Top 5 Overlooked Dirt Bike Maintenance Jobs

hello everyone I am chase here at Rocky Mountain atv/mc coming at you with our top 5 most overlooked simple maintenance jobs that any writer can do so no matter what bike you have no matter how old it is as riders there's one thing we all have in common we all want our bikes to last as long as possible we want them to run well and we just want them to be in tip-top shape now that doesn't mean that a lot of us aren't guilty of not performing some of the routine maintenance jobs that are simple on our trusty steeds and that's what we're gonna talk about today we're gonna show you what we think are five of the most commonly overlooked maintenance jobs that are simple that any rider can do and no I'm not talking about a top end or a bottom and rebuild some of your more complicated jobs I'm talking about simple jobs that any rider can do you just want to make sure you have the right tools you want to make sure that you're using your service manual we have a lot of great how-to videos here at Rocky Mountain so make sure when it comes to any maintenance job give those a watch and those are really gonna help you out now before we get started let me just get this out of the way okay when it comes to routine maintenance you gotta be doing your oil changes and changing your oil filter regularly okay that's a must everyone knows that so look at your service manual to know how often you should be doing that and another big one is just changing your air filter having your air filter clean it's gonna make sure getting clean air to the motor it's just going to help your bike run better and last longer so those are very simple we all know those need to be done so make sure you're doing those but to get started let's get the job number one all right so job number one that is often overlooked is greasing your pivot points and when I say pivot points what I mean by that is gonna be your linkage your shock your swing arm and also your steering stem now when it comes to this it's a job that I'm pretty sure we all know needs to be done but it doesn't mean that we all do it especially as often as it should be done so this is very important with this and look at your service manner because they are gonna give recommendations as far as how often you should be doing this now I have a great example of why you should do this more often the most riders deal so I actually have the linkage off of mine 18 rmz 450 and I've actually the bike has 17 hours on I've already taken this off once before and clean out my bearings and reinstalled it but you can see that just after a few hours of riding you can see how much gunk and dirt and just crap gets built up around the seals and if that stuff starts to work its way past those seals what you're gonna ruin your bearings and nobody wants that and the same goes for your steering stem as well I've actually seen riders take linkages out of bikes and they're rusted out I've seen bearings completely crumble and just fall apart because they're dry there's no more grease left in there and if that's the case your suspensions not gonna work the way it's supposed to it's not gonna feel good and honestly it's really just not that safe to ride with your motorcycle in that type of condition so it's very important you want to be doing that especially with your lower shock the lower shock work connects there's not a lot of grease in there and it's really exposed it's low to the ground so that's why you got to do it regularly so when it comes to cleaning and we grease in your pivot points it's very simple to do once you get everything taken apart I just like to use contact cleaner I'll spray it all out wipe it out clean it up with a rag and then after that I'll just use a good high quality waterproof grease I'll reapply some grease and then put everything back together it's just very important though that when it comes especially your linkage and your swing arm in those areas you want to make sure you're using a torque wrench look at your service manual they're gonna give torque specs but it's very important that you follow those when you are putting everything back together so that's the first part of this tip is cleaning the rege roots in your pivot points another tip that I had that goes along with this is actually when you're washing your bike this is something that riders don't think about too often but if you use a pressure washer which is what you know I think most riders do those things are really powerful so you don't need to get too close to your pivot points okay that's going to help keep water out of those out of your seals and that's just going to help your grease and your bearings last longer but that's gonna be a job number one that's often overlooked is greasing your pivot points all right so job number two is gonna be changing your fork in your shock oil now this is a job that I think a lot of writers don't do enough and it's probably because most of us don't change our oil unless our fork our shock shells are leaking am i right now the problem with this is that I've seen for canned shock seals called a really long time without leaking in fact much longer than you should go without changing the oil first you got to remember that the oil in your suspension it's the lifeblood okay your rebound your compression damping is controlled by oil going back and forth between a rebound and your compression valving and as that gets older it starts to break down and as it breaks down you're gonna lose performance which is with your suspension now this is something's gonna come on gradually it's not something that you're really gonna feel one day to the next and as it comes gradually you're gonna slowly lose performance and you just won't really know it but I'm going to tell you that if you have really old broken-down oil and you replace it you're gonna notice a difference your suspensions gonna feel and it's gonna work better and you also got to think about your shock your shock it's working just as hard if not harder than your forms and you have less oil in it so that oil is gonna break down even faster that's why it's so important that you do this as often as your service manual that's telling you that you should now when it comes to this and you have your Forks and your shock taken off and pulled apart it's never a bad idea to get your bushings and seals in there now this is a little bit more of an in-depth process okay it takes a little bit more work but we have really good how-to videos when it comes to replacing or doing a fork rebuild as well as a rear shock rebuild so make sure you give those a watch and also your service man is going to give you step-by-step instructions as well but that's going to be job number two is replacing your fork in your shock oil all right so job number three it's probably the easiest and quickest job that we have in our top five and it is just cleaning and lubricating your cables so over time your cables are gonna get dust and dirt inside there and they're just not gonna feel as good as they did when they were new especially you know with your clutch cable if your clutch pulls a little bit harder than it used to be well chances are you just got a dirty cable so cleaning these out it's gonna make a very big difference if you've ever felt the cable that's dirty that's got a lot of junk built up in there versus one that's new it has a noticeable difference especially you can have water seep in there as well when you're washing your bike especially if you use a power washer that can make it worse so it's a really good idea periodically to go through and just clean in lubricate your cables it's very simple to do all you need to do is just have the right tool so you can do it without tools but it gets kind of messy it's kind of a hassle we have a lot of specialty tools on our website that are designed for cleaning and lubricating your cables one in particular that I really like is this v3 cable louver from motion Pro it's very simple to use what I like about it it just cleans up the process so when you're lubricating your cables you don't get Lube anywhere and just keeps it nice and clean and tidy and very quick to do you just want to have a good quality lubricant now when I'm cleaning my cable out I'll just usually take some contact cleaner and I'll spray it out first get that dirt and that grime out of there and then I'll go through some lube and I'm gonna tell ya it makes a big difference so do yourself a favor show your Steve some love get in there and clean your lubricate your cables all right so job number four is wheel maintenance now what I mean by wheel maintenance is just making sure that your spokes are tightened and torque correctly and that your wheel is true doing this it's just gonna add the longevity of your wheels now when it comes to this this is something I like to do often I will check my spoke tension before or after every ride and I just go through and I just make sure almost my spokes are torqued correctly now when it comes to your torque on your wheels K this is gonna mean your service man you want to look at that because it's important that you torque them to the specifications you also got to remember that having your spokes too loose or too tight there are consequences for both but if you have spokes that are coming loose your wheel can get out of true and if it gets too bad you can do some damage to your wheel and also to the hop so let's mean it's really important that you do check that pretty often now your two best friends when it comes to wheel maintenance are gonna be a truing stand if your wheel does get out of true and also a spoke torque rim so when you're checking your spoke tension I will take our spoke torque wrench this is our tusk frame what's nice you can see you're able to adjust the amount of torque and then I just go through and I check all my spokes and what's nice is this it just gives you the peace of mind okay takes away that doubt that you're not torquing them correctly they're a little bit more pricey but I'm gonna tell you probably one of my favorite tools to have because will maintenance is very very important now a couple tips that I have for you when it comes to this if you're releasing a new hub or maybe you've torn your wheel down you're gonna release it rebuild it well it's really important what I recommend is take a picture of your wheel before you start to rebuild it or you lace up that new hub and the reason I say that is you can always look at that as a reference to see how your spokes are gonna line up so I've seen a lot of guys will start lace up a wheel they get halfway through they realize that their spokes are lined up correctly and I have to tear it all apart and start over again so that's gonna take away some of that headache and also if it's been a while since you adjusted any of your spokes to tighten them or loosen them for that matter and you can't get them to turn they could just be seized up on there so it's not a bad idea to put some oil on there and that's gonna help loosen those up and also when you are lacing up your new wheel or building up your old one use some anti-seize that's gonna help prevent your spokes or your nipples from seasoned up in the first place but that's gonna be a job number four is wheel maintenance all right so fifth and final job I think I saved the best for last and it's repacking your muffler or your silencer now the reason I say I saved the best for last is because I see riders go years without doing this in fact I know some writers that I've never repacked their silencer other muffler ever now the reason I say it's so important is because you're packing inside your muffler silencer not only does it keep the noise down but it has a lot to do with performance as well as exhaust is leaving your muffler it actually comes out in waves and you're packing helps control those waves which has a lot to do with performance and also it helps with the scavenging of the exhaust from your engine now you can see here this is actually an old silencer we just took this off a yz250 2004 so let's got some hours on it but we took it apart and we put some new packing in there so it sounds good again and again you're keeping that performance for me I don't think it does a whole lot of good to go spend a lot of money on aftermarket exhaust or even for your stock exhaust if you're not gonna spend some time to repack it and they keep that performance where you want it to be as you're packing breaks down your exhaust is gonna get louder and you're gonna lose some of that performance so do yourself a favor get some new packing if you haven't done it in a while we have great how-to videos for both four-strokes and also your two-stroke exhaust and also a tip I have is when you're washing your bike it's very important you want to try to keep as much water out as possible because as water gets in it can break down your packing quicker so the best tip that I have for that is spend a couple bucks and get an exhaust plug it just goes right into the end of your exhaust your silencer and as you're washing your bike it's gonna do a really good job of just keeping water out and there you go that is my fifth and final job something we feel is often overlooked but every rider can do and that is repacking your muffler or your silencer alright everyone so thanks for checking out our top 5 most overlooked yes simple to do maintenance jobs hopefully this give you a friendly reminder of the maintenance that you need to do on your trusty steed now if you have any questions about anything we talked about today comment below give us a call or chat live online we will get your questions answered and to pick up any of the products we talked about click on the link or head over to our website at Rocky Mountain atv/mc calm and remember guys subscribe to us on YouTube because we have a lot of really good step-by-step how-to videos including videos for all the jobs that we talked about today don't forget that orders over $75 ship free I'm chasing a Rocky Mountain you can see on the trails [Music]

Channel: Rocky Mountain ATV MC

Views: 349,030

Rating: 4.8996625 out of 5

Keywords: Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, rmatv, rmatvmc, atv/mc, atvmc, motocross, rockymountain, dirt bike, motorcycle, parts, accessories, rocky, mountain, top 5 overlooked maintenance jobs, maintenances jobs, top 5 dirt bike maintenance jobs, dirt bike maintenance, top 5, motorcycle maintenance, throttle cable, clutch cable, linkage, pivot points, grease, suspension oil, wheel maintenance, top 5 most overlooked dirt bike maintenance

Id: xJjzjUtYrfU

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 29 2018