How To Handle Superbike Repairs And Troubleshooting – Deciding what to change and when to schedule for a motorbike overwhelms most people, who perform random services or none at all.
Opening a motorbike service manual almost always creates more questions than it answers. Difficult motorcycle vocabulary goes over the head of the average person. There is an inconvenient schedule like changing the oil at 5,000 km, but the spark plug at 8,000 km.
How To Handle Superbike Repairs And Troubleshooting
Like a lazy person’s diet that guarantees weight loss, or a lazy person’s gym routine that guarantees muscle growth. I’m going to give you a lazy maintenance schedule that will ensure you take care of your motorcycle without putting in too much time and effort.
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The table below is a very reasonable maintenance schedule with mechanic shop visits every 5,000 km. A major service every 20,000 km.
Note: Do not follow this motorbike maintenance schedule if you do not understand the content of this article. Avoiding reading the article may lead to bad results! It is not suitable for all motorbikes and is designed for scooters rather than big bikes.
In Vietnam, most mechanics recommend changing the oil every 1000 km. It’s too routine and inconvenient for our lazy schedule.
Look in your service manual and you will find oil change intervals between 5,000 and 10,000 km.
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Until recently, high-quality fully synthetic oil was not available here, so mechanics recommend regular changes with low-mineral oil.
A 1000 km oil change prevents the motorbike from running out of oil if the motorbike has internal problems such as oil leaks or an oil burning engine.
However, when this service interval is extended to 5000 km or more, a motorbike in poor condition will run out of oil before the next service.
Mechanic diagnostic capabilities are limited in Vietnam. They play the safe game of recommending regular service intervals rather than trying to predict failures that may occur during extended service intervals.
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Use a specialist mechanic shop that stocks fully synthetic high grade oil. A mechanic shop needs enough expertise to properly diagnose your motorbike for oil leaks and other issues. You can learn to check the oil level yourself and do it every 1000 km to make sure there is oil inside the motorbike.
Most service manuals state that the spark plug should be replaced at 8,000 km. In Vietnam, mechanics never change a spark plug unless the motorbike breaks down first. Then the spark plug is the first layer of diagnostics and they will choose to change it. This is, of course, after you’ve been inconvenienced by a crash that should never have happened. Spark plug affects performance and gas consumption. Even if your motorbike ticks along happily without fail, an old spark plug could be wasting your money on poor gas consumption. Spark plugs are cheap and it’s a good idea to replace them.
Note: Mechanics like to look at spark plugs under the pretense of checking condition. While spark plugs can be checked with the naked eye, this is actually a specialist diagnosis that is far beyond the skills of the average street mechanic. Most motorcycles will accept almost any spark plug. However most motorcycles have model specific spark plugs. Putting generic plugins will work, but it won’t help performance.
Note: 15,000 km is when most tires, brake pads and chain/sprocket sets (manual/semi) start to die. These items do not need to be changed at 15,000 km, but they should be checked.
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Most service manuals will recommend changing the air filter at 18,000 km. We will extend it to 20,000 km. Most mechanics in Vietnam will spray the air filter with compressed air to clean it. We need to change the air filter, not clean.
Drive belts (automatics) are recommended to be changed at about 24,000 km. However this 20,000 km number is a good round number to remember so it will be a “big service”. Along with the new drive belt (automatic), we’re going to change the transmission oil. Many people don’t even know it exists. This will never change in Vietnam!
Tires, brakes, chain and sprocket set (manual/semi) are likely to be at end of life cycle. These should be replaced unless advised by a mechanic.
It is recommended to change the brake oil every two years. For most people this will be around 20,000 km. Two years is a strange gap where the distance of time is so long that people forget when it was last done. This leads to never being done.
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The cycle starts back at 5,000 km. Organized people will run a spreadsheet to try to remember what they replaced and when. It’s up to you to decide if this is outside the scope of a sloth’s maintenance schedule.
OEM parts may cost more than cheap Chinese parts found in backstreet mechanic shops. However, over time, OEM parts tend to become cheaper. Another reason why Vietnamese mechanics recommend a 1000 km oil change schedule is that the Chinese parts they often use are impossible to predict failure. Chinese parts fail suddenly and unexpectedly. OEM parts fail over time, giving the rider and mechanic a chance to see the problem before it all goes wrong.
Most scooters have internal oil filters or oil screen filters (which must be cleaned). However, oil filters are never changed or cleaned in Vietnam. Oil filters are also model specific and mechanics don’t have them in stock, so they’ll be shiny about changing. This is a lazy maintenance schedule and we’re not interested in micromanaging the mechanic. Motorcycles that have been running in this country for years have shown us that letting the oil filter change is not the end of the world.
Note: In the real world, oil filters should be changed at every oil change. If you have a high performance motorbike, skipping the oil filter is not acceptable (explained below).
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Manual motorbikes are often optimized for performance in one way or another. It can be optimization for long distance or optimization for extra power. For example, if it is a long-distance road motorcycle, the service intervals will be longer (10,000 km). If the engine is a high performance motocross bike with a bomb. Service intervals are likely to be short (8 hours of driving).
Whatever the design of the motorcycle. It is designed to its limits, so changing the oil filter with oil should be followed carefully.
I’m not a “clean” person, but this lack of escape from dirt was hard to swallow.
Locally manufactured OEM chain and sprocket sets have a shelf life of around 6,000km to 10,000km. A decent DID set has a shelf life of 20,000km – 30,000km. Investing in a proper DID chain and sprocket set is a good idea.
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Honda recommends chain lube every 5,000 km. However, we think this is too far, driving every two days (250 km) and oiling the chain.
You can either buy a bottle of chain lube or buy a small bottle and pick up some old engine oil from a friendly mechanic (for free). We can’t see the difference between the two options and Tjit Mechanics remain loyal to generic grease and old engine oil to run our motorbikes.
The batteries have a warranty period of one year and a working life of 2-5 years. Batteries fail at all ages. For a person who wants to avoid battery damage, we recommend replacing it every two years. Good quality batteries will have a date stamp. This can be used for reference.
Tires depend on tread design (road or offroad) and brand. However, most locally manufactured tires for scooters last around 6,000km – 10,000km. It’s short lived and worth investing in a brand that isn’t sold in the average backstreet mechanic shop. A good quality road tire should last 20,000km to 30,000km.
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Brake pad wear is unpredictable and they wear at different rates. Factors that influence brake pad wear include rotor condition, the environment in which the bike is used, and the brake pad brand. Generally, a set of brake pads should last 15,000km to 20,000km. If you’re not hitting this service interval it’s worth investigating what’s going wrong.
The longer the gap between service intervals, the more room there is for things to go wrong. At 1000 km intervals, the next service is always below. If you’re going to follow a lazy maintenance schedule, make sure you use a reputable mechanic shop that can predict parts for the next 5,000km. Ever dreamed of opening your own motorcycle repair shop? If you have a passion for the industry and are eager to share it with others, this could be a great career path.
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