Do you maintain your own bike? Back in the days I'd never have considered taking my motorcycle into a garage or dealers and would think nothing of changing a bearing in the gearbox of my Norton Commando. In fact I could strip a Commando gearbox and change the lay shaft bearing at the side of the road within an hour, and I had to, it went about every 1500 miles.
I ask as I'm just about to set off to a garage in Alcester to have the chain and sprockets replaced on the Sprint and, in truth, I've not even considered the possibility of doing it myself.
I guess I'm just an oil and filter man these days.
Do you get your hands oily?
Re:Do you get your hands oily?
I do as much maintenance as I can - when I can.
The last 4 bikes I've owned I bought new , so dealer servicing was required to validate the warranty. Once they are out of warranty I do most things myself within reason , I don't do valve buckets and shims for example and modern fuel injection systems and ECUs scare the shit out of me, but brake pads , oil / filter changes are straight forward and can save you a fortune and it's very satifying to know you've done it yourself..
I maintain my Suzuki DRZ 400 offroader myself - it's so much easier on a single and a lot less hassle when there is no bodywork/fairings to remove. I even change the tyres on that myself , wheel balancing is not an issue with an offroader !!!!
The last 4 bikes I've owned I bought new , so dealer servicing was required to validate the warranty. Once they are out of warranty I do most things myself within reason , I don't do valve buckets and shims for example and modern fuel injection systems and ECUs scare the shit out of me, but brake pads , oil / filter changes are straight forward and can save you a fortune and it's very satifying to know you've done it yourself..
I maintain my Suzuki DRZ 400 offroader myself - it's so much easier on a single and a lot less hassle when there is no bodywork/fairings to remove. I even change the tyres on that myself , wheel balancing is not an issue with an offroader !!!!
It matters not what you have or where you take it ........... Every ride is an adventure and every motorbike was built for adventure.
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Alun
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Re:Do you get your hands oily?
Yes Jack, off road balance is down to something far more fundamental than balancing the wheels as I found out once again last year when I went on an off road trip to Spain with ( warning – big name dropping to follow) Leon Haslam, Cal Crutchlow, Mick Extance and a few others. Triple fracture of the right hand was the result of not getting it right.
I'll tell you, those boys didn't need any front wheel balancing, they only touched down when we parked up outside a bar at the end of the day. Amazing riders.
I'll tell you, those boys didn't need any front wheel balancing, they only touched down when we parked up outside a bar at the end of the day. Amazing riders.
Re:Do you get your hands oily?
Namedropper !!!
Cool company you keep B)
Were any of them good at first aid ??
Cool company you keep B)
Were any of them good at first aid ??
It matters not what you have or where you take it ........... Every ride is an adventure and every motorbike was built for adventure.
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Alun
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Re:Do you get your hands oily?
They were good company.
Haslam and Crutchlow had two spectacular wipe outs. I was right behind (well, about 100 yards behind) Haslam when he missed a tight right hander on a mountain trail ending up about 30ft down a dry river bed with his bike stuck in a tree. How he survived that without even a bruise I don't know, but he was very lucky. Crutchlow performed a similar stunt and it took 5 of us linking arms to get his bike back up to the trail - it was that steep.
Here's a shot of Leon and Mick Extance trying to get Leon's bike back on the trail – you can see the fall line and he took it at speed.
Haslam and Crutchlow had two spectacular wipe outs. I was right behind (well, about 100 yards behind) Haslam when he missed a tight right hander on a mountain trail ending up about 30ft down a dry river bed with his bike stuck in a tree. How he survived that without even a bruise I don't know, but he was very lucky. Crutchlow performed a similar stunt and it took 5 of us linking arms to get his bike back up to the trail - it was that steep.
Here's a shot of Leon and Mick Extance trying to get Leon's bike back on the trail – you can see the fall line and he took it at speed.
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Alun
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Re:Do you get your hands oily?
And here's another - no we didn't help them. After a few failed attempts to get back on the trail Mick decided to ride down the dry river bed until he hit the road about 200m below. The guy in the foreground is Cal Crutchlow.
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Alun
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Re:Do you get your hands oily?
And not to be outdone this local Spanish guy showed us how to do it in a car
The car had come over the edge and the guy up top was still sitting upside down in vehicle when we rode up. He was quite calm about the whole thing.
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