Old-ish thread but new to me.
Yesterday I had the wonderful experience of spending almost 6 hours replacing the fuel filter on a friend's 2017 SM6 after the trike 'played up' under him a few days earlier. He was cruising at hi-way speed when the engine began to lose power intermittently. He pulled over, it was idling ok and his friend stopped to see what was wrong. He switched it off to explain to him what had happened. Restarted ok and rode about 15 min home. He contacted me and I told him it was probably a blocked fuel filter, as the fuel we get in my neck of the woods is known to block fuel filters - some more than others. He wanted to ride the trike on Sunday but didn't want to risk trouble, so I agreed to replace the filter; trouble was the nearest one was 420 km (300 miles) away. Not to worry, as I had previously fitted a larger filter to my old GS. As SPYD3R noted above
it's located under the top cowl, just to the right side of the gas filler cap but 6 inches forward of it. All the plastic from the coolant access cover, up to and including the seats must come off to get to 'the little bugger.'
Unfortunately, the Ryco Z200 that I fitted to my GS is tooo big to fit there, so off I go in search of a smaller diameter filter with 8mm barb fittings. 2hrs later and no luck, so I got a length of high-pressure fuel hose and relocated the Z200 onto top of the tank on the left side of the fuel filler. I also removed the fuel pump assembly to check the suction screen as it is easy to remove with all the plastic still off. The screen was clean and appeared to be a relatively coarse 'tea bag' type. With the filter connected and the pump back in, I started the engine and ran it for a min or 2 to check for leaks - all good. Back on with all the plastic and several different sizes of screws, all of which have different size torx or allen heads - how frustrating.
Pic of a cut open, blocked filter to follow. Trike has done 48,000km. Why oh why wasn't it located in an easily access place??? It is a service item after all!!!