| 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.
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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There is much to learn about motorcycle spark plugs. Actually, there is more than meets the eyes.
First, let us distinguish the important difference in spark plugs' threaded ends. They come in four diameters and lengths. They come in nominal 14, 10, 12 and 18 millimeters diameters. previously, there was a slight difference in thread configuration especially in different countries. However, the international standardization of the thread forms made it uniform. These new dimensions are now being followed by motorcycle parts manufacturers.
There can be lots of error in selecting the best motorcycle
parts, especially in the case of spark plugs. The very usual
error is using ¾-inch plugs in ½-inch
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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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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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The tachometer or the rev counter tells the speed of the engine of the motorcycle in revolutions per minute (RPM). Common nowadays are electronic rev counters that can be installed by the dealers you get them from. But for used motorcycle parts, rev counters usually come in just any wrapping without instructions or diagrams. In cases like these, you may install your rev counter with the following instructions to help you.
The very first step is to move the headlight away. This is a great help later on in avoiding some mistakes and will definitely help you finish faster. If you
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