I'm no longer a wrench-virgin! - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

**inspiron** · 06-09-2009, 07:31 AM

So, last night, I had my first lesson in motorcycle maintenance.

A colleague from another forum and I did the following work on my bike:

- Chain replacement, include both the front and rear sprockets.
- Replaced the rear brake pads.
- Changed the oil and filter.
- Replaced the spark plugs.

The cost of the parts alone was about $500 – the chain was about $275, then $50 for brake pads, $75 for spark plugs (high-performance iridium plugs), and about $100 for oil, filter and the crush-washer. If I had taken my bike to my local shop, the repair would have set me back more than $1200, considering that they charge a premium for most parts, then over $100 per hour for labor.

I pulled up to Markus’s house around 5:30pm. His garage and basement are a mechanic’s dream – he has a crane mounted on the ceiling that can lift a ton, so we put straps on the handlebars and around the rear grip, and lifted the bike about 3 feet in the air, then put down a ¾” plywood on top of three stands and lowered the bike onto our platform. Working at that level was great – no back problems, good lighting, and easy to retrieve anything that may fall on the ground. Markus had a huge selection of tools – everything you could possibly need to work on a bike.

I started removing the covers while Markus opened the drain plug, taking advantage of the fact that I had to ride about 30 minutes to get to his place, so the oil was nice and hot and drained easily. After he replaced the oil filter, we went to work removing the rear wheel. I had already removed the clutch actuator (which sits over the chain sprocket).

With the wheel off, we quickly replaced the rear brake pads. I’m still amazed that it took less than a minute to do this! We then had to take off the rear swingarm (unscrew the shocks and remove the chain guard, then remove the axle holding the swingarm), and fiddle the old chain out. The front sprocket was held in place by two bolts (one bold in the middle, then a large nut behind that), and quickly replaced. The new chain was worked into place after a minute or two.

After re-installing the swingarm axle, we replaced the rear sprocket and started the process of putting everything back in place. We had made sure there was enough clearance between the new brake pads, so everything slipped right into place, and we had the rear wheel back on its axle within minutes.

With everything back in place, we filled the engine with about 5 quarts of oil, and then used the crane to gently put it back on the ground.

The most complicated part was removing the tank (which still had about 2 gallons of gas in it), since my bike doesn’t have a petcock to stop the fuel flow. The “trick” which I learned a couple of years ago is to take the fuel overflow tube and stick it over the fuel line connection as soon as the fuel line has been removed. We ended up spilling a bit of fuel, but not much.

We replaced the 4 spark plugs, then put the tank and seat back on. The final step was to adjust the chain tension. I sat on the bike while Markus adjusted the chain and tightened the rear axle.

The whole action took exactly 3 hours. The only downside of the whole action was that it was pouring rain by the time we were done. I had to do a few stop-and-gos to “break in” the new brake pads, but other than that, my bike was a pleasure to ride. I didn’t think that the chain had that much impact on the performance, but my ride home proved me wrong. The old chain was really at its end-of-life, with more than 21,000 miles on it. The new D.I.D. chain is fantastic – I noticed a lot less jerking during load shifts. And the new spark plugs and fresh oil meant that the engine was a lot smoother when accelerating.

If you have the opportunity to get your hands dirty, with the guidance of a real expert, I can highly recommend it! It certainly helps to understand how the bike is built, and how the parts all work together!