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Everything expands as it
heats up, it's one of the laws of physics.
Just because a bit is good, doesn't mean lots is better.
For example, as the oil expands where's it going to
go ?, I don't know but the rear tyre's behind it.
But more importantly, how
many times have you seen those morons going click, click,
click at the fuel station; trying to get another egg-cupful
into the tank ?
It's just come out of storage 12 feet underground and
stone cold. It'll quickly rise to the ambient temperature
and expand. With no room left in the tank it pisses
out of the breather / overflow all over the road.
On a bike, we've got a hot engine underneath just ask
Ozzy what it's like to have (my) bike burst into flames
between your legs, apparently it's exciting (the sod,
it was insured and worth more fried).
AND stop your dad doing it
in his car. He's spending money (1/2 a gallon per fill-up)
but even worse it's his diesel engined pig that's wiping
us out on the next roundabout. Yes it expands that quickly,
ever noticed how much fuel spotting there is on the
road near fuel stations ?
By the way, you can tell
him (and others) that if the plod spots his car / van
/ truck / pig doing it, it's a £1000 fine. Brilliant
! Most bike accidents that don't involve another vehicle
are the result of diesel on the road - yes seriously,
by a big margin. Oz
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Only ever use distilled water
to top up your bikes radiator. Just take look in your
kettle (Suzuki GT750 owners please excuse that) to see
how it furs up. Now, while your furry kettle just takes
longer to boil, your bike won't be cooling efficiently,
leading to a seized engine. If you don't have access
to quantities of distilled water then you'll have to
buy motorcycle (NOT car) premixed coolant. Oz
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We used to have lots of problems
with strokers seizing, because we used whatever oil
Dad had in the shed, now there's synthetic oils and
seizures are getting to be a thing of the past.
Synthetics aren't oil, they're man-made chemicals and
so much better but they are more expensive. For road
bikes we would suggest you only need a semi-synthetic,
so save some money but what's the price of oil compared
to an engine re-build ? Another benefit (especially
for low powered scooter riders) is that the synthetics
don't burn and coke up the exhaust - reducing power
still further - the oil is in a fine mist from the exhaust,
coating the car behind.
There's new classification
system for 2-stroke oils, the JASO rating, these are
FA, FB or FC (A is the lowest, C is the best). New bikes
will increasingly specify the minimum quality oil which
they're designed for.
Think you need race quality
oil for your road bike ? I doubt it but some people
think every extra helps so ok, but make sure it's the
right type.
Most 2-stroke race oils are designed to be pre-mixed
with the fuel. Whereas on modern road bikes the oil
is fed separately, by an injector. So the oil needs
to be a (much) lower viscosity, "race" oils
are too thick for an injector system. Make sure it says
"for injector" on the bottle or you're going
to have a seizure. Oz
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This one should be obvious
but we still hear of people putting car oils into motorbikes.
Now a car has a dry clutch, outside the engine; so they
can have additives like friction inhibitors (PTFE and
the like).
A motorbike (normally) has a wet clutch inside the engine.
Putting a friction inhibitor on a clutch is pretty silly.
Also, we make a lot of power from a relatively small
engine, the stresses on a bike's power plant are much
higher. Use only motorcycle oils and, preferably a semi
or even fully-synthetic.
I've even heard of people
putting car type additives in their oil ! Let's get
this sorted out : if it doesn't say motorbike on the
packet don't use it. Oz
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Motorcycle batteries are
expensive, small but have to work darned hard. So when
you buy a new one, make sure you start right, or it'll
never last.
A new battery should be filled
with acid of the correct specific gravity to the max
mark, then left for half an hour or so to settle (some
will be absorbed by the insulators between the plates)
and topped back up to the max mark. From then on, throughout
its life you only top up with distilled or de-ionised
water, never acid and tap water will wreck it.
Most people seem to believe
the retailer, that a new battery is "pre-charged"
and ready for use. That's not strictly the case. New
lead plates with acid will work straight away but it'll
only have about 85% of it's potential full charge and
if you immediately start to discharge it, that's all
it'll ever have, it will begin to sulphate straight
away. So, now that expensive 14ah battery is only a
12ah battery, what a waste.!
Once it's been filled, allowed
to settle and topped up it should be trickle (never
boost) charged to full capacity and only then put to
use. It's a bit of a pain but worth it in the long run.
Lead acid batteries die if
left discharged and they'll discharge just stood there,
even disconnected they lose about 10% of their charge
per week. If you're laying the bike up, fully charge
the battery and periodically recharge it to keep it's
condition. Better still, get one of those battery optimiser
thingies.
Oz
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Please remember that when
charging, a battery gives off hydrogen gas that is explosive,
so no smoking ! I've never seen it but know someone
who saw a battery explode and there was a lot of flying
acid.
Batteries should only be
charged at up to 10% of their rated capacity. So for
a normal 12ah bike battery, that's a max charge rate
of only 1.2 amps then. Boost chargers and most car battery
chargers deliver loads more; that can buckle the plates
and damage a battery, killing it or at least reducing
its capacity. Like most things, use motorcycle stuff
on bikes. Trickle chargers are cheap and ideal.
Oz
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I know someone who used a
car type (here we go again) engine flush product when
doing an oil change. Motorbikes shouldn't need them,
we change oils much more frequently and use different
oils to cars anyway. Why do people do this sort of thing
? The best tip I ever had from a mechanic was "if
it isn't broken, don't fix it."
Anyway, some residues were
duly lifted and flushed away, it looked pretty good
to see the flushing oil being so dirty. Afterwards,
the bike used oil like you wouldn't believe and smoked
so badly it looked like a fast moving bonfire; until
the plugs fouled up that is.
Tolerances in our engines
are much finer, what happened was the valve stems /
seals were cleaned but the stem seals had, by then,
acquired a "memory" they no longer sealed.
(Either that or the flusher attacked the seal?.) It
wasn't too hard to sort out and a top end re-build didn't
do any harm to the bike, just his wallet.
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