bottle, the Penrite Radiator Flush didn't appear to work particularly well as I used some in the overflow bottle and it didn't seem to do much. I ended up improvising by placing a small amount of aquarium gravel inside and shaking the bejeezus out of it...lol. That did the job!
By the way, I mainly used the radiator flush because it supposedly neutralises any leftover coolant remaining in the engine eliminating any compatibility issues from changing coolant types.
Anyways, it was now time to add a 50/50 mix of Penrite's Red OEM 8 Year Concentrate Coolant...
I then ran the bike for another 5-10 minutes just to make sure everything was in order....No leaks so figured it was time to call it a day...
Another job off my list...