| Motorcycles and Twowheelers: Bike maintenance - "Motorcycle Belt Tension Inspection, Belt and Wheel Alignment" Friday, 10 February, 2012 | Home | Suggest a Link |
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I strongly believe that knowledge is power. Especially when it comes to motorcycle maintenance. Why go to the stress and expense of having your local motorcycle shop perform your maintenance and upgrades when you can learn to do it yourself? And you know that if you do your own maintenance, that you will give the extra attention required to do a competent job. I doubt you can say the same for the underpaid and over-worked motorcycle service mechanic.
The other benefit of doing your own motorcycle maintenance is that you learn more about your bike. This has many benefits. You will be able to tell when something is not running right. Also, you will have the skill set to get yourself out of any situation where you find yourself broken down miles away from town. Besides, just wrenching on your bike is a total Zen fun motorcycle event.
In this set of motorcycle knowledge base instructions, we focus on doing a motorcycle drive belt inspection, followed up by a drive belt tension adjustment and belt and wheel alignment.
With the majority of cruiser motorcycles now running with drive belts over chains, learning how to do your own belt adjustment is essential. Plus it is a far less messy task than performing maintenance on a chain. This instruction assumes the reader has some natural basic motorcycle wrenching talent. I believe most people can learn these tasks but there are some that may be out of their league and have no mechanical talent. For these people, please step away from the tools and let your certified mechanic perform any maintenance and upgrades.
This instruction is performed on a Victory Kingpin motorcycle. This Victory Kingpin motorcycle, like the rest of the Victory motorcycle models, has a right-side belt drive. The major pain of the Victory design is that you have to remove the exhaust or Slip on canisters to get at the right-side axle. This is only if you intend to remove the axle and wheel (Mainly used to remove the wheel and take it to the shop to mount new tires. The best way to save lots of money when replacing tires). This will be discussed in another maintenance instruction. Otherwise the motorcycle service shops will charge you their hourly rate to store the bike, remove the wheel and remount. Not cheap. Removing the wheels yourself makes it so you only pay for the mounting and balancing. Another tip, buy your tires online to save even more money.
Are you ready? Let's get started. For the Drive Belt Inspection it is recommended that you inspect the drive belt annually, and replace at specified intervals, regardless of belt condition.
To perform the actual belt tension inspection, perform the following:
Before you do the Belt Tension Adjustment, you need to make sure the wheel alignment is correct. The following with give you instruction and tips on aligning the wheel and belt correctly.
First measure from the center of the swingarm pivot to the center of the axle. Keep it the same on each side. I have been doing this on dirt bikes for many years and it has not failed yet. I use the Motion Pro belt tensioning tool.
This is what I do if I change a tire or belt.
At this point I test ride. I have NEVER had to go back and readjust doing it this way,and I have done MANY without a tracking problem. No strings or tape necessary.
You may ask yourself, what is a motorcycle fork stabilizer and why do I need one for my motorcycle? These are very reasonable questions to ask, especially since you have expected the motorcycle manufacturer to have given your motorcycle the highest performance suspension components available. I hope to answer these questions and many more within this motorcycle fork stabilizer article.
I first became aware of motorcycle fork stabilizers from the
Cycle Solutions (www.CycleSolutions.net) motorcycle
forums. Several members of the forum suggested that this was an
aftermarket part to install on your motorcycle. Being both
curious and ignorant I asked questions. Is this
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Many years ago when I got hooked by motorcycles, I started to hear a lot about two and four stroke engines... It seemed there were (and there still are) strong opinions in pro and con of each of the engine types.
As Internet wasn't available, and as I was worried about other aspects or motorcycle riding back then, I left that question unanswered for a long time.
If this is your case or if you are interested in these two kinds of internal combustion engines, in the next few lines I hope to give you a few fast answers and some resources
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With one of the warmest winters on record, the little Groundhog from Pennsyvania decided that he would see his shadow and call for 6 more weeks of winter. We all laughed at the little furry rodent. Especially with 60 degree motorcycle riding weather in the middle of February. Fast forward a few weeks and the east coast gets hit with a Nor-Easter storm. This storm dumped record snow fall from Washington, D.C. to New York. So now you find yourself unable to ride your Victory motorcycle. You need to do something so you decide to add a new custom part.
What I decided to do was upgrade the stock
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Do just about anything to your motorcycle, but forget the most basic and fundamental additive - Oil - and your wallet could be hanging loose for a long time.
How often you change the oil, the level you fill it up to and the kind of oil you use all make the difference between a bike that lasts and a bike that doesn't!
These are a few of the most basic tips when it comes to oil and motorcycles...
Over time and with prolonged use the integrity of the oil breaks down. Varies forces at work within
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Part and parcel of owning a bike is maintaining its appearance and its capability. Nevertheless, despite making sure that the parts and cables of the motorcycle give us maximum service, we cannot but accept that they have their own warranties and lifetimes.
Unlike artwork or antiques, motorcycles are made to be used and abused. With all the elements found in the environment, a motorcycle part will definitely have its final day. When that day comes and you don't have enough money to buy new ones, why not settle for used motorcycle parts, e.g. cables? With a little tinkering and proper installation,
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