Maintaining/modifying your own bike

[Guest]

Are you talking about Jap, or Chinese bikes, drzhooner

Chinese misread your post, my bad

[megawatt]

Phew!!!

[Simon m]

I've said this many times.

ON NO ACCOUNT BUY A CHINESE BIKE.

You will regret it.

 

They said that about jab bikes at one point

[megawatt]

If you wanna buy one Simon, do it. I'll stay well clear thanks.

[RantMachine]

I've said this many times.

ON NO ACCOUNT BUY A CHINESE BIKE.

You will regret it.

 

They said that about jab bikes at one point

Yeah but they still say it about Chinese ones

[Simon m]

The Chinese ones have not been about that long I'm sure give it a few years and they will be just as good as any other but at the same time look how much you are paying there ment to be brought ran for a few years and scraped they are a cheep runabout

[MR_W]

Surely Italian bikes should be up there for naff build quality?

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[Stu]

Surely Italian bikes should be up there for naff build quality?

 

If you was still living in the 90's maybe

[MR_W]

Tell that to the Panigale owner who had the bolts holding the wing mirrors on fall out last September on a ride out!

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[Stu]

tell him to check his nuts

so thats one bike out of how many?

with Chinese bikes its all of them

[Simon m]

The zontes are proving quite reliable and they are Chinese they also have good strong engines

[MR_W]

tell him to check his nuts [emoji38]

so thats one bike out of how many?

with Chinese bikes its all of them [emoji38]

Must say my German 125 was solid. Only had a dead battery in the 5 years I had it.

2 of my Japanese bikes caused me all sorts of grief though.... and the other 2 have been fantastic.

Chinese bikes appear to rust well from the one I saw the other week [emoji53]

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[Simon m]

Some do some don't depends how they are looked after and stored eg inside or outside

[Mr Fro]

Some do some don't depends how they are looked after and stored eg inside or outside

That's the difference - I left my CB13 outside for the 2 years I had it and my ZX6r lived outside for a couple of years too and both were fine with zero anti rust prevention stuff.

If I tried that with a Chinese bike the chances are it'd look like I'd stored it in the sea.

[Simon m]

Each to there own

[Guest]

tell him to check his nuts

so thats one bike out of how many?

with Chinese bikes its all of them

I thought best time to check your nuts was wash time

[Guest]

YouTube helped me basically do a full service on my bike. Saved me easy over £100+ on labour just from a few YouTube vids.

[hardleydavidson]

I have a Chinese bike.

They do rust - a lot, the bolts and screws are made of plasticine, the wiring is done by Mr. Magoo on LSD and replacement parts cost more than a whole new bike.

Having said that. If you like tinkering and fettling, finding inventive ways to repair things and fancy spending a lot of time in the garage then I highly recommend them. It'll keep you occupied for hours.

[Guest]

I didn't even know how to change my idle speed when I first started...

But you read lots, youtube, vampire knowledge from others and before you know it you're the guy that people come to to drain knowledge from. My dad has a fully fitted garage and a good working knowledge that's helped me too. I can do most tasks nowadays, some I enjoy and others I can't be bothered with... Saved a shed load of money though!

Its all experience, a willingness to learn and experiment on your own bike(s) and in my case, not having the money to frequent mechanics lol.

[Chrissb6]

My mate's Panigale has done a bottom end bearing, just out of warranty £3000.00 repair bill

On winter storage - maintenance. A good warm dry garage always helps, a good clean is a must before you do anything else, lube up the chain get both wheel off the ground if possible a good polish and grease up of all the cables and linkages. AC 50 is brilliant and keeping rust away. Get an Opitmate battery charger and leave it connected. cover with an old blanket - dust cover has always worked for me.

[Guest]

Get an Opitmate battery charger and leave it connected.

These can catch you out. It will start fine after being disconnected, but take it out for a ride have lunch then come starting again the battery is flat.

Caterham owners often have them fitted and have many times had been told this

[JRH]

If you have the charger connected for a long time you may need to top up with distilled water. The optimates can boil it off.

[Chrissb6]

Get an Opitmate battery charger and leave it connected.

These can catch you out. It will start fine after being disconnected, but take it out for a ride have lunch then come starting again the battery is flat.

Caterham owners often have them fitted and have many times had been told this

I have a 1100 cc Bimota SB6R on a 2002 plate permanently connected to an Optimate charger, the bike still on the original battery, so that battery is now 14yrs old. Every now and again l pull the bike out to spin it up to get some fuel through the carbs, splash some oil around the engine and seals, that battery has never let me down yet.