Did you not lubricate your chain before winter? Then you need to take good care of it before the season – you have a lot of work ahead of you. First of all, maintenance is necessary – what exactly is it and how to do it? You will find out everything after reading this article!
Motorcyclists often decide to do chain maintenance on their bike before the season. In fact, it is advisable to do it after the season as well. During the winter the chain will not lose its properties, the links will be lubricated, free from mechanical debris, and less prone to corrosion during the off-season. When you have decided to do this, the tasks that await you before the season will be less arduous, however, if you have not performed this activity, be prepared for several hours of work with the chain
The first thing you need to take care of is cleaning the chain. For this, you can use specialized products available on the market that will remove dirt and grease residue. We just want to add here that mechanical dirt mixed with grease increases the friction of the chain during its operation, which increases the risk of damage and shortens the service life of sprockets and links
However, not everyone can afford preparations for removing contaminants, so a good, equally effective choice will be light kerosene, which is, above all, much cheaper. Of course, this is not the end, in addition to kerosene, you must have a specialized or ordinary (for teeth) brush. You will need protective gloves, a piece of cardboard to protect the ground and a container for kerosene.
The operation scheme is simple, you apply kerosene to the links, scrub gently with the brush, and finally wipe the chain with a clean cloth.
After cleaning the chain, it will be time to lubricate it. For this you will, of course, use a specialized grease. Remember that you should apply it to each link, but not carelessly, and preferably to the inside of each small component. With help can come long and thin applicators, which should come with a can of grease. Then all the work will become easier
If you ride only on sunny days, you do not need to lubricate the inside of the cells, if on rainy days – you should. Nevertheless, we encourage you to do this labor-intensive, but effective maintenance, where the grease gets into literally every nook and cranny of the links.
Once you have lubricated your chain, you can move on to checking for play in the links. The chain must not be pulled too tight or too loose. The best thing to do is to consult your owner’s manual available on the internet to find out what the maximum values for this parameter are. Once you know, move on to tensioning or loosening
Unscrew the bolt which attaches the rear wheel to the swingarm, use tensioners to adjust the chain to the optimum length and play in its individual parts. If you take care of it this way, which means cleaning, lubricating and tensioning, or possibly loosening it, you can count on trouble-free travel all season long.
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