Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainence ?. Review on Maintaining a New Bike

Well, its been some time since I wrote about biking, so I thought I would just add a few words.

First about maintainence.

You see, when you buy a new bike, maintainence is also one of the factors you do consider before making a decision. Why? Its simple -in case of a problem, you can get rid of it really quickly if you pick the right manufacturer. But prevention is better han cure. So what you do is pick a trusted and tested bike with'zero' maintainence. But one thing . nowadays . nobody makes'bad' bikes as such. What this means is . if you buy a new bike now, you can be sure that it will run for quite a few years before it splutters and refuses to go anymore.

The only question is that for that period, how much more would I have to spend on'extra' maintainence, that is maintainence which had not been predicted. Maintainence such as spark plugs, tyres, oil etc is normal for ANY bike. But what you have to ensure is that there is no'other' maintainence. You can do quite a lot to help that. Lets see how.

Maintainence

First thing is that- DO NOT STRESS YOUR ENGINE! The engine is meant to work, not race. Use you engine at the right rpm. It dosen't matter if you don't have a tachometer, you can make out by the noise itself. When you're going up the slope, your engine can comfortably pull at around 3000 rpm in the right gear.

There is no need to downshift and rev it hard so that it moves up the slope faster. For this, you need to'KNOW' your bike well. This means that you need to know at what rpm in a particular gear you can run your bike so that it pulls and dosent knock. Knocking is really bad for your bike. Avoid it at all costs. So not very high rpm . not very low either. Next thing is that keep a check on your oil and battery levels. You may think that its done during servicing . but you need to be safe . don't you? Especially 2-stroke bikes.

Another thing I forgot is about the run-in period for a new bike. When you buy a new bike, the dealer will tell you the run-in period and speed. But don't listen to him. Just open your bike manual and you'll get whatever you want. In the manual, they would have specified the maximum speed in each gear for the bike for the run-in period. Stay atleast 5 to 10 kmph below that just to be safe. Try not to exceed 3500 rpm in any gear.

Mileage

Then about mileage. Many speak about performance and speed and whatever . but in India, mileage is still a major factor cause it pinches our pockets. Fuel prices can only go up defying the laws of gravity. So how do you get those biblical mileage figures claimed by the companies. Frankly speaking, in real road conditions, you can't get those figures.

However, you can help the mileage. Do not accelerate suddenly like as if you are in a drag race. Change gears at the right rpm(around 3500 rpm) and always ride in the'green' zone. When going down the slope, do not shift into neutral. The engine uses a certain amount of fuel to keep the engine from stalling. But if you go down the slope using engine reduction, that is in the proper gear, the engine uses almost no fuel. Next, minimal use of brake and clutch.

The more you use them, the lesser the mileage. This is difficult to achieve in cities but you can minimise it if not elimnate it. For that you have to ride slowly . Ride in the top gear at around 3000 rpm and thats the best fuel efficiency you'll get. Furthermore, if you go at this speed, you'll be going pretty slowly and hence there's no sudden braking or clutching. When you start your bike in the mornings, rev it for atleast 15 secs so that the oil gets time to work up to the engine before you start moving. Start your bike with the fuel tank position off .

This prevents the flooding of the carb. One more check . if you think your bike is not even close to the on-road mileage figures, check the- 1)fuel filter 2)air filter 3)oil filter 4)carb settings(for air-fuel mixture). And always do a mileage check based on'reserve to reserve'. Do not go by the fuel gauge to check your milege. Just ride on main fuel till you hit reserve and stop. Then note your odometer reading or reset your tripmeter and ride along in reserve till you reach a petrol bunk. Fill a couple of litres of fuel. Set the tank to main again and ride on till you hit reserve fuel again. Then check the tripmeter/odometer reading and divide by 2 to get your mileage in kpl. Simple.

To buy or not to?

There's another thing I actually thought of. There's a big dilemma whenever a person has to buy a new bike. You can't decide whether you want a performance bike or a mileage bike or a blend of both. Actually, this is a funny thing. You see, a mileage bike costs lesser(around 35k) and you also save money on fuel over a period of time. A performance bike costs more(around 55k) and you lose a lot of money on fuel too. Further, how often do you speed upto 100kmph or even 80kmph on city roads? Where exactly are you using that performance? So common sense says that you don't want to lose money and hence you should go for the mileage bike . but do you? Lets do a bit of math and see how much difference it makes in terms of money. Consider 3 bikes -

1)100cc, mileage=70 kmpl, ownership cost=35000

2)125cc, mileage=60 kmpl, ownership cost=45000

3)150cc, mileage=50 kmpl, ownership cost=55000

Lets take the average cost of fuel over a period of many years to be around 45 Rs/litre. Assume that you'll want to use the bike for atleast 50000 kms. So the cost for( running each bike for 50000 kms+ the cost of ownership) is:-

1) 100cc- Rs(32143+35000)=Rs 67143

2) 125cc- Rs(37500+45000)=Rs 82500

3) 150cc- Rs(45000+55000)=Rs 100000

So, the difference between each segment is around 15k to 17k. But if this money is invested/deposited for a period of time, you can get back double of that. Probably you can buy another bike with that money.;) So just think carefully before you invest.I had a similar situaltion, but then I already had an old bike before I bought a new one. So should you buy a new bike just beacuse it gives you better mileage? Lets see .

Consider this -you have an old 2 stroke bike giving you around 35kmpl and you want to buy a new 100cc 4 stroke bike giving you around 70kmpl. So for how many kms do you have to run it to get back what you invested in the new bike in the first place? For every 1000 kms, you save Rs 643 on fuel on the new bike(taking 70kmpl). So to get back your Rs 30000 which you invested on your new bike, you'll have to use your new bike for(30000*1000/643)= 47000 kms approx just to break even. Worth it? This is with a 100cc bike giving 70kmpl. With a 125cc and 150cc bike, you'll have to run the bikes for even longer. Should you keep your old bike? Confused?

.If you've actually read this review till here, why not leave a comment?