Mechanical Monsters – 5 Maintenance Jobs that are Deadly to Overlook

[Music] for every 17 motorcycle crashes there's a special one one not caused by traffic or weather or animals or the rider the killer is your bike [Applause] mechanical failure while you sit fireside with a cup of mulled wine mowing over the glories of rides past your bike is festering in plotting ways to kill you what can you do to save yourself in the hurt reports list of 900 accidents is anybody underrepresented and vehicle failure yes those with dirtbike experience those who know how to work on their machines those who know how to spot mechanical monsters forget your grandmother's pre-ride checklist low oil and dead batteries are not killing anyone Thailand did a study of 723 crashes they found not a single incident caused by stuck throttle faulty side stand low pressures worn tires loose cargo the real mechanical murderers are hiding [Applause] in 55 motorcycle failure crashes across France Spain Germany Italy and the Netherlands the most common culprit was of course the southern punctured but unavoidable flats they hired a second villain in their shadow 11 sightings in 55 break failure is our concern not fade pads won't die without screaming bloody murder first rotors never disappear below thickness overnight in the same way they won't glaze beyond the point of stopping but it is a good idea to keep them fresh with a wipe of scotch-brite and some brake cleaner likewise it's a good idea to rebuild the master cylinder at 50,000 clicks but the seals and plungers in here rarely fail all at once ditto calipers the piston seals are not exposed they may leak slowly if at all but it's rare to see catastrophic failure so who's the killer hoses here I'll check these out they should be fresh and firm never bulbous never dry never pinched never cracked when brake failure is sudden it's often caused by hydraulic fluid pushing through a leak rather than pushing your piston so you have to check your hoses ah but hoses Balai another killer what's hidden inside what's revealed in your sight glass can also cause sudden failure dark murky fluid is impregnated with water dropping its boiling point so you're riding hard and breaking harder and hotter and hotter and then poof the fluid boils your lever squishes nothing but foam fresh fluid every two years fresh hoses every four on most bikes so who's over deep [Music] when it changed brakes it goes full Texas massacre on your bike or leg or as is more common if you have a solid chain guard it binds up on the rear sprocket you'll be struggling to control a sudden and unexpected skid if it freezes up around the front sprocket that's going to encourage your transmission to commit suicide alternately the chain could be ejected backwards lucky for you unlucky for the final destination try out driving behind so check your chain link by link catching a damaged plate before it cracks would be extremely lucky but we stand a decent chance of spotting a frozen link replace the chain if so frozen links become broken links [Music] now I know this may sound a little melodramatic also take extra care when examining the master if you've got the clip kind that better be traveling closed and first otherwise you're riding a deathtrap wear anything that rubs up against the chain will pop it open finally check chain tension and alignment in tension because the - loose chain can hop off the sprocket jam against the wheel and cause a lock-up even without breaking an alignment because misaligned sprockets break chains take up the slack underneath sight down the upper chain and be afraid of any serpentine curve misaligned sprockets will cause the chain to snake it is a lot easier to see snakes on a plane so you might consider grabbing motion pros perfectly straight reference tool so to keep this mechanical monster at bay do a link by link tension and alignment check every 750 kilometers and of course keep lubricating every welcome to the third mechanical failure that directly statistically causes crashes grotesque deformed and otherwise flawed suspension poor geometry causes dynamic instability which is how scientists say tanks lappers now comes that awkward very personal question have you set your sag really because uncalibrated geometry is the common cause of death wobble if the front is riding high it's stiff so it'll hit a bump and deflect rather than absorb leaving it over correct and over correct and tank slapper likewise if the front is riding low it's soft a bump will actually throw the tire off the ground leaving it to land offline and we have a tank slapper all over again steering dampers are a band-aid but bad geometry carves the wound properly setting sag is your best defense against things that go bump in the night 30 seconds you measure the complete travel unloaded then sit on the bike and measure the travel again as it settles from above and from below you take those two numbers and average them to account for fork friction subtract the result from your first unloaded measurement and that's your sec the holy book for your bike will tell you how far you fall short of perfection adjust the preload to pay penance then do the back is mine Springs do fatigue over time so say glow is Klayton back into murderous territory fortunately we swap our fork oil once per year a scene and that forces us to keep our sag and check yearly as well I still see another wobbly killer is wheel bearing failure attentive riders might notice the wheels feeling loose or drunk or clunking but as is the case with fast moving parts the degradation can also go from near unnoticeable to cadastral traffic in an instant fortunately it's simple to check wheel bearings every time you change your tires you just grab the wheel and try to make it move front back side to side and try to it at an angle relative to the axle I should not be able to make this tyre do anything that's spin cleanly round that's what makes bearing failure so scary I mean imagine if this could move hit offline and then start grinding up against the brake assembly so you have an incredibly dangerous combination of random changes in direction and random braking so which is potion for a wicked crash once you have the wheel off because we checked bearings while changing our tires remember and yes inverting your foot peg is a great way to get a stable contact point for a jack stand just stick your finger in the bearing and check that it turns uniformly smooth there should be no random resistance no play in the bearing no notches no discoloration change the bearing if you discover any of those demons even if you don't change it around 50,000 kilometers regardless maybe sooner if you ride off-road jump race cross rivers I mean why not it's a cheap part and an absolute monster when it goes bad the pro tip before installation stick the new bearing in the freezer shrinks the metal makes it way easier to pop it [Music] headlamp failure is the top accident causing mechanical problem after punctures in Thailand 23 percent of British motorcyclists ride with no head light illuminated yet 40% of Crashers did not have their lights on an Australian study found 25 percent of accident motorcycles were not in roadworthy condition a common failing point being dead lights so probably not worth waiting for your head or tail light to die amid ride if you know yours are old and dim replace them now before spring comes and our riding brains cease to think of anything besides hitting the road for reference most of you on halogens are looking at thousand our bulbs HIDs get double that and if you're a lucky bastard with LED lights 15,000 hours means you're home free and that rounds out our five most accident causing mechanical monsters I'll review with a spooky story the hurt report makes mention of a certain station wagon struck in the side by an operating but riderless motorcycle not a single witness and that busy intersection saw the ghost rider upon investigation no evidence of an operator owner or passenger can be found for that bike now the mystery of our headless horseman remains unsolved to this day but it serves as a good reminder that your motorcycle is dangerous all by itself there are ghosts in the machine to exorcise this winter [Music] [Music]

Channel: FortNine

Views: 1,102,894

Rating: 4.9629173 out of 5

Keywords: motorcycle, maintenance, DIY, restoration, rebuild, regular, things to check, pre-ride, used, buying advice, old motorcycles, fortnine, reviews, tools, tricks, tips, top 5, top 10, best, repair, course, maintenance 101, schedule, motorcycle maintenance fortnine, beginners, brake bleed, wheel bearing, motion pro, chain, brake caiper, led headlights, crashes, accidents, fails, 2018, 2019, crash, road rage, chain lube, kawasaki, honda, harley davidson, cruiser, chopper

Id: 4zAplxUyWm0

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/SaloonLeaguer]

Break lines and fluid, chains breaking, bad suspension, wheel bearings and headlight failures. Video explains how to easily check for them before they kill you. Here's the timestamp for roughly how often they should be checked. For example, perform a link-by-link, tension, and alignment check of the motorcycle chain every 750km.

[u/WorkoutProblems]

Every 4 years for brake hoses?! Can anyone else confirm? That seems rather short for such an important part, additionally all the service manuals I own say to just inspect the hoses nothing about replacing unless of course there is noticeable wear

[u/K-Uno]

Thanks for posting this! I've been neglecting the bulbs, bearings, and brake lines. Good to know

[u/evanphi]

Can't wait to see the footage of him busting his shoulder!

[u/spoonyfork]

Out just in time for Canadian Halloween!

Seriously, good reminder of failure points to check.