May Garage Girl Veronica Gomez

Getting Ready to Roll

Hello guys and gals it has been a minute since I was able to post.  The life of the weird and wonderful wizard at times gets a little too weird for even me lol.  But I digress I sat her pondering what to write about and it came to me.  As most of our country shakes or has shaken off the chill of winter it is time that we will all be hitting the road.  As you know our main focus is the build but we all need to remember that a huge part of riding, building, and enjoying motorcycles is maintenance.  Oh there it is that dirty word.  Assuming that you did what you need to do in order to protect your scoot for the winter there are a few steps to take to make sure your first trip out you spend more timing riding the bike than pushing it home.  Now is the perfect time to do those little checks.  No matter how much prep you did winter is always the perfect time for those garage gremlins to get at your ride.

1.       New gas.  This is a no brainer in particular with the ethanol in it now if you have much of winter at all the gas that set is gonna be funky.  Also not a bad time to spend the extra buck and get a new fuel filter.  It is amazing how many times a gummed up filter will leave you on the side of the road.   

2.       Fluids, check that brake fluid if you happen to rock a liquid cooled check that coolant too.

3.       Tune up.  In the weeks leading up to riding weather take the time to tune it up spark plugs, oil change with filter. 

4.       Check them tires and lube that chain.  Not only is it obvious that there is danger involved if either of these fail your ass is doing the walk of shame. 

5.       Cables this is often over looked but for a few bucks you can get some stuff called cable lube and trust me you spray it in there your cables work better and last longer  the good folks at http://cycleonemanufacturing.com/ carry it < and most anything else you need, its good stuff.

6.       Brakes.  Ckeck em for warping wear and function.  Riding is only fun if you can stop when you need too.  Injuries aside many a pair of clean skivvies have been ruined by bad brakes.

7.       Ok so assume everything checked out good on these basic steps if you are a home builder now is also the perfect time to double check nuts and bolts.   I know we all roll to the shop born to be wild playing our head and think we are the next Indian Larry but guys we all forget shit.  One missed bolt now is the difference between hmm I wonder how I missed that and fubar city.

I will leave it at that and say that soon I plan to do a write up on a few of these things.  Some guys might say oh come on it so basic but you got to remember we all learned at some point and no one is born knowing everything.  Until next time keep those sleds tuned and show them some love they will love you back. 

Wizard