Keep your motorcycle in good shape

Do you like your Singleton Bike Shop? If you took the trouble to get the motorcycle license and spend a significant amount of money to afford one and become a biker, we can assume that you are.

So you appreciate that it is faithful, reliable and saves you small worries, breakdowns? One thing is to clean it and make it shine, but your machine endures rain and humidity like you. Sometimes, while you sleep warm and dry, she sleeps outside, in the bad weather, suffers the outrage of corrosion. Like you, it ages and wears out, usually much faster than your joints.

So why are so few bikers doing preventative maintenance on their bikes themselves?

Regular maintenance of a motorcycle, along with checking its major components, is the first line of defense against damage caused by time and use.

Just cleaning the visible parts of the bike is part of it, but I wanted to separate the two aspects.

Most bikers worry about cleaning their bike, or even performing basic monitoring (tires, pads, bulbs), but too few take the step towards the "mechanical self" which will be dealt with here.

For advice on cleaning, maintenance and cosmetic repairs, see the article "Cleaning and maintaining your Motorbike Servicing".

The mechanics of motorcycle garages see motorcycles arriving for overhaul in dirty condition, even damaged, quite simply because basic checks and maintenance have been neglected.

A good part of the routine maintenance, checks and possible additions or adjustments, can however be carried out without worry and without tools by a beginner in mechanics.

Before each operation or disassembly carried out for the first time, however, you must find out about the tools and / or spare parts required.

Logically, an old and / or in poor condition motorcycle will pose more problems for a novice mechanic.

Adapt your interventions to your level in mechanics, seek help if needed and train as much as possible before you start.

Conversely, if you have the idea of ​​carrying out your maintenance yourself, choose your motorcycle according to your knowledge in the matter.

If you are worried about "making a mess" and hesitate to launch yourself without a net into a proper disassembly of your brand new bike, two safeguards to reassure you.

On the one hand, the gaze of an experienced biker or a more or less confirmed mechanic who will give you the necessary advice, at least for the first time (be careful, however, to the friend who claims to be competent, there is a nuance between "Perform a mechanical operation" and "do it correctly", without forgetting that the same operation can be done in a different way between two models of motorcycles).

On the other hand, reading the owner's manual and / or the Technical Motorcycle Review (RMT, to be ordered from ETAI editions ) which will tell you how to proceed depending on your precise motorcycle model.