Drive Train: Drive Chains, Tires, brakes, n
Suspension: Wheel alignment, Wheel Bearings, Steering Neck Bearings, Swing Arm Bearings, Shock Linkage Bushings, Suspension Tuning
Engine: Oil, Coolant, Valves, Cam Chain Tension, Exhaust Headers
Electrics: Battery, Alternator, Wiring
Most motorcycles made since 1980 are pretty reliable if properly maintained but that's a big if. To some extent the high reliability of today's motorcycles has worked to the disadvantage of many riders. Some riders have been lulled into believing that motorcycles are like modern cars and require essentially no maintenance. This is not the case (even with cars). Modern bikes require less maintenance than they did in the 60's and 70's but they still need a lot more maintence than a car. This higher reliability also means that there are a a whole bunch of motorcyclists out there who haven't a clue how to work on their bikes or what really needs to be done to ensure reliability.
Warning; an old fart's reminiscence follows. In the old days when we were riding Triumphs, Japanese two strokes, and Harley Sportsters, all motorcyclists knew how to work on their bikes. They had to because most bikes were broken a lot of the time. Those bikes were pretty simple and easy to fix, which was good, because they needed to be fixed often. The electrical systems were crap, the ignition systems were garbage, and the tires would go flat with alarming regularity. Most of them vibrated so much that you had to go around the bike and tighten all the loose fasteners once a day (sometimes each time you stopped) or else you'd leave a trail of parts on the road and eventually something important would fall off and then you'd be stranded. Things are MUCH better today.
You may have figured out that I think that all motorcyclists should be able to do at least baisic maintenance on their bikes. Here's a short tutorial on motorcycle maintenance.
Chains are the most maintenance intensive parts of the bike. Use only the best chain and sprockets you can afford. If you can't afford some of the better upper tier stuff, save your money until you can. Don't cheap-out here.
Use only the best O-ring chain and keep it clean and lubricated. A properly maintained chain will last 15k to 20k miles, or more, depending on how you ride.
I will only use a rivet type master link. I've never had a clip type master link come off but as long as rivet
on type links are available that's the only type that I'll use. I use o-ring chains and wouldn't use anything else.
Worn chains accelerate the wear rate of the sprockets and visa-versa. ALWAYS replace BOTH sprockets when replacing the chain and use STEEL sprockets on both ends. Aluminum rear sprockets are for racing and serve no useful purpose on a street bike. They cost twice as much as steel and wear faster. If you disagree with this, tough, it's your ass out there, not mine.
Fourth, ALWAYS replace BOTH sprockets when replacing the chain, Worn chains accelerate the wear rate of the sprockets and visa-versa. Last, when you do replace a chain buy the best chain and STEEL sprockets you can afford.
Keep it lubricated. Some people thinkthat since the chain pin lubricant is sealed in the chain with the o-ring they can back off on the lubrication and cleaning. This is NOT the case. If the o-rings dry out they will stop sealing the grease that they are holding and your chain becomes just so much scrap metal. For most riders the proper chain lubricant to use is as much a question of religion as it is technology. I'll just tell you what I do and you're on your own.
With every bike I've had in the last twenty years the manufacturer has recommended using either 90W gear oil or 30W nondetergent engine oil to lubricate the chain and kerosene to clean it. These OEM chains were mostly o-ring but not all. The only problem with these lubricants is that they were hard to apply and would coat your rear wheel with spooge but as near as I can tell they do the job.
with whatever the manufacturer recommends.
Third, keep it clean, dirt will kill a chain in no time.
Keep the drive chain tension adjusted properly - check it often. A misadjusted chain wears MUCH faster and is more likely to fail.
kk
Almost all new bikes come with o-ring chains. There is no reason to use anything but an o-ring chain on a street bike. The only proper place for an old fashoned non-o-ring chain is on a race bike. Conventional chains have slightly less friction than an o-ring chain - that's why raccers use them. As long as I'm talking about race bikes, another stupid thing I see people do, mostly squids, is putting smaller chains on their bikes. They do this because racers do it. Racers do it because smaller chains have lower mass so that means you have less rotational inertia with a smaller chain which produces better acceleration. This is fine for a race bike but is stupid for a street bike. Actually it's stupid for a race bike too unless you're a good enough rider to be a pro. Pro's are the only people with sufficiently refined skills to take advantage of the miniscule increase in acceleration you'll get with a smaller chain.
I'm going to digress a bit and discuss how a chain wears. Let's start with a new chain and sprockets whose dimensions are perfect. Imagine that the chain is mounted on both sprockets. The sprocket on the engine (called the countershaft sprocket) is pulling the chain off the top and feeding it onto the bottom of the rear sprocket as the rear wheel rotates. The pulling force of the engine is transmitted via the side plates of the chain through the chain's pins to the rollers which exert a force on the face of the sprocket tooth to rotate the rear wheel. Since the distance between centers of all the pins of the chain is exactly the same as the distance between centers of all the sprocket grooves, all the rollers are equally sharing the pulling force of the engine. On my CBR600 there 44 teeth on the rear sprocket and about half, or 22, will have a roller in the groove. Therefore, each roller and pin will have 1/22 or about 4.5% of the load.
As the rear sprocket rotates the next chain roller to be fed onto the bottom of the rear sprocket approaches the next groove in the sprocket and it drops straight into the groove. The roller will touch the bottom machined into the sprocket at exactly the same time it touches the wall. The chain roller does not rotate as it enters the groove because it is exactly above the center of the groove. As the engine pulls the chain around, additional rollers are added at the bottom and pulled off at the top. Since the distance between centers of all the pins of the chain is exactly the same as the distance between centers of all the sprocket grooves all the rollers will drop in and pull out without the roller spining. This also means that the engine force that pulls on the chain is uniformly distributed among all the rollers that are on the sprocket at any given time.
This perfect world will last about one revolution of the wheel. As the chain flexes from straight to curved around the sprockets and back to straight, the chain's pins rotate slightly inside the bushing which is inside the roller. Every movement of the pin relative to the bushing when the chain is under tension (i.e. the engine is pulling the chain) wears away some of the metal on the pin and bushing. How much metal is worn away depends on the amount of of lubrication on the chain pin, the magnitude of the tension on the chain and how close the distance between centers of the chain pins matches the sprocket. The greater the mismatch, the more of the pulling force is concentrated on the pin and roller just ready to be pulled off the rear sprocket as the wheel turns.
When a chain wears, 99% of the wear takes place in the pin that goes through the side plates and the the bushing that the pin rides on inside the roller. As the chain gets worn the pin's diameter is reduced and the inside diameter of the bushing gets larger.
If you don't want to put up with all this chain maintenance crap, buy a bike with a shaft drive or a belt drive. One word of caution on drive belts, they work fine and last a long time but they are susceptable to little pices of stone getting stuck in the rear drive pulley teeth. This doesn't happen to chains because the sprocket teeth are too big and the wrong shape to catch a stone but a belt's rear pulley teeth are just the right size to catch a small stone and if one does get stuck it can trash the belt in no time (like hours). If you ride a belt drive bike on gravel roads check the rear pulley for stuck stones as soon as possible after you are back on the pavement. Also, if you have one of the few japanese made belt drive bikes you will probably have a hell of a time finding a replacement belt if yours breaks on the road. Harleys should be no problem as that's all they make now plus they almost never break unless a stone gets stuck in the rear pulley.
An alternative is to buy a bike without a chain. The options are belt drive and shaft drive. Both are almost zero maintainence.
Buy good tires and keep them properly inflated. A couple years ago Dunlop (I think) went around to several rallies and checked the tire pressure an a bunch of bikes. They found that something like 60% of the tires were underinflated. These are hard-core touring people and even they weren't properly inflating their tires. Underinflated tires run hotter, wear faster, and are are more prone to blow-outs. They also will really screw-up your bike's handling. Buy a decent tire pressure guage and use it every morning before you start out for the day. Always measure the pressure when the tires are cold.
I never let my tires wear to the wear-bars. I replace them before they get that far gone. I always leave on tour with new or nearly new tires. If you're on the road and find you need a new tire, get it. Don't try to make it back home on a excessively worn tire. When you buy a tire look at the date of manufacture and don't get a tire that's too old. All tires have a number molded into their sidewall. The last three digits, mnn, are decoded as follows: m is the last digit of the year (i.e. 7=1997), and nn is the week number (i.e. 0-52).
Make sure the tire has the proper load rating for your bike. This usually isn't a problem with smaller bikes but I've seen a lot of big touring bikes with tires that were overloaded.
Buy the right size tire for your bike. A lot of people, especially guys on older sport bikes, want to buy a big fat rear tire so that they can look like the racers. This is dangerous. My '90 CBR600 came with a 130/80 rear tire and that's what it should have. The wheel is 3.5" wide and it can't take a tire tire much wider than a 130. It might take a 140/70 but that's probably the limit. If you put too wide a tire on a wheel the tire will have the wrong shape. The sidewall will be over-stressed and the contact patch may very well be smaller than it would with the proper size tire.
Don't mix radial and bias ply tires. Use the same type on both wheels. Many people say that you should use the same type (radial or bias) as came on the bike new. I'm not sure that this matters all that much but I'm not an expert. It seems to me that as long as they're the proper size you're probably ok. It's up to you. I do know that most bias tires are narrower than most radials and you can seldom find the proper size if you want to switch tire types. It's also a good idea to match the front and rear tire brand and model. Most tires were designed assuming that the tire on the opposite end of the bike is from the same model series. This is usually not imperative but the bike usually handles better when front and rear are matched the way the tire manufacturer intended.
You need to change all fluids, except engine oil, at least every two years. I do it every year. This means, brake fluid, anti-freeze, fork oil, and if you have a hydraulic clutch, the clutch brake fluid. Use the proper brake fluid. It's written on the master cylinder cover. I don't recommend mixing brands either. I like Castorol GTX/LMA. It's cheap and you can get it at any auto parts store. Don't use old brake fluid. Buy a new bottle every time you service the brake fluid. Once the seal on a bottle of brake fluid is broken it starts absorbing moisture. If you don't do this, bad things happen so just do it.
Keep an eye on the brake pads and don't let them wear too far. If they do wear too far you'll score the rotor and that's big bucks to replace. Use the proper type of pad for the bike. If the bike came with sintered and you use metalic you run the risk of damaging to rotor. Don't use racing pads on a street bike, they'll never get hot enough to work properly.
This means the battery. Check the electrolyte level often and keep it filled. Use only distilled water, NOT tap water. Tap water has minerals in it that will not do the battery any good. Some bikes have charging systems that chronicaly over charge the battery. In particular, I've found that this can happen with the big Kawasaki's fours (ZX-10, ZX-11, Concours, etc.). These bikes all use the same basic engine and charging system. They all seem to put out too much voltage and will quickly boil the battery dry. There's nothing you can do about it as the charging voltage is fixed by the sealed voltage regulator. You can try a new voltage regulator but they all seem to do it. Just check the battery often. On my old Concours you needed to do it every day.
Change the engine oil every 3000-5000 miles and use good oil. I use Mobil 1. There are people who say that synthetic oil causes clutch slipage. In my experience, if your clutch is slipping with synthetic something is wrong with the clutch. It's either misadjusted, the clutch springs are shot, the clutch plates are shot, or some combination. There is an OIL FAQ somewhere on the net and I think that it's posted to rec.moto every month or so.
On water cooled bikes flush the coolant every other year (I do it every year) and use antifreeze made for aluminum engines. The corrosion preventatives and lubricants wear out over time and need to be replaced. Use a 50-50 water/antifreeze mix, NOT pure antifreeze. Pure antifreeze has a lower boiling point and higher freezing point than a 50-50 mix. I only use distilled water. This may be excessive but I don't want any minerals in the coolant system. If I have to add coolant during a trip and I don't know the source of the water, I flush the system when I get home.
Replace the brake fluid and bleed the system (and clutch fluid if it's hydraulic) every other year (I do it every year). It absorbs water which can corrode system internals and degrades over time. Use good DOT-4 or whatever your bike requires. I like Castrol GT/LMA, it's good, cheap, and available in most auto parts stores. DO NOT USE DOT-5 unless your bike requires it and if it does use ONLY DOT-5. NEVER mix DOT-4 and DOT-5. You can mix DOT-4 and DOT-5.1 if you can find 5.1 and feel like paying a gajillion dollars for it.
Change the fork oil every year, it wears out.
Change the fuel filters every year. If your bike doesn't have a fuel filter buy an aftermarket filter and then change it every year.
Lubricate everything that needs it, control cables, anything that swings or pivots like the steering neck and swing-arm bearings, shock linkage bushings.
Regularly check and lube the steering neck bearings. If the bearings are bad you can get severe front end wobble and/or excessive front tire wear. To check the bearings, jack up the front end of the bike so that the front end is free to turn. Stand in front of the bike and face the front end. Grab the lower end of the fork sliders and pull then push them fore and aft. If there is ANY movement, at best the steering neck nut needs to be tightened and at worst you will need new bearings. Next rotate the front end back and forth and feel for any notchiness or anything less that complete smoothness. If it doesn't rotate smoothly, you need new bearings. Next, position the front wheel just to the right of straight ahead and let go; the front end should flop over to the right. Repeat this to the left. If it doesn't move freely the it's probably adjusted too tight. Even if everything is perfect, you should still clean and re-grease the bearing every couple of years.
Regularly check the wheel bearings. To do this, grab the wheel or tire from the side at the top and bottom and try to rotate the tire sideways. If you feel any play your wheel bearings are shot and need to be replaced.
