Just Another Great Ride - Go Baja Riding

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