I just bought a new honda rancher 350es and first time posting on this site, my question is the dealer asked me to bring the atv back after 25 hours or so to do some adjustments on it, cost 150-200 to go through the whole thing making valve adj. etc. Are these guys blowing smoke or does this really need to be done. Thanks for your help

 

It is important that the valves be adjusted at 20 hours (!), and if you aren't mechanically up to doing it yourself have the dealer do it. Everything else is pretty simple and most people can do it themselves and save a bunch of money.

Some info on break-in: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Some good basic oil info: http://www.thumperfaq.com/oil.htm

I always change my engine oil and oil filter very early on, and also change out the front differential and rear drive. I usually do this after 1 hour of break-in riding and again at 5 hrs. This is intended to quickly get out any metal shavings that might be left behind from machining and newly meshing gears.

During break-in (~ first 10 hours), run a cheapie petroleum oil like Honda's GN4 or Maxima's Premium, then after that you can switch to a synthetic oil if you wish. My preference is Maxima Extra, ester synthetic (http://www.maximausa.com/products/4s...synthextra.asp) (http://www.maximausa.com/technical/l...beNews2002.pdf).

In the diff and rear drive, you need to run an 80W90 GL5 "hypoid" gear oil. My preference here is Maxima 75W90 synthetic (http://www.maximausa.com/products/ge...thgearlube.asp).