How much time do you spend on maintenance of your bike?

[houndog]

GMP, you won't hear me scoff at 36:1!

As a matter fact I ran the 300 at 20:1 on Dominator for about 1.5K miles. Went to 28:1 then re-jetted and went to 32:1. There is absolutely no reason to go 40 or 50 to one unless you just enjoy doing bottom and top ends is the way I look at it. The pre-mix also helps keep the crank bearings alive too and I think many overlook that tidbit. I've never understood why fellows run so little oil when numerous studies and tests have shown over and over that properly jetted more oil always produces more power and in my opinion much longer engine (not just top end) life. That argument has been settled for years. And yet I still hear guys "brag" they run 100 or 50 to one. Then I ask how many times they have been through the motor. The answer is never "none" at 50 to 100 to one, if the bike is a year old or more.......next time you're around a bunch of guys take a survey of ratios and rebuilds......I mean needed not preventative rebuilds. Ask what the ratio was if/when they had a catastrophic failure of the top end. Do this long enough and you'll see a trend develop.

As a matter of fact last time at the forest a fellow asked how many hours on my 300 and if was holding up well. I told him I was unsure of the hours but I had about 4.8k miles and it had needed nothing yet. He seemed surprised. I simply said "oil at between 20 and 32 to one, never less".



Jakobi, you are correct....clean does not always equal "well maintained". I've changed the oil in the 450 8 times in 1.8k miles....filter every time too.
Ed

 

[GMP]

+1, and a little spooge is a good thing, shows oil made the whole trip.

 

[Front Royalty]

Ive realized, as most of you probably already know, that buying a brand new bike does not mean that one is done spending money by a long shot. It seems regardless of what you buy, there will be the initial "setup" cost to bring things to your liking, whether it be soft seat, tall seat, handguards, footpegs, suspension work, etc. There will always be something that needs to be done, regardless of new bike or used bike. Then theres upkeep... Ive learned that a few extra dollars here and there will cut down on maintenance time considerably. I noticed that the cheaper drive chains will need adjustment after every ride, and sometimes DURING a 3 hr ride. That becomes VERY tedious. I always thought this was "normal". Apparently, as I have learned from JohnRB's DID chain that I acquired, quality chains dont need adjustment for 2-3 and sometimes more RIDES. Not hours. Seems "you get what you pay for" also applies to motorcycle parts! Whod've thought? Im doing some experimenting with some $15 neoprene seal savers also. I cant imagine they were a waste of money. Time will tell. A little loctite goes a long way as well. Bolts were rattling out of my bike left and right. If Id have taken the time to loctite some of the more critical hardware upon initial purchase of my '12, I probably wouldnt have such a bad taste in my mouth about that bike. Above all the '12 was just too much power. Time to start over fresh with my new to me 07 EC200, which will hopefully be in the stable Monday. But this time, I have parts waiting on a bike, and not a bike waiting on parts

 

[Simmo737]

G'day mr royal

IMHO seal savers can be bad in just the condition they are advertised, in mud the can trap dirt and wear on your sliders, even worse if you have coated sliders like some ggs they cause quite some damage, I personally wouldnt use them, though some debate might prove me wrong.

 

[bowhunter007]

Per thread title: 2 hours...on someone else's bike. Poor kid...He's so excited, that I wouldn't let him race prep his own bike. I was afraid in his debut race, he'd try to run without trans fluid, or similar screwup. At least he'll leave the starting grid in one piece

 

[GMP]

+1, bad idea. Traps grit and "wet sands" your fork tubes. For additional fork seal protection, cut a piece of 1/8" nylon starter cord so it wraps once completely around the tube. Pack with seal grease and force into the underside of the wiper before pressing it back into the upper. This will trap anything that may get past the wiper.

The Seal Doctor tool is good for cleaning seals and wipers. Much better investment than Seal Savers.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Front Royalty]

G'day mr royal

IMHO seal savers can be bad in just the condition they are advertised, in mud the can trap dirt and wear on your sliders, even worse if you have coated sliders like some ggs they cause quite some damage, I personally wouldnt use them, though some debate might prove me wrong.

Interesting! Never heard that before. Maybe theyre not such a good idea after all!

 

[Jiikoo811]

After every ride...wash up bike, fill gas tank,lube chains,check it around,check air filter dirtyness,check coolant level.
After each 10h... change oils to tranny,check bolts and nuts are them tight and so.

Sent from Razr MAXX

 

[dazza]

For me I spend on average 1.5 hours to 5 hours ride time , what I've noticed is if you don't do it ,it'll accumulate so if you use it for 10 hours without any love(maintainance) then you will spend 4 hours on it as there will be other things that's a miss!

Today I found my pipe had a crack in it so,I welded it up
Also a bracket broke near the coil so that needed sorting and last week I did the oil and filled up the wheel bearings

It's just a revolving door really .....

The bonus is you can see if anything serious is occurring then you can catch it first.

P.s cleaning the bike is not maintainance , its part of using it and then paying it some respect for looking after you

Regards Dazza

 

[dazza]

+1, and a little spooge is a good thing, shows oil made the whole trip.

Agreed but the quality of oil today just doesn't need to be so rich, when its fully synthetic it can be run at 50 to one and my bikes have never blown up ,

My bikes are well jetted so i get good fuel economy and the bikes not booged down so causing it to run a bit gluggy ,non responsive .

When I bike sings it smells sweet .......

I am pretty hard on my bikes and they never let me down

Regards Dazza

 

[GMP]

50:1 is emissions related spec, nothing more. Just like your tied up PV drain line. Its been proven with modern oils, in a Maxima study, and on the dyno, more oil is better as long as jetting is corrected acccordingly. The silencer has a great deal to do with the perceived spooge.

 

[Rick]

50:1 is emissions related spec, nothing more. Just like your tied up PV drain line. Its been proven with modern oils, in a Maxima study, and on the dyno, more oil is better as long as jetting is corrected acccordingly. The silencer has a great deal to do with the perceived spooge.[/QUOTE]

My FMF TCII S/A catches more oil than a grease trap at Mc Donalds No joke! The Leo Vince S/A on my 125 is spoooge free, smaller, lighter and is quieter than the TCII. I am jetting pretty fat on my 125 @ 32/1.

 

[jgas]

My answer is, not enough, and more than I want. Since I quit racing, I spend far less time working on the bike and more time (comparative to wrenching) riding. I love riding the most technical terrain, but am learning to love dual sport/adventure riding on my trusty GG 250 XC. Most people would assume that it's a terrible bike for dual sport or on the pavement, but not so.

I just rode a dual sport ride last weekend that was approx. 10% singletrack, 30% dirt roads, 60% very rough 2 track ATV trails and old log roads. My bike got good fuel mileage, vibrated far less than my old 02 KTM 520 XC, and had good enough gear spacing to do it all.

DS riding puts a lot of miles on a bike but not terribly hard miles. Finding a happy medium with jetting and oil ratio is a bit harder than if you are just racing and either on or off the gas. I probably need to go from my current 40:1 to 32:1, but have been afraid of fouling plugs and gummed up PVs and silencers. What I'm doing now is often lots of idling, lots of steady throttle pavement-dirt road riding one weekend, then next ride some of the nastiest singletrack there is, then the next ride working on trail with even more idling, stop and start, etc. I probably do the weirdest and most unpredictable type of riding of anyone on this site.

If I go to 32:1, where would be a good starting point for jetting? Don't worry, if I toast a top end I won't sue anyone, or even complain. The jetting is stock, whatever that is. Needle clip in the bottom groove

My bike is now a 275cc, Eric Gorr ported factory GG cylinder ported for low-midrange. Stock reeds, large PV cover, Fatty pipe, FMF spark arrested silencer. I never foul plugs, but there is a little spooge from the silencer junction, and it loads up on bottom end with idling around or slow riding, and feels/sounds like it often needs a revving to clean it out. When it loads up, it smokes like crazy for a few seconds before cleaning out. With my current setup, the bike just won't rev extremely high, which is fine by me, so I am not too worried about a lean seizure/failure at high rpms. I've done plug readings, and as expected, with harder-high rev riding the plug is grey/brown with a little oil residue, looks about right to me. With the DS riding or trail work, low revs and idling, the plug is usually black and oily, but never fouls, although it often seems to be about to.

 

[Coop]

My approach is very similar to what Rick wrote on the first page. A clean bike is a happy bike. Plus being an ex-motorcycle mechanic my bikes are as close to mechanically perfect as I can make them. Decals and plastics might be scratched but that's as far as I allow my bikes to go

 

[nknudsen]

My approach is very similar to what Rick wrote on the first page. A clean bike is a happy bike. Plus being an ex-motorcycle mechanic my bikes are as close to mechanically perfect as I can make them. Decals and plastics might be scratched but that's as far as I allow my bikes to go

I 2nd that! My bike gets cleaned after a ride almost as well as my 72' Olds.

 

[sevenfourate]

I easily spend as much time messing around in the garage as i do riding. Probably more like 4:1 to be honest whether that be cleaning, servicing, 'fettling' or just checking it over for the next ride and stripping and re-greasing some unseen part !

I only ride weekends, and i'll be in the garage quite a few nights a week.
Its often not the fact the bike really needs something doing to it - its just something i enjoy, gets me out the house and in the fresh air (With the doors wide open) and its something i enjoy.

Im a Virgo starsign; which means im a perfectionist; and im also an Engineer, which means i love finding 'problems' and fixing them. Also helps in the head if when you ride everything is 110% with your machine.

Garage-time is second only to riding time

 

[sevenfourate]

This thread should really have pics of garage lay-outs......

I KNOW alot of you Americans have some impressive set-ups

 

[Coby_p]

If sitting on the bike pretending to ride counts then id say about 15:1 hours pretending:wrenching and 6:1 hours wrenching:riding