Bike maintenance

Stephen

Bugger.

Just as I was starting my xv125 today the throttle cable snapped. I opened it up to have a look - it snapped right up at the handlebar as expected, but it looked utterly rotten - all brown and flaky. This really annoyed me, as it means I have to take the bus to college (30 miles away) on monday and spend the whole week on foot :eek: as I won't be back here in Kilkenny till next weekend.

Has anyone any experience in replacing throttle cables and the like? Is it difficult? Should I leave it to the garage? I say this because I face wheeling the bike about 2 miles to get it to the workshop, or going there myself and buying the cable and installing it myself. I've only done basic maintenance like replacing a speedo cable, tightening the chain and so on.

Any help is welcome.

bugs

I've never had the pleasure of a knackered cable but i have dismantled a fair portion of my bike and from what i remember the throttle cable isn't that much more difficult than the clutch , they're pretty simple. I'd say just get one from a bike shop, and WD-40 the ass off it so it doesnt rust up.

Chimaera

From my experience of tinkering with push-bikes, the best thing to do with a cable when you're replacing it is to coat it in grease before inserting it into the outer. It's probably worth your while getting the outer replaced as well if the cable has rusted any bit.

Krusty_Clown

Hi Stephen,

Check out Motor cycle Ireland, where there is a huge gathering of very mechanically-minded Irish bikers, who are eager and willing to help-out with all of your mechanical woes..

Hope they can help!

Stephen

Thanks for the link.

Incidentally, the cable is being replaced as I speak - a friend of a friend is doing the job, which is nice.

seamus

On that note, does anyone know where/if you can get service manuals for bikes? Being a qualified bicycle mechanic makes me very brave and cocky about diving in headfirst to stuff like this.....

Basically, having done a few minor repairs already myself, I'd be happy fixing anything, so long as I didn't have to open the engine or true the wheels (I've never been good at it). But it'd be nice to know the 'correct' way to do these things, and the correcttools to purchase/use for certain jobs.

Does anyone make those DIY manuals for bikes, like they do for cars? My bike is a marauder 125 btw.....

Stephen

Haynes make lots of bike manuals. I don't know if they have one for the marauder, but have a look on www.haynes.co.uk

Chimaera

Seamus, as far as wheel truing goes, no book in the world is a substitute for actually going and doing it. It's one of those balck arts that takes a lot of practise to get right.

There is a book called "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst(sp?) Brandt, which while it deals specifically with bicycle wheels, would probably be equally relevant to motorcycles with spoked wheels. AFAIK it's only available from amazon. It is referred to in the cycling community as the bible on wheel building.

As for other repairs, I've found that getting hold of someone who's done it before for an hour or two is far better than any manual. But haynes manuals are good, and worth the money in my experience.

As far as tools go, I reckon you'd go a long way with the following: hammer, chisel, socket set, torque wrench, vice-grips, cable-cutters, pliers, wd40, 'persuader' (long bar for extending the force that can be applied to stubborn nuts and bolts). Some parts require specialised tools, but I wouldn't know where to begin on a motorbike, though in my experience, if you're a bit clever with what you have, you may not need some of them, for instance, the last time I dismantled my suspension forks (by Marzocchi ) the manual said I needed a slider protector and an oil seal press; in reality, once I was careful, the slider protector was unnecessary, and a 30mm socket worked fine as a seal press.

Incidentally, if any of you have Marzocchi forks on your bikes, they publish manuals for their forks on their website - http://www.marzocchi.com.

Most of these machines are reasonably straightforward, so if you're methodical in your work, you should be ok. Where manuals come in useful is for stuff like reccommended tightening torque, especially of engine bolts, and other settings like that.

seamus

Originally posted by Chimaera
you may not need some of them, for instance, the last time I dismantled my suspension forks (by Marzocchi ) the manual said I needed a slider protector and an oil seal press; in reality, once I was careful, the slider protector was unnecessary, and a 30mm socket worked fine as a seal press.

Heh. Me too. "How much to get these Marzocchi forks serviced?" "Fifty Quid". Fook that. /me gets out me tools, using a pliers and the valve extender to remove the seal . Worked fine too.

I have most of the tools, but essentially what I need is a torque wrench and a decent socket set.

Haynes do a manual for my bike. I'll defo be buying that.......

Krusty_Clown

The Haynes manuals are very, very good and worth every cent..
As Chimaera (sure that's spelt right?!) said: If you can find someone who's done it before, then that's your best bet, however, Haynes are your second best bet!

Occassionally, there are courses run in motorcycle mechanics for beginners.. Watch out for these on Motorcycle Ireland..