What Motorcycle Maintenance Can You Realistically Do Yourself?
Do you need to know how to maintain your own motorcycle to be a motorcyclist?
No.
But understanding a few basic things about the motorcycle you ride can make ownership considerably easier.
One of the things we talk about in our Know Your Bike workshop is knowing your limits. There are things most riders can learn to check themselves, things you might choose to learn with someone more experienced, and jobs where getting a professional involved makes much more sense.
Where you sit within those categories will depend on your experience, your motorcycle, the tools and space you have available and, importantly, what you’re comfortable doing.
You don’t have to become a home mechanic.
The aim is to understand your motorcycle well enough to look after it appropriately — including knowing when not to do something yourself.
Checking Your Motorcycle Is Maintenance Too
It’s easy to hear the word “maintenance” and immediately imagine taking things apart.
But looking after a motorcycle starts long before you pick up a spanner.
Regularly checking your motorcycle helps you notice wear, damage and changes before they become bigger problems.
In Know Your Bike, some of the things we put firmly into the safe to check yourself category include:
- Tyres
- Lights
- Oil level
- Coolant level
- Chain condition
- General visual checks
None of those requires you to dismantle the motorcycle.
They’re about becoming familiar with what you’re looking at and knowing what normal looks like for your bike.
Start With Your Owner’s Manual
Before deciding what you’re going to maintain yourself, get familiar with your motorcycle’s owner’s manual.
Different motorcycles have different requirements.
Even something that sounds as simple as checking the engine oil may require a particular procedure. Your bike may need to be upright or on its stand, the engine may need to be warm or cold, and there may be a specific amount of time to wait before checking.
Chain tension is another good example. The workshop uses two of our own motorcycles to demonstrate just how different the manufacturer’s specifications can be. The Yamaha Ténéré 700 and Triumph Street Twin 900 have very different specified chain movement, and the method of checking can vary between motorcycles too.
So don’t assume that because you’ve learned how to do something on one motorcycle, the exact same method applies to another.
Check the manufacturer’s instructions for your bike.
Tyres: Something Every Rider Can Get to Know
You don’t need to know how to change a motorcycle tyre yourself to take responsibility for checking them.
Look for obvious damage, cracks, cuts and anything embedded in the tyre.
Check the pressures regularly using the manufacturer’s recommended figures and check them when the tyres are cold. Incorrect tyre pressures can noticeably affect how a motorcycle handles.
You can also learn to recognise general tyre condition and wear.
The workshop goes further into understanding tyre age and finding the four-digit manufacturing date code on the sidewall.
You don’t have to fit the tyres yourself to become someone who pays attention to their condition.
That’s an important distinction.
Oil and Coolant Levels
Checking fluid levels is another realistic ownership skill for many riders.
The workshop covers engine oil, coolant, brake fluid and clutch fluid where applicable, while emphasising that the correct checking procedure depends on the motorcycle.
Oil protects the engine, while coolant helps prevent a liquid-cooled motorcycle from overheating. Both require periodic attention and replacement according to the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule.
Checking a level and changing a fluid aren’t necessarily the same level of task.
You might be perfectly comfortable checking your oil but prefer your garage to carry out oil and filter changes.
That’s fine.
Lights and Electrics
Checking your motorcycle’s lights is straightforward and worth making part of your routine.
Check the headlight, rear light, indicators and brake lights. In the workshop, we suggest using a wall or placing your hand near the rear light if you’re checking the brake light on your own.
You can also become familiar with your dashboard and what the normal sequence of warning lights looks like when you start the motorcycle.
Battery condition is another area where riders may choose to become more involved over time. The workshop covers battery awareness, particularly for motorcycles stored over winter, and maintaining charge when the bike isn’t being used regularly.
But diagnosing an electrical fault is very different from checking that your lights work or maintaining battery charge.
We put electrical fault diagnosis in the professional category.
Chain Care Is a Good Next Step
If you have a chain-driven motorcycle, basic chain care is something many owners choose to learn.
That can include checking its condition, cleaning it and lubricating it.
The workshop explains that cleaning removes dirt and grit that contribute to wear while also giving you an opportunity to inspect the chain. Once cleaned, it should be lubricated using a product suitable for the type of chain fitted to your motorcycle and in accordance with the manufacturer’s guidance.
Chain adjustment is where we make a distinction.
It’s certainly something a motorcycle owner can learn, but in Know Your Bike we put it in the learn with someone experienced category rather than simply telling every rider to go home and adjust their chain.
There’s a reason for that.
Correct tension matters, and wheel alignment needs to be maintained when the chain is adjusted. The workshop specifically emphasises the importance of alignment and the problems that poor adjustment can cause.
Learn properly first.
Cleaning Is More Useful Than It Looks
Cleaning your motorcycle is one of the simplest maintenance habits you can develop.
Not just because a clean motorcycle looks better.
We describe cleaning in the workshop as inspection.
When you’re cleaning, you’re getting close to parts of the motorcycle you might otherwise barely look at. That can be when you notice a loose fixing, tyre damage, something missing or something that simply doesn’t look as it did before.
Bill has found everything from loose spokes and sprocket bolts to nails in tyres while cleaning vehicles over the years.
You don’t have to know how to repair what you find.
Noticing it is the important first step.
Looking After Your Bike After Wet or Salty Rides
Maintenance isn’t always about replacing parts.
How you look after the motorcycle between rides matters too.
The workshop covers cleaning after wet rides where necessary, drying the motorcycle and lubricating the chain. After riding on salted roads, it recommends rinsing with plenty of cold water before cleaning, drying and lubricating, with corrosion protection considered before winter.
These are relatively simple ownership habits that can help protect the motorcycle without requiring significant mechanical knowledge.
What Could You Learn With Someone Experienced?
Once you’re comfortable with basic checks, you might decide you’d like to do more yourself.
In Know Your Bike, we give examples such as:
- Simple servicing tasks
- Chain adjustment
- Battery replacement
- Air filter replacement
These sit in the middle category: learn with someone experienced.
That doesn’t mean they’re inherently beyond a motorcycle owner’s abilities.
It means there’s value in learning the correct process before attempting them alone.
And your motorcycle matters.
A spark plug that is easily accessible on one bike might involve considerably more work on another. Bill specifically uses the contrast between an older BMW and his Ténéré as an example in the workshop.
“Easy motorcycle maintenance” isn’t always universally easy.
What Should You Leave to a Professional?
There’s no award for doing everything yourself.
Know Your Bike places several examples firmly into the professional category:
Brake repairs, suspension work, internal engine repairs and electrical fault diagnosis.
The workshop also discusses jobs such as valve clearances and suspension servicing as work requiring specialist knowledge and skills.
The important principle isn’t that a motorcycle owner must never learn advanced mechanical skills.
Plenty do.
It’s that your willingness to attempt a job shouldn’t be greater than your competence to complete it safely.
There is nothing wrong with deciding that a particular job belongs with your garage.
Regular Servicing Still Matters
Doing some motorcycle maintenance yourself doesn’t replace proper servicing.
There are parts and fluids that need checking, adjusting or replacing at specified intervals.
The workshop covers engine oil, coolant, brake and clutch fluid and air filters as examples of routine service items, while more involved work can form part of major servicing.
Your owner’s manual contains the maintenance schedule for your motorcycle.
Keep track of it.
One of the simplest suggestions from the workshop is using your phone calendar to set reminders ahead of service and MOT dates.
You don’t need to perform the service yourself to take responsibility for making sure it happens.
You Don’t Have to Do Everything Every Time You Ride
A maintenance routine needs to be realistic or you’re unlikely to stick to it.
If you commute or ride very regularly, it may not make sense to carry out every possible check before every single journey.
Other riders may leave their motorcycle untouched for weeks at a time and need a more thorough look before returning to it.
Know Your Bike encourages riders to create a routine that fits how they actually use their motorcycle rather than following one supposedly perfect system.
You might have some things you check before rides, others you look at weekly or periodically, and scheduled maintenance that follows the manufacturer’s intervals.
The important part is that it happens.
You Don’t Have to Learn Everything at Once
Motorcycle ownership involves a lot of information.
If you’re relatively new to it, you don’t need to go from never checking your own oil to servicing the entire motorcycle in a weekend.
Start with familiarity.
Learn how to check your tyres properly.
Find the oil level.
Learn what your dashboard warning lights mean.
Understand what your chain should look like if you have one.
Get into the habit of looking around the motorcycle.
Then, if you’re interested, learn something else.
Over time, you may become comfortable doing considerably more yourself.
Or you may decide that you enjoy riding motorcycles and have absolutely no interest in servicing them.
Both are perfectly reasonable.
The Most Useful Skill Is Knowing Your Limits
Looking after your motorcycle isn’t about proving how mechanically capable you are.
It’s about taking appropriate responsibility for the machine you’re riding.
For one person, that might mean carrying out their own servicing.
For another, it might mean knowing how to check their tyres, fluids, chain and lights, noticing when something has changed and having a trusted garage handle everything else.
Both riders can look after their motorcycles well.
The useful questions aren’t:
“Should I be able to do this myself?”
or
“Would a proper biker know how to do this?”
They’re:
Do I know what I’m doing?
Do I have the correct information and tools?
Can I do this safely?
And if the answer is no, do I know who to ask?
Knowing when to put the tools down is a motorcycle maintenance skill too.
This article provides general motorcycle ownership information and isn’t a substitute for your motorcycle manufacturer’s instructions or professional mechanical advice. Always follow the maintenance procedures and specifications for your particular motorcycle and seek appropriately qualified help when you’re unsure.