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Summer Projects - Everything I have been putting off

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With the summer heat shutting down most of my off-road activity, Moto Maintenance is the only moto entertainment available. This is the time of year for those annual maintenance projects.  Change the fork fluid, service the shock, change out the sprockets and chain and check the valves. Are you folks doing your annual maintenance or just blowing by for another season??  My riding buddy alerted me to a sloppy chain which I had been ignoring. Out of embarrassment I tightened it up between rides, but alas it just kept stretching. 

1. Sprockets and chain 130hrs  -            Check

 

What is on Your List?

Say George, How many hours between service for us Dual-sporters?  I use 100hrs as a rule. 

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Good morning young man.

Yes for a dual sport 100hrs is a good range. But it all depends on your speed, terrain and conditions. Easy rider can go 100hr easily. Hard slow single track can go longer even. Speed,  if you are fast and putting the hammer down like I saw that genius guy do on his 990 in the whoops. Then you will wear out your fork fluid much quicker. The more you squeeze that fluid through tight tolerances at high speed, the faster it will lose its damping qualities.

The shock in that high speed scenario will, unlike the fork, get very hot. The heat kills fluid even faster. One local fast guy Austin Prida when I worked with him would trash shock fluid in 7 hrs. He makes seat covers now locally by the way. Have not seen him in years. Nice guy. Oh and my 990 seat is tearing. Oops back to the topic.

If you ride in mud your fork seals can go in one ride. If your fork seals are seeping at all then they are also sucking air back in, with the dirt. One ride leaky seal, fluid trash. You might notice that your forks when you bleed them have more air than usual but they are not leaking. That usually indicates they will be leaking soon as that allows more dirt in or they are just wearing out.

So what it comes down to is to put more money in my pocket, so you should service after every ride, just to be safe :)

But in reality you judge between Couple hours pro racer, 20hrs intermediate motocross racer, to 100hrs, enjoy the fauna dual sport rider to 120hrs trials rider.

 

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4 minutes ago, Suspenders said:

Speed,  if you are fast and putting the hammer down like I saw that genius guy do on his 990 in the whoops.

Wait- who?

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1 hour ago, paulmbowers said:

Wait- who?

Yep a few years ago at McCains whoops, riding like Wiley Coyote with a black helmet, coming at me. Turned out to be a Genius, as the helmet was triple x. Never seen such a big head. Bikeslut was there.

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Forks @ 130 hrs. How fast time goes. Do you have time this week for magic fluid?

Dave

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unless you've got AER 48 forks...…..

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Must be the weather, I just got done putting new seals and fluid in the Tenere forks.  It was way overdue. 

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My tires are at about 65% on my 500. Everyday I’ve been riding it around the hood pulling a few wheelies. That’s my way of 

getting it ready for a major maintenance. Once the tires get below 50% it’s time for everything.

Covered in Zen

 

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Everyday Ritual;  Boy, need to start that.

        👀

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The importance of good record keeping is evident as I contemplate my list of projects. Just reviewing off the top of my head, I way underestimate how many miles and hours the various components have been stressed; Forks have 110 hrs ( Man thought I just had those serviced ), Chain and sprockets 130 hrs, ( 3k miles ), valves 100 hrs.

If you are not careful, you can find yourself a long way from home with a stretching chain.

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Great reminder! So is my "Rigger Tape" with bike hours Sharpie'd to it stuck to my consumables shelf! 😁

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