Seven motorbike questions that have been nagging me

Constantine Phaulkon

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
I have a bunch of motorbike questions that have been nagging me. Since I collected a list of them, I'd like to kill seven birds with one stone and post them all.

Please feel free to answer as many as you can.

I am a newbie rider in Chiang mai, just learning how to shift a manual transmission motorcycle.


1) What to do before using a bike after a long layoff?

2) Share DIY on clothing care - repair, sustain life in them etc

3) How do get from BKK through TH, into Laos, into china etc etc - the pre planned work steps, text & links

4) What fuels, about fuel, problems with fuel, shortage on trip fuel, where to get fuel

5) Health issues in asia what to expect, how to deal with it, what you can do, signs & symptoms links etc - Marco in this forum has a first aid kit for sale on this btw--keyword search for this. But any stories about diseases you caught while riding and can share in a public forum are appreciated.

6) Rubber tyres - types, styles, usage, repair, service, supply

7) Sex. More and better. Brothels, sex farms, places of ill repute, bagnio, bawdy house, bordello, call house, cathouse, den of iniquity, house of assignation, house of ill repute, house with red doors, massage parlor, red-light district, whorehouse. GPS coordinates please. I'm kidding on this last one. About the GPS coordinates--who would be so dumb as to give away a good fishing hole?
 
Constantine.

So far no one has responded so i shall give my ten cents worth.

I will offer some answers for a few of your questions, one at a time unless others contribute answers.
I definitely have no answers for numbers 3 and 7. Also the clothing question is so variable as there are so many types that I can't really offer any suggestions.
These are my solutions and opinions so others may have simpler and sensible answers.
Question Number 1. My bikes unfortunately have to sit for many months, even a year without use. I did have a mate who used all my bikes while I was away but he moved cities a year ago so I do not have any one who can ride them during this period I am away. They have all suffer the dreaded bearing failure due to no movement. I do experience this often.

The worst affected points are the wheel bearings, the triple clamp bearings and the swing arm bearings. In high humidity places like parts of Thailand condensation will take place all over the bike including internally. That means water will collect everywhere.

If you leave a bike standing and do not move all the rotating parts the water that condenses will displace the grease and oil at the lowest part of the bearing. The weight that the bearing is holding will create a pressure point where the balls or rollers in the bearing race are resting. That weight and pressure, combined with the water and no grease or oil at that point will begin to oxidise the bearing and bearing race surface directly under the bearing balls or rollers or even in shells bearings

Even a big end bearing which are mainly shell types without balls or rollers can suffer the same corrosion if allowed to sit. However because they have a large contact area they do not deteriorate anywhere near as fast as a ball or rollers type.

A few months of the bike sitting completely still is more than enough to begin the corrosion process

As soon as you move any one of these bearings the force will drag a tiny amount of the race and bearing surface away from that spot. You then have a section of your bearing race and bearing ball or roller that will have a tiny concave section that will let the balls or rollers drop into every time they pass that spot. This will be the beginning of the end for that bearing.

You can see these concave sections in most steering head bearing when the time comes to change bearings. A lot of these marks are caused by wheelies but if you can see an orange rust colour, it means there was water there at some time. Wheel, tripe clamps and swing arm bearings are the main culprits for this type of damage.

If you are not a regular changer of the grease or even all of above bearings. (I change all my bearings once per year) the grease will have mostly displaced and become dry and the bearing races would already likely be near failure. So sitting for a long period will always exacerbate this degradation

The only way to stop further damage is to rotate the wheels, steering and work the swing arm every few days.
So before you ride your bike after a long storage period all these bearings should be removed cleaned and greased BEFORE turning the bearings. Realistically this will never happen. It is just too much work for most people.

Therefore, the best way to minimize this problem is in the storage preparation. Lift the bike up onto a stand so that both wheels are suspended and relieve some of the weight from the wheel bearings, triple clamp and swing arm. Ideally you should remove all the bearings and recoat them in grease.

Your front forks will suffer the same fate. They will collect water. The fork oil should be changed.
Change the engine oil, it will have water contamination. Your gear box and engine is full of bearings.
The drive chain will be dry as. It should be removed and cleaned and if possible soaked with hot oil.
For me, I would replace the chain.

The fuel system will have the same issue of containing water. Not just the tank but throughout the system wherever fuel has been stagnate. Everything should be drained and flushed with alcohol. Methylated spirits is the best as it will remove wax and even remove loose metal flakes but you should immediately flush again with petrol.
Check your brakes as the same will happen to them. Water in the system. Ideally they should be drained and brake oil replaced.
Make sure the pistons in the brake callipers are not tight or even seized. You could be squeezing the brake lever and it feels hard but the pistons are not extending onto the disk.
The best option of the lot is to sell your bike/s or get a mate to ride all of them as often as he can.
 
"The weight that the bearing is holding will create a pressure point where the balls or rollers in the bearing race are resting. That weight and pressure, combined with the water and no grease or oil at that point will begin to oxidise the bearing and bearing race surface directly under the bearing balls or rollers or even in shells bearings"

Thanks Brian, that was very interesting. I would have thought that with sealed bearings you would not have any water inside, but perhaps there's also trace amounts of water in any sealed container. Also a solution might be to mount the bike 'upside down' so no weight is supported by the axles, but maybe that's not practical with a 300-500 # bike and in any event might not even solve the problem.

I would have thought that draining the oil and gas and disconnecting the battery would be sufficient to maintain a motorbike when away for long periods, but no.

So the motto with bikes is apparently use it or lose it.
 
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