One thing KTM has on the Japanese

at Pre delivery ive had new bikes greased properly, and then not at all, could it just be that your dealer greased it well?

I've never seen a dealer grease a bike as part of a normal PDI. What you see is what you get from the factory.

Pretty sure the set up dept pits the front wheel, fender, handlebars and controls on. Nothing more, nothing less.

i have certianly had bikes like that, for example my 21 crf450, however a different dealer near me that sells yamaha does a full grease

I started riding dirt bikes when the steering race had individual ball bearings and the wheel bearings had no seals. Bike were torn down after every muddy ride and I live in the NW. All my bikes are torn down and greased prior to the 2nd ride👍

my 20.5 FE was my first KTM, i actually felt silly after tearing it down with zero hours on it and seeing generous grease in all the bearings!!! I still jammed as much motorex grease as i could in them and happy i did! I am about to tear it down again an inspect and regrease everything , it’s nice knowing it should just be a standard pain in the butt service without any surprises!!!

edit: one person evidently doesn’t appreciate doing normal maintenance.

Not only do they grease them, the seals are better also...resulting in less contamination and less frequent maintenance. I greased my first 2 KtM”s when they were new, now I don’t do a new bike until it has 20-25 hrs when I service the suspension.

Umm, I think there's more than one thing.

In the 90s, it was an unwritten rule that you always grease up a new bike.

When I got my 2018 Factory Edition, I pulled it apart before ever riding it (as I have done on every new bike I've owned) The knuckle on the linkage had grease on the bearings, but NOTHING on the seals. The pull-rod (attaches to the frame) had virtually no grease on the bearings/none on the seals. The steering head had a very light coat of grease. Bottom line: you don't know what you are getting unless YOU take it apart! Also - NO dealer takes apart a new bike to fully service all the pivots. As has been said, their margins are too thin to spend that kind of time. They pay a minium-wage guy to slap some grease on the front axle, bolt on the bars and push it out the door.

I was impressed with how well my husky was greased, not so much on my Yamaha. I tear my bikes down and grease every bearing before first ride. Torque everything as I reassemble it. Wont have any issues until it comes apart again for one reason or another 🤷🏻‍♂️

And strip it to the frame. File the coil mount to bare steal, grease then tape all wire connections, seal air box, etc. Linkage isn’t that hard to grease, should be done every few weeks. Stock grease was cheap waxy stuff.

I didn't touch anything on my YZ until somewhere around 40 hours when I first got it. Checked linkage, shock, swingarm, and headset bearings... ALL of them well greased. I was surprised.

We did a time lapsed video shoot of my sons 2020 YZ450 last year, it was brand new and we took it to the frame on video. The grease must have been on backorder that week, it was used sparingly at best... I still have hours of footage to go through and plan on making a video on how and why you should tear a new bike down and grease it right off the showroom floor.

We take all our bikes to the bare frame and grease every hole, bolt, and connection. Now, when we got our 18.5 F.E. I decided to take KTM at their word, "RACE READY." Well, for the first time I let one go. Finally at around 20hrs we took it down to go over it and I was pleasantly surprised at the greasing, I would have done more but I guess it would suffice...

We had an 18 YZ450 come through the shop the other day, "supposed" to have around 30hrs. The rear axle had ZERO grease on it, the axle bolt look like it never had a wrench on it...

The amount of bikes we see with 50, 60, 70 hours with the linkage bearings LOCKED UP from being dry and then packed with mud is amazing.

I blame the factory, take 10 minutes and $2 worth of grease and do it right at assembly. Serious racers are going to do this anyway but I'd say 80% or better of buyers will never put a drop of grease on a new bike.....

I waited until just after the one year mark to grease my 19 Yamaha 450, everything was well greased. The swingarm and Linkage could have gone longer, the lower shock bearing was the only thing that really needed new grease.

Most manufactures use very little grease because they get huge fines from the EPA if anything leaks out of the crate during shipping. Always tear down your new bike and grease it.

My ‘18 YZ250F was pretty dry. First thing I did was tear it down and grease it all up before I started it. Heard too many stories previously of how little grease they use from the factory

I just picked up a CRF250f (the trail bike version) for wife. The thing had grease oozing out from everywhere, I actually had to wipe off all the oozing grease from the steering stem, pivots, and even the kickstand. First time I've ever bought a bike that seemed OVER greased haha.

every new bike I have had was greased ok from factory, I always strip them down before riding and put my own high quality grease on, even if it was a KTM

I tore my 20 TX300i down when I got it and it was greased but nothing to write home about. I was happy I got in there and added a lot more.

Set my suspension out on my 350 SXF at about 35 hours and went through the linkage and headset. Happy to see a good coating throughout.

I for one would appreciate that. Y’all can laugh all you want but the shock linkage has always kicked my ass.

Yet ALL that dealer requested PDI they want you to pay for JUST to uncrate a bike, pitch the handlebars and wheels on and presto! Your bike has been built by a certified technician 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
With dealers crying foul over wanting to be paid for freight and PDI you WOULD THINK that the LEAST your dealer could do is grease tye linkage and steering bearings for a customer that requests it after dropping $10,000 on the latest mx bike.
Dealers want freight and PDI to pad their built in markup but they want over a thousand for doing literally nothing. Don't even get me started about dealers getting you approved for 1.99% and selling the finance package to their customer at 7.99% and pocketing the 6% spread when they sell the loan on the back end. It's like residuals for a dealer BUT they want to money now, not spread out over 5 years or something so they sell off the loan package as a product to another bank.

Here is the thing about the Japanese. They use water-soluble grease tho I could or may be totally wrong information but as a guess they are concerned about contamination when shipping the bikes over on a boat. Just because its water-soluble that doesn't make it a free for all for them to apply it liberally. The Japanese mfg care more about a stain on their reputation then they do about function of operation in this circumstance.

Side story kinda related - I worked at a Yamaha/Suzuki dealership as a teen. I occasionally saw Yamaha engineers show up to inspect engine/transmission/suspension/part failures. I witnessed outright denial of responsibility on occasion. They articulated that it was the riders fault for the failure because of some tiny technicality which i knew was BS. (Granted most times it is the owner/operator of the vehicle). At the same time this is when there are group mechanics and dealership owner watching the denial in front of their faces and then they would question the engineering position knowing that they were playing the denial/liability game. Opinion- this acceptance/denial of failure is a big cultural problem in Japan. They cannot tolerate a stain on their house. opinion- this cultural trait is also why they have the tendency to mostly be concerned with their home Japanese competition rather then the outside competitors. Hence the little concern with their European motorcycle competitors and developing/advancing the technology instead of leading. Very conservative culture. Its all about reputation.
Opinion
This is why KTM is absorbing/taking their customer away significantly over the last 10 years. Here's one more thing, ktm suspension dept. Has come a long way but they gotta be in denial mode if they believe their suspension is up to par. They have had some big wiffs on starting new suspension configurations but slowly by the end they get it near decent and bail on it then go to some bad extreme and start again.
Rant is over now, kinda , til next time

Properly greasing a bike is a several hour endeavor. At $100/hr labor rate the dealers would lose their a$$ if they did a proper grease job on off-road motorcycles as part of normal PDI's. If your lucky, some muppet might even put the footpeg cotter pins on in an orderly fashion. No way would I trust them to grease linkage/headset and reassemble/torque properly. The techs that uncrate and assemble units are not going to put a man on the moon any time soon. They make a little over minimum wage.

My Yamaha/TM dealer offers a racers package for PDI on new bikes where they re grease everything, set sag, rider set up etc. I think it a couple hundred bucks.

I greased my 350 that i got in the fall. The linkage and swingarm bearings were surprisingly good! Headset bearing not so much.

I would pay a little more to have the bike fully greased by a proper/ good technician. I think dealers could make some extra profit if they did it like this instead of discounting everything to the point of not making any money.