Motobike maintenance

I was wondering how many of you service your bikes yourself or take them to
a mechanic to do ?

Is it easy servicing a bike ?

I've serviced some cars over the years, with things like spark plugs, oil,
oil filter, fuel filter, pollen filters air filters etc and was just curious
how easy a bike was having neve touched a bike before. Shame on me.

Hey its either ask stupid questions in here or watch WAGS botique with ball
and chain.

 

Thanks for that. will have a search for for salad dodgers maintenance tales
tommorow evening as its past my bedtime, I need 8 hours or I don't look
pretty in the morning, **** it who am I fooling I feel so un-pretty now.

....comfort eats

 

*Waves*

I do mine.

Piece of piss, except when it's not.

What bike have you got?

Or go downstairs to see what one of the dogs is kicking off at to find he's
just got the arse at one of the others, who's kipping in the first one's
bed. That reads terribly but **** it. Bastard dog.

 

I've not serviced my GSX at all, myself. I always get a man in. The
last time I really fettled with a bike was my Divvy. But real fettling
(as in dismantling an engine, etc) was well over 10 years ago for me.

 

Long answer alert:

In theory, servicing a bike is easier than a car because virtually
everything is within easy reach. A lot of components are exposed, and
there are fewer of them.

Take changing brake pads, as an example. On some bikes you don't even
have to remove the wheel: you can hoick the pads out with the caliper in
situ.

Now the problems....

A lot of modern bikes, like cars, have complex electronics and FI
systems. Thse are not generally home serviceable, unless you have the
right kit. OTOH, they don't need looking at very foten.

Unless you buy a brand new bike, you can pretty certain that at some
stage some twonk has had a go at servicing it himself - "because it's
easy, right? An' I've serviced motors...." - and buggered something up.
At the very least this will be some vital fastener with a mullered head,
or a stripped thread, or just something left off entirely because he
dropped it and couldn't be arsed to hunt for it.

There's also the issue of corrosion. On a car, most of the vital bits
are hidden under a bonnet and protected from all the nasty road crap and
salt. On a bike, they aren't. Fairings provide some protection, but not
much. I've known the simplest task turn into a nightmare because some
bloody screw or bolt has welded itself into an immobile lump of
corrosion.

The basics, as you list above, are pretty straightforward, although
there are some bikes (Honda vee-fours come to mind) where even getting
at the spark plugs is a nightmare.

With advanced servicing (valve clearances etc) things can start to get
very complex very quickly, because a lot of bikes will need the cams
removing to adjust the clearances, so the possibilities for fucking it
up are endless.

Get a decent manual and tackle the basics, by all means. If you want to
do advanced stuff, nothing is better than having SWK standing by your
shoulder.

 

I do everything myself, apart from the bits on a new bike that are
needed to make a warranty claim easier. Even then I re-service it
myself when it comes back from the dealer, as there's *always*
something they either don't do, or do badly.

It depends entirely on the bike. Changing the plugs on some is a 2
minute job that a monkey could do, but a 2 hour job requiring the
removal of shed-loads of bits on others.

Likewise fuel filters - a relatively simple job on carb bikes, but more
complex on FI bikes as the filter's usually inside the petrol tank.

The big difference between cars & bikes though is valve clearances.
These take care of themselves on any car made in the last few decades,
but need manually adjusting on a bike. This can mean removing lots of
parts from the top of the engine, including the camshafts, leaving the
possibility of bent valves & fucked pistons when you put things back
together. It can also mean the bike being off the road for a couple of
days as you hunt down the specific size & type of shims you need to
correct the clearances.

Polishing your eyeballs with an angle grinder[1] would be preferable to
watching that shite.

[1] MSOTHS [2]
[2] Makes Sign Of The Holy Sparks.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

[...]

Now the problems....

A lot of modern bikes, like cars, have complex electronics and FI
systems. Thse are not generally home serviceable, unless you have the
right kit. OTOH, they don't need looking at very foten.[/QUOTE]

TBH, the only routine servicing they usually need is throttle
balancing and fuel filter replacement. There are a few things that
*might* need doing: BMW K100s have a 'throttle closed' switch whose
adjustment is supposed to be checked from time to time but it's fiddly
rather than difficult. My Guzzi has an idle mixture screw on the ECU
but I haven't touched that in years.

I guess that this might get harder if catalysts become more common or
emission regulations get tightened, though.

The only FI problems I've had to date were when my K100's fuel filter
split and my Guzzi engine temperature sensor developed a fault and had
to be replaced. That was a bastard to find: when I put a meter on it,
it read correctly. I had an idea it was that sensor and eventually I
hit upon the solution of just unplugging it; I figured that the ECU
might simply select a default 'get it started' value. It did, because
the bike started normally. I proved it by shoving a resistor of a
value appropriate to a 'cold engine' reading into the connector; it
behaved fine until it warmed up fully. I was dead chuffed. Not so at
the price of a new sensor, though. For a simple thermistor I paid
nearly fifty quid. Ouch.

My Tuono isn't exactly easy either, especially as there are four of
the little buggers.

 

I think you should setup a live webcam feed so we can all have a good
laugh in the comfort of our own homes.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Eight hours? You lucky, lucky, lucky bastard. I'd kill for eight hours.

 

You buying?