Product Reviews & Consumer Advice

The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance: Tips & Techniques to Keep Your Motorcycle in Top Condition Popular motorcycle journalist and author Mark Zimmerman brings a comfortable, conversational tone to his easy-to-understand explanations of how motorcycles work and how to maintain them and fix them when they don’t.

How to Restore Your Motorcycle: Second Edition (Motorbooks Workshop) The market for used motorcycles is vast and deep, with many popular motorcycles available for a fraction of what they cost when new even a few years ago.

Liquid Leather No Heat Motorcycle Leather/Vinyl Repair Kit No description available

Accomplishing some do-it-yourself work on your sport bike can be a fun and educational task however it is wise to first purchase a service manual for your particular model of motor cycle. 

Even if a person is experienced with other forms of engine and general vehicle repair, service manuals can provide vital information about service intervals and maintenance schedules, proper procedures for dismantling and changing parts as well as important recall or service bulletin updates that could affect how a common repair is performed.

Service manuals for all types of bikes are relatively inexpensive and can be found at manufacturer specific dealers or on the internet.  A search for Yamaha YZ250 manual as an example yielded many results.

Whether you have purchased a new bike or a used bike, it is important to know the maintenance intervals for commonly replaced parts as well as scheduled maintenance.  Maintenance intervals are usually measured in mileage though they can sometimes be measured with time.  Scheduled maintenance usually refers to things like oil and filter changes.  Service manuals will often contain all of this information in a general format for you specific motor cycle.

If these intervals or routine maintenance are not performed within the time periods specified, systems may fail prematurely.

If you are choosing to do your own repair on a sport bike, a service manual can be invaluable.  Procedures are usually laid out step by step in the manual along with graphics or pictures to help the reader more easily understand a particular step.  It is imperative to follow proper procedures when working on any machine.

When you have no guide to show you how to do things, even if you are experienced at working on other machines; you could end up costing yourself much more time and money than necessary.  There is always the chance as well that something could be damaged beyond repair because you were not aware of what you were doing.

Important recall and service bulletin update are also included in service manuals.  There may be a procedure or part that has been updated that you were unaware of.  Sometimes manufactures leave recalls open for years meaning you can still have something fixed and paid for by the manufacturer if it is listed in a recall.

If you are just planning to do some routine maintenance by yourself or you intend to accomplish major repairs, a service manual for your particular motorcycle is an excellent first investment before you pick up a wrench.  It will save you a lot of time, maybe a lot of money and definitely a head ache or two.  They are relatively inexpensive and can be found at motorcycle dealers that sell your model of sport bike.  Of course copies of manuals can also be found on the internet.

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