Winter Bike Prep & Maintenance

[PaulC]

A few notes for those who dare to perform yearly maintenance by
themselves...

The areas missed by most people for maintenance are as follows:

Wheel axles-most bikes have sealed bearings or at least sealed on the
outer surfaces. I recommend taking the rims off, visually inspecting
for moisture, greasing the inner areas if the bearing is not sealed,
and putting "never seize" or wheel grease on the axles. This keeps it
from getting stuck when you have to change a flat tire in the future.
It can get stuck after only one season of riding...I've had it happen!

I have heard enough mixed or bad things about "Lithium" grease where I
recommend not using it. (thats the white stuff that often comes in a
spray bottle). Use good quality wheel bearing grease. Yamaha makes
good stuff, or I've used Maxima and Bel-Ray.

Swingarm bearings-most people wait until the bike doesnt handle good,
then discover these, along with shock linkage bearings, are totally
destroyed. Take them apart, clean and inspect, and reassemble. I use
only "low temp" grease such as Yamaha or Polaris snowmobile grease. It
is great for prohibiting rust, and it wont get like concrete in cold
weather (like wheel bearing grease will). Remember, wheel grease is
for things going 60 mph down the highway. Your swingarm and steering
head bearings only support loads, they dont spin fast!

Steering head bearings-the things that make your handlebar/front wheel
turn smoothly. They barely have ANY grease from the factory. Read your
shop manual and dive right in. New bikes have tapered bearings and old
bikes have seperate balls that fly all over the garage. Dont worry,
you can always convert your 1972 GT80 to use the new style. Bottom
line....grease the darn thing once every few years at the least!

Spokes-dirt bike spokes should be at 45-50 inch pounds for tension.
How the heck do you check that using the completely junk spoke wrench
that came with your cycle?? YOU DONT. Toss that thing in the recycle
bin and get a torque wrench for spokes. We use an adjustable one but
they also come preset to 48 in lbs on the non adjustable ones. If you
want to know how to correctly tighten them so you dont have flat
spots....email me!
I will be happy to tell everyone how if anyone wants to know.

Make sure you spray some penetrating oil on the threads a day before,
or you'll get false readings!

Fuel-you should add Yamaha stabilizer and after running your cycle for
a minute or two, turn off the gas and run it dry. We do not have good
luck with anything but Yamaha brand stabilizer. If you dont want your
decals to fall off, or your clear (or white) gas tanks to turn that
puke yellow color, drain all the gas from your tank during storage. It
will be stale anyway. Fuel doesnt last in a plastic container because
the octane evaporates (dont make me look up the formula for rate of
evap -vs- temperature...just trust me). Use it in your snowblower:)

Oil-drain it and replace BEFORE you store it. Acids and unburned fuel
in your oil are very very bad for your bearings. Dont worry about
moisture...after you warm it up and ride for at least 15 minutes in
spring, the moisture will all be gone. You should worry more about the
gunk in your oil that eats the engine from the inside out.

I'll stop here. If you have questions...please reply. I'll be happy to
help with more info if you need it.