New rider- maintenance? | GTAMotorcycle.com

New rider- maintenance?

DanteGuelph

DanteGuelph

Well-known member
As a new rider, what maintenance should I be doing regularly to keep my new bike running at its best? What's the best way to learn maintenance skills? Thanks


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Dmtaylor said:
As a new rider, what maintenance should I be doing regularly to keep my new bike running at its best? What's the best way to learn maintenance skills? Thanks


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Click to expand...

Refer to the book for
Maintenance. Grab yourself the tools for your bike. And watch youtube videos and join a forum.
 
If you really want to - Humber College has a maintainance course. Actually there's 2 different courses. A beginner and an advaced. There's a couple of advantages to the course. 1. Its tax deductible as a college course. 2. they have a few models - cruisers, sport, torung bikes you can fiddle with. Actually -you're told to take them apart.3. I guess it's fun if you have no mechanical insight at all.
But Jimsun is right - get a shop manual like Clymers, watch youtube and get some tools and off you go.
 
Jimsun said:
Refer to the book for
Maintenance. Grab yourself the tools for your bike. And watch youtube videos and join a forum.
Click to expand...

+1

If you ask and are lucky a forum member that lives close to you may be willing to show you how to do simple things as well.
 
Find the owners manual for your bike to get a list of maintenance schedules and tasks, then you can use YouTube and/or a Clymer repair manual to show you how to do it.
 
Once you've struggled the first time doing something, it only gets much much easier. Tackle smaller jobs and you'll be comfortable with how to take things apart on your bike and that'll make the larger jobs much easier.

You will save TONS of money, not having to bring your bike in to a garage for every little problem or service. and you'll be a lot smarter and mechanically inclined afterwards too.

learn to change oil obviously, then learn how to access your spark plugs and change those. Airbox and air filter.
How to adjust swing arm and chain tightness.
How to remove fairings.
How to remove tires.
How to check engine codes

It can all be done with a manual, lots of free time and some basic tools. and youtube/forums help too.
 
Dmtaylor said:
As a new rider, what maintenance should I be doing regularly to keep my new bike running at its best? What's the best way to learn maintenance skills? Thanks
Click to expand...

Very basic things you can do with a limited set of tools....or even the POS tools that come with most bikes:

-lube chain
-adjust chain
-oil changes
-air filter
-charge/replace battery

slightly more complex but not hard would be:

-coolant changes
-brake pad changes
-brake fluid flush
-spark plug changes

after you are comfortable with those then:

-valve clearances
-valve adjustments
-carb/TB sync
-tire changes
-brake rotor changes
-fork oil
-chain and sprocket changes (chain may require special tools)

carb tuning/custom mapping FI, running down electrical gremlins and anything to do with splitting engine cases leave until you are much more comfortable with wrenching.
 
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