Hello again and welcome. Bruno here, just in from another great
ride. Go Baja Riding Tours and Go
Desert Riding Tours has been very successful over the years in that we go
to great lengths to maintain our bikes and our tour fleet at a top level. In addition to running a highly successful off road racing team and well over
2,000 miles of off road touring, racing, and pre running, I can honestly say
that we are at the top of our game when it comes to maintenance and doing what
it takes to keep your bike running great.
What we have is another one in our series of off road motorcycle maintenance tips
that can keep you on the trail and out of the shop. With Go
Baja Riding/ Go Desert Riding
Tours clients are welcome to bring their own bikes any time, this makes for a
great time for them and mixes things up and is a welcome sight. We find that one thing that may be overlooked
time and time again when clients bring their own bikes on our tours is an
overlooked maintenance issue of wheel
maintenance.
Now what we like to do is check the spokes after 2 days of
running on the trails on our tours, which is generally 150 miles per day. Your wheels may vary on how often they come
loose or get out of true, but this is just an added precaution we take to make
sure that our bikes are always in top condition and ready for the next run. If your spokes
do become loose and your wheel becomes out of true, you can attempt to do this
on your own in your garage or in your shop if you've got a lot of patience and
a spoke wrench. One thing that tends
to happen with some bikes if you use a power washer generously on the wheels
and don't maintain the rims and spoke
nipples, you can have a hard time with this.
Typically what we do on the rides when the bikes have been
muddy for quite a few days or there has been a lot of rain, after we power wash
the bikes we'll dust the spoke
nipples around with a light coating of WD-40 while being stored and this soaks
down in, gets around the threads, and just makes it easier to adjust the spokes when the time comes.
If your rim is our of round, what you can do is take a
Sharpie marker, put your bike up on the stand, spin the wheel, and hold the
Sharpie close to the side of the rim.
Where the rim is running out, either to the left or to the right, it
will make a mark. For instance, if your
mark is on the right side of the rim, you want to go to the left side of the
wheel and do one turn of each spoke
in that area. I only recommend one turn
at a time unless your spokes are
very loose. The spokes should all be checked periodically, usually after every ride
is a good idea. I'd simply put the bike
up on the stand, start at the valve stem and work my way around tapping each spoke with the spoke wrench. Where I can
get a dull tinging sound I know that the spoke is generally in good shape. If it thuds when you tap it, obviously it is
a little loose. You can give it a couple
of turns to bring it up to par being careful not to bring the rim out of
true. Over tightening the spokes can be
just as bad as having them loose. Where
an over tight wheel can become egg shaped very easily.
I hope this helps you in some of your bike maintenance and
we'll talk more about some of these tips as time goes on.
Look for more of my helpful tips including getting the most
life out of your chain, the best tips for changing your tire, and wheel bearing
maintenance between tire changes.
We'd love to see you out on the trail, and if you would like
to get more information on our tours that we offer with your own bike or with
our bikes in our all inclusive packages feel free to join us at Go Baja Riding Tours or Go Desert Riding Tours
We'll see you on the trail!
wheel maintenance, spoke,
spokes, spoke wrench, Go Baja Riding, Go Desert Riding, off road motorcycle, off
road
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