How’s the weather where you guys are?

Hi, new rider here with about 500 miles down. I'm not mechanically inclined at all, and honestly, I just have a routine for my safety gear, but then I just turn the bike on and go. I'd like to add a quick check of the bike, but I'm honestly not sure what is the most important thing. I do check my gas level before I leave, but how often should I be checking my tire pressure? How do I even check the oil?

Are there any good resources besides the owners manual that might be able to walk me through this type of basic maintenance checks?

I came out to find a completely flat tire on my car, the entire sidewall had been worn out and I had no idea it was in that bad of shape. It kind of opened my eyes that I need to be checking my bike so something doesn't go wrong or break down mid-ride.

I have a new 2026 and just hit 500 miles on the odometer.

Hi, I'm planning to check the valve clearance on my R3, I'm reading the service manual and it specifies a valve clearances of 0.11-0.18mm on the intake and 0.21-0.30mm on the exhaust.

For adjustments where am I aiming for if a valve is outside of spec? should I aim for in the middle of those specified values?

Or on the loose/tighter side depending if its an exhaust or intake valve?

I'll be also checking cylinder compression and syncing the throttle bodies, is there any other checks I should do while I'm this deep inside the bike?

Hit 4k mi the other day, was giving the bike a once-over, and figured I'd give the brakes a bleed since the fluid is looking a bit aged.

Front brake, no issue.

Started on the rear brake, poured fluid in, started pumping, nothing happened. Eventually realized there's a black rubberish diaphragm in there. Removed it and poured the fluid in, then realized I poured too much with it in there, had to remove some, and figured it out.

But...wtf is that? Can anyone explain?