This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

How about a maintenance tip section

B

badger1

Joined Oct 2010
246 Posts | 0+
I reckon this would be a good idea to have a tip section on things that can save time and money on working on your bikes, or just things that make life easier or do a job better.

Anyway i am gonna start this with this one:-

Once you have removed the front wheel and are about to reinstall it follow this routine to prevent stiction

Wheel in and spindle through as far as it will go, then torque up the two bolts on the fork lowers on the clutch side, then torque the spindle nut to the correct torque, now slacken the two bolts you just torqued then bounce the forks up and down vigorously a few times to allow things to centre.

Finally torque all four pinch bolts to the correct torque setting, job done.

This may seem trivial but is actually pretty important.

So that is my tip for the day.

Would it be good to have a section on tips like this then?
 
Last edited:
kinda looks like that is a no then, c'mon you motley crew get out of hibernation mode and tell us yer tips:dowhat
 
OK, another one then.

When fitting new bearings to wheels or whatever, pop the new bearings in the freezer for 30 mins and heat the hub or bearing housing with a hot air gun or similar till it is nice and toasty, pop some fairy liquid on the hub surface and get the bearing out of freezer, do this all quickly to keep temperatures hot/cold.

Now drift the bearing in using the old bearing, it should slide in a treat.
 
badger said:
OK, another one then.

When fitting new bearings to wheels or whatever, pop the new bearings in the freezer for 30 mins and heat the hub or bearing housing with a hot air gun or similar till it is nice and toasty, pop some fairy liquid on the hub surface and get the bearing out of freezer, do this all quickly to keep temperatures hot/cold.

Now drift the bearing in using the old bearing, it should slide in a treat.
Click to expand...

To add to that with fitting bearings with seals to soft aluminium areas like crankcases or similar where you might worry about a heat gun or have other seals in close proximity to the bearing then use boiling water. It's hot enough to expand the ally a touch but won't damage anything else.
 
No matter how simple or hard a job is allow at least double the time that you think you need (basic rule of mechanics), it will only get quicker when you repeat the task several times.

If it can go wrong it will, plan for it.

If a bolt won't come undone, don't force it as 9/10 times it will round off/snap.
Make sure you have the decent Allen Sockets (not just keys), 'Plusgas' for soaking stubborn bolts (do this the night before), Impact driver for awkward bastard bolts and not forgetting Copperslip to grease every bolt when you reinstall.

Use a Torque wrench to tighten bolts or at some point you WILL overtighten
(if you only have a crap, cheap socket set don't even attempt the job)

and before you touch the bike read up on the job in a decent manual.

Learn from your mistakes and hope they are not too expensive!
 
Its winter so its a good time to strip and clean your bike. Take a tip from me cos I learned the hard way. Take the oil tank off and give it a good clean. This will a) show you what state its in and b) allow you to get rid of/treat any corrossion. These tanks WILL rust through (unless its a stainless one) and WILL dump oil over your rear tyre like the Exxon Valdize.
 
Brake and clutch bleeding. Use a syringe (Ebay/chemist) to push the fluid into the bleed nipple. Use a smaller stringe to suck the old fluid out of the resv. Easy to do and clean. Noo problems with air bubbles.
 
×

Similar threads

N
Hi everyone!
Replies
2
Views
729
Nic77
N
A
Front end alignment after lowside
Replies
2
Views
1K
amilos
A
R
Exhaust Flapper & Actuator Motor Removal
Replies
0
Views
3K
RiderJC
R
T
Front wheel alignment
Replies
4
Views
3K
Cruddles
Cruddles
P
Four went mad in Barcelona.
Replies
4
Views
1K
Aldo
Aldo

New Posts