How to take care of your motorcycle during lockdown

Our Motorcycle and lockdown: we are stuck home, I know, which obviously means that we are temporarily banned from going out and about with our beloved motorcycles. No urban rides -unless you are able to prove that you are using your bike to go grocery shopping or to go to work- no countryside rides and definitely no road trips. I am sure we all miss the sound of our exhausts, the sense of freedom and the wind caressing our happy faces. Since I am a positive fella, I want to see the bright side in the whole situation: we have time to take good care of our motorcycles for when this whole thing will be over and we will be finally free to ride to our favourite locations.

This is the right moment to think real good about our motorcycle future projects: road trips, dream locations, personalizations, you name it. Above all, motorcycle and lockdown is about to become our personal way to spend time with our bikes and it means: maintenance. So, how can we intervene to make sure that our motorcycle is in good shape? One sure thing is that, since shops are closed, it must be something we can do by our own. Easy things we can check are: breaking system, electric check, oil levels check and why not, a good wash.

Before we start, we need to check if our tool box has all the tools required to accomplish our tasks or if it needs an implementation. We will need a battery tester, a dynamometric key, a specific motorcycle service manual, hex sockets, a hex driver set and a torx driver set. For our cleaning process all we will need is a bucket, motorcycle shampoo, a sponge and a pair of gloves. Simple stuff, everything missing can be easily found on the internet.

All procedures will be performed with the engine off.

Motorcycle and lockdown: let’s get things started

Let’s start with our batteries. I believe is this is one of the most important things to periodically check during lockdown: these bad boys are made to ride around, long period of stop can harm your battery. I own a lithium battery that lets me check on the battery status by clicking on a button; i understand that this is not a common thing so the best thing you can do is using a battery tester. If your battery is low don’t worry, on the internet you will be able to find the right charger for your battery. The next simple task to accomplish is to check your engine oil levels, if too low, fill it to the required level. Some of you might have liquid cooled bikes, it needs to be checked and , if too low, filled to the required level too.

Taking care of your motorcycle is not a job, is a pleasure (credits: Bari Today)

Let’s move to the breaking system: it is important to check if the tubes are in good shape. If for some reason your breaking tubes aren’t in good shape and you have never dealt with this kind of task before I highly suggest you to leave it alone and take it to the shop as soon as they are open, breaks are not something to mess with. Same goes for your breaking pads, if they are almost finished and you have no experience with changing them, the shop will be happy to take care of it for you.  Something you can do, is getting a dynamometric key and check if all bolts on your bike are tight accordingly to the torque value shown in the service manual.

Motorcycle cleaning

Let’s finish with a good bike wash. Please remember that if you have an aftermarket air filter you need to use a protective sleeve. If you own the stock one, forget about it and proceed. It’s  best to start cleaning the dirtiest parts: rims, calipers and the fork with a separate sponge. Once you have cleaned them real good, empty the buck, prepare it again with motorcycle shampoo and clean the whole motorcycle. Last but not least, for the same reasons explained before, dry it off with two cloths: one for the tank and fender, the other for all chromed parts.

If you guys happen to own leather bags, seats or other accessories, it is really important to take care of them too. We have available in our store a 100% natural product good to revitalise leather. Last, but not least: turn the bike on to…well, to hear her sound a bit!