This is like Appendicitis... Should you just remove your appendix even though you feel just fine? If I open this thing, i'll likely mess things up real bad and render my bike not usable. The. I'll need to get a tow truck, and find a mechanic, and by that time, the bike investment will likely be close to double... seems ignorance is bliss and I'm going with that... for now. I'm keeping my appendix.
To each their own, but the appendix idea doesn't quite work. It's a known issue on these bikes, I've had it fail on me when I was out on a long ride, it cost me over $1000 to get it home and parts to fix it (and that was like a decade ago).
I don't like not being able to trust a machine. Takes all the fun out of a journey if I'm wondering if it's going to start after I get gas. A saying in the 4x4 community is that it's more important to be able to make it home than to make it to the top of the mountain.
It's not a hard thing to do before it goes out. I did it on my second bike in a hotel parking lot at night. Just pull it out, make sure everything is how it should be when you put the new one in, and be damn careful you don't drop that spacer down the giant hole in the bottom that goes to the oil pan.
Compare that to when it went out on my first bike: Road fine first hour. Second hour there was a super charger noise that wasn't ever there before. Third hour I'm at a gas station and my bike won't start. Fourth hour I'm waiting on my brother, who was riding too, to buy me a new battery as the rest of the party left and contiuned on the trip. Fifth hour I'm trying to make it home. Sixth hour I'm sitting at the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. 7th hour still waiting. 8th, yep. 13th I'm home with him overcharging me to skim off the top (I know this by the reactions of the other guy in the truck)
Two weeks later get in the parts I need. Have to buy a new stator, not just the rotor, and bearings. Pulling that bearing was not easy, nor was putting a new one back in. O'reillys thankfully lets you 'borrow' tools. Had to pull the oil pan to clean out the magnets. New gasket for that. Had to remove the headers to get to the oil pan. Yadda yadda.
In the end I lost a month of good riding and replaced it with having to work on it on the weekends.
I replaced it on my 2nd one within a few weeks. Wasn't like there was warning signs. Did it go out cause it had 50k miles on it? Or was the glue just getting old? Who knows, it went out though. Does for a lot of guys. Lot of guys it doesn't.
Don't feel you have to, it's your bike. But for me I have to trust a machine, and after experiencing it first hand, it caused me to not trust the old designs.
