Motorbike Maintenance

If your motorcycle won't move, neither will you. These days, if you look after your motorbike it should last for tens of thousands of miles. Basic motorcycle maintenance is fairly straight forward so I would recommend rolling your sleeves up and having a go.

How do I learn Motorcycle Maintenance?

I'd say there are 3 different methods of learning motorcycle maintenance.

Learn from books, service manuals and the internet.
Enroll on a short course for motorbike mechanics and maintenance.
Ask a local garage or experienced friend / relative to teach you.

Depending on the time and resources available to you before you leave for your motorbike adventure you can do one or a combination of all of the above.

The User Guide that comes with your motorbike will explain basic checks and maintenance. In addition to this I would recommend you buy a Haynes Service and Repair Manual. With these resources and the internet you could probably muddle through. However, I don't think that there is any substitute for a "know-how, show-how" approach to motorbike servicing and repair. I've got a degree in Mechanical Engineering and even with the books and availability of internet courses I did not feel confident I would learn enough to keep my bike going for a year overseas.

That left the last 2 options. If you have plenty of time before you leave then there are plenty of evening/part-time mechanics and maintenance courses available at local colleges. A good place to start looking is Hot Courses. I didn't have enough time available for these courses so I went for option 3.

The steps to finding a garage to teach you motorcycle maintenance are simple. It took me 1 hour research on the internet and then 1.5 days on the road to find what I needed. Here's how:

Use www.google.com or www.yell.com to find a list of motorbike garages in your area (postcode).
Visit each garage in turn. Explain you're going on a motorbike adventure and ask if they would like some free labour (from you) in return for them showing you the basics of motorcycle maintenance. They'll either "say yes", "say no" or "suggest another way they can teach you". Perhaps instead of you working there, you just pay them for an hour or two once a week for a private lesson. Trust me. It works.

I've done a fair bit of work on negotiation and sales techniques in the past and I would recommend the following when doing your visits:

Ride to the garages on your motorbike. It helps them place you with the bike and confirms your story. If they are bike enthusiasts too it'll help them empathise with you.
Do not call (or email) them before you visit. It's much harder for them to say no to your face than on the end of a phone or computer.
Ask if they own/run the place. If they do, they say "yes" and believe it or not people are more likely to say "yes" to the second question if they said "yes" to the first. If they say "no" you have saved yourself the effort of explaining yourself to someone that can't make the decision. Ask the person to direct you to the owner/manager and repeat...
Explain your situation and then offer them "free labour". They probably won't take it because they'll think you'll get in the way. However, they know you have just offered them something quite valuable so will be more willing to find a solution that is good for both of you.
Be friendly and flexible. You're asking them for help so you should do all you can to fit in with them. Imagine if someone asked you if they could shadow you at work.

Main Areas of Maintenance for Your Motorbike

You're not going to be able to fix everything that may go wrong with you motorbike. However, there are a number of things you should be able to do yourself. They are:

Change all light bulbs
Change all fuses
Lubricate and adjust drive chain
Adjust rear wheel alignment
Change brake pads (front and rear)
Change oil
Repair punctures
Replace clutch and front brake levers
Lubricate and adjust clutch/throttle/chock cables
Replace clutch cable
Change spark plugs
Change air filter
Change oil filter
Adjust idle speed
Bleed brakes (front and rear)

Anything more than that and I think you might need a workshop and perhaps a professional!