Bike Maintence

argatoga

argatoga

Can't Start His Wank
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
18,200
Location
Zagreb
Car(s)
'08 Pontiac Solstice GXP
I'm curios as to how my fellow forum member maintain their bikes. What parts and how often?
 
Oil and filter every 4000 miles on the 919 (factory interval is 5000), every 3000 in the 700. Rotella T for the oil.

Mostly Honda replacement parts when needed, which isn't often.
 
I second the Rotella T. Every 3k. Chain adj when it needs it. Honda graphite chain lube rocks.
Any engine related parts come form the Honda dealer. The other stuff is whatever. My bike has been getting more Farkles and attention then i should be giving it considering i was riding at 35degrees home today.

As far as storage on both my FT500 and the XRL.
Stable in the tanks
Drain the fuel from the carbs but dont run the carbs out. Just let the stable get in there.
Yank the battery's and drop em on a trickle chrager.

Ready for Michigan hell
 
Engine oil and filter every year,
Shaftdrive oil every 2
Brakefluid 3
Rear tire yearly, front every 2
Steering bearing every 60kkm
Front tire bearing was at 80kkm I think
Fork seals were done @ 110kkm, dunno if before. Changed the damper oil while I was at it and at 70kkm when I got the new springs.
Clutchpads and springs were changed after I did the Burnout 5 years ago.
Carbs and valves were setup 4 years ago
Battery is in its forth or fifth year, getting out for the snowy time.
Sparkplugs are the same age and the K&N needs some cleaning.
Brakepads as needed, simple organics, the most speed gets shed by letting off the throttle.
Occasionaly some grease, when the main stand gets too loud.
 
Has almost nothing to do with famous brands - Kawasaki is also a well known brand. They're also well known to discontinue parts quickly and not support their customers over the long haul, whereas Honda makes a point of offering most every critical part to keep even 40 year old Hondas going.
 
Unless it is a CX turbo in which case you need to hack together fuel filters and other parts.

From my experience with my CX500 (non turbo) I haven't had any problems however.
 
I pretty much try to do all maintenance myself.
First off, it's cheaper than taking it to the shop (unless you really screw it up).
Second, it's fulfilling to do these things yourself. Not to mention fun.
Third, it's interesting. You get to know more about the machine you ride and appreciate it more. I also feel you're more "in tune" with the bike and are able to figure out when somethings wrong faster. Which I think is more important with a bike than with a car.

As for intervals, I usually stick to what my Haynes manual prescribes. If I can do it myself I'll try to do it. For example oil changes, changing filters, lubricating various parts, checking/replacing spark plugs. These are all fairly easy jobs to do and don't really take much time or really special (or expensive) tools.
However, I don't have a workshop -I have to work on the street- nor do I have a means of lifting the bike, other than my paddock stands. As such I cannot disassemble the front forks (which require special tooling anyway) or stearing head etc.
When the time comes I might try to change the chain & sprockets myself. It might take a while but I recon it shouldn't be all that difficult. I'd also like to replace the clutch if (when) that should become necessary, but I gather this job requires a specialist tool which can only be found through a Honda Dealer.

At the moment I'm working my way through the 12.000km maintenance interval for my Hornet (. I wanted to change the oil/filter today, but when I set everything up I noticed that the filter on the bike didn't have a nut on top to unscrew it, unlike the new K&N filter I bought. So I'll have to go get an oil filter wrench tomorrow to get it off. Instead I decided to check the spark plugs which were -to put it mildly- a bit harder to get to than the CBR125 I owned before. :)
But I got the job done and after everything was plugged back in it ran on all 4 cylinders, so I guess that was a success. :D
 
I have a question.

It seems I've worn out my rear brakes (in about 6500km!) all the day down to the metal. It was grinding sound that alerted me that something might be off.

1450800_665256213507094_638351755_n.jpg


1456777_665256240173758_1307787564_n.jpg


I took the pads out to check what type they were, but I can't find the same Nissin pads (MN146EF) anywhere.
So I've been looking for some other pads but I'm faced with a choice; either I go with organic pads (good bite, wear faster) or metallic pads (longer lasting, better performance in wet/dirt). Every other article I read makes me change my mind about which choice to make and other motorcyclists aren't making me any wiser. Suggestions?
 
What's the bike model? Those look like the rears off my 919.
 
2013 Triumph Tiger 800 ABS.
 
I was told that the organics are cheaper and the metallic ones have more bite but might ruin the discs on older bikes.

EBC has a lot of pads for most motorcycles and if your browser doesn't act up like mine you could find them here:
http://www.ebcbrakes.com/assets/ecatalogues/2013-intl-mc/2013-intl-mc-catalogue.html

Lucas works even on my browser:
http://www.trwmoto.com/triumph/disc-brake-pads/triumph-800ccm-tiger-xc-abs-a08-11--13072.html

The uneven wear is a bit of a concern. Is the calliper free to move? Are the pistons easy going?

Furthermore on some cases you get brakewear indicators for the bike which are plates going inbetween piston and pad and have a small protruding nose which scratches on the disc before the pads are down to the baseplate. They might not fit in so better ask your friendly Triumph dealer.
 
If that's like the one on my 919, it's a single piston caliper and uneven wear is not unusual. One should replace the slide pin and caliper spring with new for best results, though.

Whether organic or metallic is appropriate for your bike depends on what the bike was fitted with - both in terms of pads and rotors (the surfacing, features, and alloy are all important). The best for my 919, per common consensus, is the standard Honda pad (oddly enough), even for most track use - to give one example. Organic pads make the thing horribly slow to stop and EBC pads have backing plates generally too thin for longevity. Why do I mention Honda? Well, I'll come back to this in a moment.

Most of the late model Nissin calipers with open backs do not have wear indicators. You check wear by looking in the slot on top.

That EBC catalog lists a FA140xx type pad for the Triumph, where xx indicates the code for the pad material type. FA140 for standard organics, FA140V for semi-sintered, FA140HH for the high heat (closest to many OEM) sintered type.

Amusingly, that's the same type pad that's installed on many Hondas. If you want what Nissin normally ships with that caliper (assuming Triumph didn't change it) you can go to a Honda dealer and buy the rear pads for the 90-93 Africa Twin, 98-01 Deauville, 00-07 Transalp, 12-13 NC700 SC/SD with the manual gearbox, 2013 CB500 FAD or XD.... you get the idea. Honda uses it on a lot of middleweights.

There really isn't much actually bespoke about the later Triumph suspension, brakes and other hard parts. Lots of it is partsbin/off the shelf bits.
 
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There is an issue with the 900 Sprint models, as they have a different frictionpad style. IE the standard pads are squareish and the specifics for the sprint are a bit cut out to hug the disc a bit better I presume.

Triumph may have gotten rid of that oddity, but I'd double check.

As a matter of fact, the pads in the pic look closely similiar to the ones I have in the front. Could be a different size though.
 
I've been looking at brakes today as well - got to my pad change this evening, pulled the pin, spring and pads out and saw this on one of my front calipers:

hLvYqGc.jpg


Yup, that's a hosed caliper seal. Guess it's a good thing I have spares.
 
Joker19583 said:
I was told that the organics are cheaper and the metallic ones have more bite but might ruin the discs on older bikes.
Click to expand...
That won't be much of a concern, as it's a new bike. :)
What does worry me is that I might have ruined my brake disc, as the braking material on one pad is completely gone. So I've essentially been braking with the metal backing plate. :/

Joker19583 said:
The uneven wear is a bit of a concern. Is the calliper free to move? Are the pistons easy going?
Click to expand...

I should be honest and note that upon measuring the chain tensioning screws they are about 1 mm out of alignment. I should check if the calliper is free to move, however the piston was quite easy to push al the way in, it doesn't seem like it is binding in any way.

Spectre said:
If that's like the one on my 919, it's a single piston caliper and uneven wear is not unusual. One should replace the slide pin and caliper spring with new for best results, though.
Click to expand...

It's indeed a single piston calliper, is uneven wear considered normal for single piston callipers? Replacing the slide pin and retaining spring seem like a good idea, however I've no idea where to get those separately.

Spectre said:
That EBC catalog lists a FA140xx type pad for the Triumph, where xx indicates the code for the pad material type. FA140 for standard organics, FA140V for semi-sintered, FA140HH for the high heat (closest to many OEM) sintered type.
Click to expand...

This is what I gathered from the internet as well.
At the moment I'm leaning towards the metallic pads again. :)

Is there a difference (in quality, longevity, etc) between the EBC and TRW pads? It seems I'd have to order the EBC pads online somewhere, whereas my local motorcycle parts dealer has the TRW pads in stock. I'm probably going to swing by and pick them up tomorrow unless someone can give me a convincing argument not to go with the TRW's. :)

Thanks for all the replies so far, it's been quite helpful. :)
 
Uneven wear on a single piston caliper isn't uncommon; my rear caliper is to spec and it does tend to burn the inside pad slightly faster than the outside. Lubricating the caliper (as opposed to pad) pins helps. You should be able to get it checked out under warranty, being that it's a 2013 - but if you can't, you can get all the individual parts for it from Honda. It's the same caliper used on a bunch of Hondas, too, and I listed them above.

I haven't used TRW pads on a bike and I don't know anyone that has, so I can't comment on those. You might want to check your local Honda dealers to see if they have pads available.
 
I must ask though, how to you go trough a rear brake pad? You use your rear brake that much?
 
RdKetchup said:
I must ask though, how to you go trough a rear brake pad? You use your rear brake that much?
Click to expand...

Some people do. It can also be a function of vehicle weight and power - Honda generally only puts that caliper on their lower performance middleweights these days. A Tiger 800 is going to be larger, heavier and more powerful than anything Honda thought was a good idea for that caliper. Wouldn't be the first time an OEM (yes, even Honda) didn't pick the right size caliper for the bike. Combine that with individual user riding style and potential offroad use (offroading you use the rear a lot more than the front) and you can burn a rear pad set surprisingly fast.
 
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True, I guess I kinda forgot about the off-road nature of the Tiger.
 
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