Mechanical Monsters – 5 Maintenance Jobs that are Deadly to Overlook

for every 17 motorcycle accidents there is a special one, a special one that is not caused by traffic, weather or animals or the driver, the killer is the

mechanical

failure of your bike while you sit by the fire with a glass of mulled wine and you enjoy the glories of the rides, your bike is rotting. plotting ways to kill you, what can you do to save yourself? In the injury report list of 900 accidents there is someone underrepresented and vehicle failure, yes, those with dirt bike experience, those who know how to work on their machines, those who know how to spot

mechanical

monsters

, forget your Thailand made a study of 723 accidents and found not a single incident caused by stuck throttle defective side stand low pressures worn tires loose cargo the real mechanical killers hide in 55 motorcycle failures Accidents in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, the most common culprit was of course the punctures from the south, but unavoidable.

They hired a second villain in his shadow. 11 sightings in 55 failures to break, our concern is that they do not disappear. The pads will not die without screaming, bloody murder. Early rotors never go below thickness overnight just as they don't glaze past the stopping point, but it's a good idea to keep them fresh with a Scotch-Brite wipe and some brake cleaner. Likewise, it is a good idea to rebuild the master cylinder at 50,000 clicks, but the seals and plungers here rarely fail all at once, the same goes for the calipers, the piston seals are not exposed, they can leak slowly, if at all.

They do, but it's rare to see catastrophic failures, so who are the killer hoses? I'll check them out. They should be cool and firm, never bulbous, never dry, never pinched, never cracked, When brake failure is sudden, it is often caused by hydraulic fluid pushing through a leak instead of pushing on the piston, so so you should check the hoses, ah, but Balai hoses are another killer that is hidden. Inside, what is revealed in the sight glass can also cause a sudden failure. A dark, cloudy fluid is infused with water that lowers its boiling point, so you drive hard and break harder and hotter and hotter and hotter and then the fluid boils.

Your lever crushes nothing but foam and fresh fluid. every two years, new hoses every four on most bikes, so who's too deep when changing brakes? A complete Texan massacre occurs on your bike or leg or, as is more common, if you have a solid chain guard, it is attached to the rear sprocket. You'll be struggling to control a sudden, unexpected skid if it freezes around the front sprocket, encouraging your transmission to commit suicide. Alternatively, the chain could be ejected rearwards. Lucky for you, unlucky for the final destination, try driving behind, so check your chain link. Catching a damaged plate before it breaks would be extremely lucky, but we have a good chance of detecting a frozen link.

Replace the chain, if so, frozen links become broken links. Now I know this may sound a little melodramatic. Also be very careful when examining the master, if you have the clip type, it is best to travel closed and first, otherwise you are setting up a death trap. use anything that rubs against the chain it will open it, finally check the chain tension and alignment in tension because loose chain can jump. The sprocket jams against the wheel and causes a lockup even without breaking an alignment because misaligned sprockets break the chains, take the slack under the view to the upper chain and are afraid of any serpentine bends.

Misaligned sprockets will cause chain snaking. It's much easier to see snakes on a plane, so you might consider grabbing a perfectly straight reference tool from the motion pros, so to keep this mechanical monster at bay, check the tension and alignment link by link every 750 kilometers and, of course, continue to lubricate every time welcome to the third. mechanical failure that statistically causes crashes directly, grotesque, warped and otherwise defective suspension, bad geometry causes dynamic instability, which is how scientists say lapping tanks, now that uncomfortable and very personal question arises: have you set your sinking really because uncalibrated geometry is the common cause of death? the front is high it's stiff so it will hit a bump and deflect instead of absorbing leaving it too right and too right and the tank hits the same way, if the front is low it's soft a bump in It will actually throw the tire off the ground, leaving it to land out of line and we have a thumping tank again.

Steering dampers are a band-aid, but poor geometry carves the wound. Setting your sag correctly is your best defense against things that go bump in the night. You measure the entire distance without load for 30 seconds and then sit down. the bike and measure the travel again as it sits from the top and bottom, take those two numbers and average them to account for fork friction, subtract the result from your first no-load measurement and that's your second, the Your bike's holy book will tell you how. So far you don't reach perfection, adjust the preload to pay penance and then do the rear.

Springs fatigue over time, so let's say the shine is Klayton back into killer territory. Fortunately, we change our fork oil once a year per scene and that requires us to maintain our I also see that another factor of wobble is failure of the wheel bearings. Attentive drivers may notice that the wheels feel loose, drunk or noisy, but as is the case with fast-moving parts, the degradation can also go from being almost imperceptible to cadastral traffic in an instant, fortunately, it is easy to check. the wheel bearings every time you change the tires you just grab the wheel and try to make it move front to back from side to side and try to get it at an angle relative to the axle.

I shouldn't be able to make this tire. do anything that spins cleanly, that's what makes bearing failure so scary. I mean, imagine if this thing could move off-line and then start rubbing against the brake assembly to have an incredibly dangerous combination of random direction changes and random braking, which is a potion. for a serious accident once you have the wheel removed because we check the bearings while changing the tires, remember and yes, reversing the footrest is a great way to get a stable contact point for a jack stand, just stick your finger into the bearing and check that it rotates evenly smoothly, there should be no random resistance, no play in the bearing, no nicks, no discoloration, change the bearing if you discover any of those demons, even if you don't change it around 50,000 kilometers, regardless , maybe sooner if you drive an off-road jump race.

Cross rivers, I mean, why not? It's a cheap part and an absolute monster when it breaks. Professional advice before installation. Stick the new bearing in the freezer. It shrinks. The metal makes it much easier to pop. Headlight failure is the main accident that causes the mechanical problem later. punctures in Thailand 23 per cent of British motorcyclists travel without illuminated headlights, but 40 per cent of those involved in accidents did not have their lights on. An Australian study found that 25 percent of crashed motorcycles were unroadworthy, a common failure point is dead lights, so it's probably not worth it. Waiting for your headlight or taillight to go out during the trip If you know yours are old and dim, replace them now before spring arrives and our driving brains stop thinking about anything other than hitting the road like reference, most of you with halogens are looking at thousands of our HID bulbs get double that and if you're a lucky bastard with LED lights, 15,000 hours means you're home free and that rounds out our five mechanical

monsters

that cause the most accidents.

I will check with a spooky story, the damage report mentions a certain pickup truck was hit on the side by a running motorcycle but with no driver, not a single witness and that busy intersection saw the ghost driver during the investigation, no evidence can be found of an operator, owner or passenger for that bike now the mystery of our headless horseman remains unsolved to this day, but it serves as a good reminder that your motorcycle is dangerous on its own. There are ghosts in the exorcising machine this winter.