Basics for the novice. Review on Maintaining a Bike

Monday morning, you wake up late after chilling out for long hours with all your pals last night. With tired and blurred sleepy eyes you look at the clock and horror! You are gonna be late again. Within minutes you are up; your daily chores have been done, you feel good in the stomach after shedding out the last remains of yesterday's buffet. Stuffing a slice of bread up your mouth as it is the easiest edible thing available when you are in a time crisis, you rush out of the house and remove the bike's cover and get it ready to start. You kick and you kick.well over a minute. Nothing is happening. Slowly beads of sweat breaks out as you try and figure out what is wrong. The mind is not functioning very clearly as the thought of not being to office on time and its consequences are clouding it. Those beads of sweat are now breaking into torrents as you are drenched again for the second time. Frustrated, you finally try and look at your bike with a clear head. What could have happened? Yup, we all in some stage of our lives end up here. When you need to move real fast and get away, something comes up with the bike but we don't know what. Listed below are few cues to look for whenever your bike doesn't start or generally cause problems.

Starting Problems

Check if the petrol tap is on

Well, this may be a simple and basic thing which most people actually do regularly. But many times, people could tend to forget this when they are pre-occupied in their mind with something important. Always, make it a point to put on your petrol tap. Sometimes, the bike may not have enough petrol in the main tank. Try and remember, whether the bike came to reserve the previous time you used it. If so, turn your petrol tank to reserve.

If you have been riding in reserve for a long time, check if petrol is there at all.

Cold starts

This is experienced by most of us in the mornings and evenings especially in winter. Have seen many people get upset over the fact that they have to use choke to start and get completely worried thinking that there is something wrong with the bike. Most bikes are tuned for high mileage delivery therefore it won't be richly tuned hence could face cold starts. Others who prefer power over economy would richly tune their bikes.

For starting, press the choke lever and kick the starter. Once the bike has started, continue holding the choke for a little while till the engine heats up a bit. If your bike still keeps spluttering and getting off, hold the choke for a longer time till it gets heated up nicely. If you have a 2 stroke bike, you could slightly raise the throttle a bit so that petrol flows freely through. only a little bit mind you. However, never open up throttle for 4 strokes, it would damage the engine. Make sure to release the choke lever.

Well, you might think using the choke would consume a considerable amount of fuel. right, but it would actually consume overall far lesser fuel from that of a richly tuned bike which experiences no cold start problems. Many don't set the idling on start and would usually tune it to start idling after a short run as the engine gets heated up. Thus trying to get the most in fuel efficiency but sacrificing on power.

An another cue to starting problems could be from the spark plug. It could be clogged and dirty therefore preventing sufficient amount of spark to come through, It is best that you regularly clean your spark plug, remove all the deposits and reset the gap between the electrodes according to the level suggested by the manufacturer. Sometimes, carelessness during water washes would lead to the spark plug not performing well or completely dead. Care should be taken while washing your bike. It is recommended that spark plugs be changed regularly once a year.

Tuning your carburettor properly and having a good clean spark plug would also result in high mileages. Here are some other factors affecting fuel efficiency.

Proper tyre pressure: This actually is a key factor as less tyre pressure would increase the load and strain on the engine therefore affecting economy. Always regularly inflate your tyres according to your manufacturer's specifications.

Check for oil leakages: Another important factor especially for 2 stroke bikes. Check if your oil seals are worn out. An easy way to spot whether your oil seals are gone, is to look at the end of the bike's exhaust if any large amounts of blackish oil is seen around at it especially at the end. Run it nicely and park the bike. Come back after a while and see if any oil is leaking through the exhaust. Start your bike and open the throttle, if large amounts of thick light bluish smoke comes out, then it could be necessary for oil seals to be changed. This not only affects fuel efficiency but the entire performance of the bike. As there are many moving parts, it is absolutely necessary that these parts are well oiled. However, when the oil seals get worn out, the oil gets mixed in the combustion chamber and gets clogged, burned out, and thrown through the exhaust. Result: your engine is starved from oil; heavy friction and heat is generated and parts get worn out and perform badly.

Tighten your chain regularly as a loose chain again causes a lot of strain on the engine therefore dip in performance. Most bikes have some kind of marks on the chain guard next to the chain window. Can always open the window and check how tight the chain is by comparing with the marks. This is however roughly indicative.

Check if your brakes are too tight and has been jammed or not. Also make sure, brake shoes whenever they get worn out be replaced immediately. Of course, quality of petrol. Not many bunks actually provide good petrol and there are not much ways for us to know to. There are simple tests using filter papers to check fuel quality. Otherwise, the other alternative is to fill in at a few selected places and see how the bike was performing under identical conditions. If any problems are experienced through any one of the bunk, you would definitely know next time where to go. So always pay attention to how your bike behaves. I would personally recommend Bharat Petroleum bunks. At my place, I have found that the fuel quality offered through BP are of higher quality. This however could vary from region to region so can't absolutely stand up for BP.

Anyway, here are some very simple and basic cues on troubleshooting of bikes. Most of them are already well know and this article is simple for bikers who are in the novice stage.

Would like you guys to add any suggestions or more tips in this section. Any correction needed from my part is also most welcome. So add it all in the comments section, if you have anything more. There are a lot lot more all right.so I guess it will all come in parts. So till then guys and gals. happy riding or happy cleaning should I say:).