Friday, April 15, 2011

SIMPLE MAINTENANCE

If you want to save money and get to understand a little more about your motorcycle, consider starting to do some of the simple maintenance jobs on your bike. A good start is to change your oil. This involves: draining the oil, replacing the oil filter and filling the crankcase with new oil. Dirty Deeds Yamaha 250 Exciter only requires a few tools to remove the filter (center of picture), and drain the oil (note oil collection pan). The drain plug is removed from underneath the engine. I am a loyal Amsoil synthetic oil user. It was the first synthetic oil and it was invented by a local fellow who is still producing his synthetic oil products in Superior Wisconsin. http://www.amsoil.com/company.aspx/ Superior is just across the Saint Louis River from Duluth.
This oil is terrific, and because of it's extended life it is reasonably priced.


One only needs a few tools to change a motorcycle's oil, so you don't have to invest much. The amount you save doing the oil change yourself will recover the cost of the tools after a couple of oil changes.



Some type of funnel is very helpful also, especially if it has volume marked on the side, but a paper filter found at a gas station island will do the trick also.



If you want to get technical a torque wrench is very nice to have allowing you to make sure you are tightening the oil plug tight enough. And a service manuel for your bike will be a great investment as you choose to do more maintenance jobs on your cycle.
The first couple of times you can have a friend help who is familiar with changing oil and filter.

So go for it. Remember you can always call Kickstand for help.

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