The most significant aspects of our lives require upkeep. A kitchen won’t stay clean on its own, a house needs regular upkeep to stay inhabitable, and a car needs regular maintenance, including oil and tire replacements, among other things. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you’ll need to carry out some regular duties to keep your motorcycle in peak condition when it comes to the vehicle you love so much.
We’ll go over eight of the most significant home-based motorbike maintenance duties below. That’s correct, with a little know-how, you can complete every task we’ll cover in this article. But it’s never a terrible idea to leave it in the hands of a pro, and newbies in particular shouldn’t be afraid to take their bike to the shop for some minor maintenance.
Read on if you want to learn how to perform some simple motorbike maintenance yourself. We’ll go over every essential for making sure your motorcycle rides and looks fantastic.
Keeping Your Motorcycle Clean
One of the most crucial motorcycle maintenance procedures is routine cleaning, and fortunately, it’s also a fairly easy DIY project. All you need is a hose, a motorcycle cleaner, and some automotive cleaning products (such soft sponges and bristle brushes).
- The fundamental procedures for cleaning a motorcycle are as follows:
- Prepare your workspace and plug the exhaust on your motorcycle.
- To remove caked-on dirt, give the bike a brief rinse with a spray bottle or a hose on a low setting.Working from top to bottom and being careful not to rub too hard, lather the motorcycle with your automotive soap or motorcycle cleaning spray. To clean surfaces like the chain and the wheels, use a soft bristle brush.
- To avoid stains and streaks, immediately rinse off the lather.
- With a microfiber towel and some compressed air for the nooks and crannies, carefully dry your bike.
- To keep your motorcycle looking beautiful and to keep dirt off of it, wax the body of the vehicle.
- Keep in mind that you should only clean your bike while the engine is cold and that you shouldn’t use pressure washers or hoses with high pressure. Check out our guide to washing a motorcycle for a detailed how-to on giving your motorcycle a thorough cleaning, including instructions on how to set up your cleaning area.
Taking Care of Your Battery
When a motorcycle battery is kept clean and completely charged, it will last the longest and be the most dependable. The motorbike battery should be visually inspected on a regular basis for corrosion or loose connections, and the battery case and terminals should be cleaned with a water and baking soda solution. Apply a small amount of petroleum jelly on the terminals after they have been cleaned to help protect them.
Let’s now discuss charging. A trickle charger is a game-changer for protecting battery life if you don’t ride your bike every day. By providing a low, constant trickle of electricity to the battery when it’s not in use, these useful gadgets make it simple to maintain a good charge in your battery. Trickle chargers are a crucial component of how to store a motorcycle for the winter because they’re affordable, will help your battery last longer, and are simple to use.
Finally, if you see that your battery is having trouble maintaining a charge, you should replace it. Spending a few dollars to repair your battery now is far preferable to having it break down suddenly when you’re out of town.
Replace Your Oil
Motorcycles use engine oil in a similar way as passenger cars to lubricate and cool the moving parts of their engines. Furthermore, this oil needs to be changed on a regular basis because it gets dirty much like in passenger cars. Since the majority of current motorcycles have a “wet clutch” that is lubricated with oil, it is actually of much greater importance in motorcycles.
Although you might need to change your oil more frequently if you ride your motorcycle particularly hard, some riders advise changing it once a year or every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. Fortunately, changing the oil in a motorcycle is easier than changing the oil in most cars because there is typically much less in the way. It isn’t as difficult as you may think.
The first step in changing the oil in a motorcycle is to remove the drain plug and pour the old oil into a pan. The oil filter must then be taken out and replaced, the drain stopper must be put back in, and new oil must be poured in. Use the motorcycle engine oil grade that your bike’s manufacturer recommends, and watch out for overfilling.
Taking Care of Your Tires
Motorcycle tires endure a lot, so it’s important to inspect them frequently to make sure they’re in good shape. Always check your tire pressure before starting a ride to ensure that it is at the psi recommended by the tire manufacturer or the owner’s manual for your motorcycle. Check the bike’s tires for pressure while they are still cold since else the heat may be momentarily raising the pressure.
Additionally, you should look for indicators of excessive tire wear. The “penny test” is a quick but efficient method for achieving this. Just press a penny Lincoln’s head down into a number of the tread’s grooves. Your tires need to be replaced right away if you frequently can only view Abraham Lincoln’s top of the head.
DOT-mandated wear indicators, which are tiny rubber strips that run horizontally across the tread and become apparent when the tire’s tread is worn out, are also a feature of newer motorcycle tires. These strips on your tire are another sign that your tread is nearly worn out and needs to be replaced right away.
Conclusion
The only way to keep your motorcycle dependable and risk-free to ride is to perform regular maintenance. Do not be hesitant to visit a reputable mechanic if you require assistance. But learning the craft of DIY is also quite rewarding in the long run (not to mention more economical).
