Maintaining on your own bike

You've probably heard the old adage, "It's hard to find good help these days." Well, it's especially hard to find competent, reliable motorcycle mechanics, or "technicians" as some of them liked to be called. And it's not just a matter of cost or convenience; it's one of safety as well. Doing the work yourself can improve your chances of getting the work done properly and enhancing your safety on the bike. (Of course, if you have no clue what you're doing and attempt to go it alone on the brakes, front end, etc. you could end up killing yourself.) Here is a strategy for learning the basics of maintaining your bike. Follow these steps in the order listed:

1. Buy the maintenance manual

2. Find a competent partner

3. Invest in the tools you need

4. Establish a work space

5. Identify the local professionals

6. Tap into the Internet

Photo at top left: my garage with my FLHTCI Electra Glide Classic in the foreground

Buy a maintenance manual

When you buy a motorcycle, be sure to also buy the manufacturer's maintenance manual for that model, whether you plan to work on your own bike or not. You might change your mind later, especially for simple tasks like changing the oil or adding an electrically-powered accessory. Or your income situation might change for the worse and you'll find that whereas you once could afford the use of a professional for all of your maintenance, now you must be much more selective.

There are also pretty good manuals from after-market publishers such as Clymer.

If you buy an older model and the manual is out of print, go to online resources, such as eBay or Craig's List, in search of the manual.

The accompanying photo (right) is a picture of the cover for my 2006 Harley-Davidson FLHTCI Electra Glide Classic.

Find a competent partner

You will need a partner for some of your work and someone who is mechanically inclined and interested in helping you do a good job is the kind of partner you want. A partner serves multiple purposes:

• assist with two-person jobs, such as holding the fairing while you disconnect the head light wire
• double check your work to ensure you haven't forgotten a critical step or are about to cut the wrong wire, etc.
• help you locate the fastener that just fell on the floor (or did it even reach the floor?) and seems to have become lost in the Bermuda Triangle of small motor vehicle parts, and  
• they keep you company, which is more important than one might think.

Your spouse might not be a good idea unless they're blessed with great patience and an unusually high level of interest in your bike. Ideally, you want another rider with a bike similar to your own so you can return the favor of helping out with maintenance.

Invest in the tools you need

You cannot do the work without tools, which is rather obvious. What's not so obvious is that there are often tools available that can make a job much easier if you only had one of them when you needed it. Your maintenance manual will list the tools you need, but that's a bit extreme. Using your judgment, identify the tools you will need most often. Here's what's typical for me:

• 3/8-inch drive socket wrench with 6-point and 12-point English and metric* unit sockets, standard and deep depths; torx sockets; and allen head sockets
• open ended and box wrenches, English and metric*
• a good set of screw drivers, with a complete set of Phillips and Torx tips
• Allen wrenches
• oil filter wrench (sized for your filter)
• spark plug socket
• wire strippers & cutters
• plyers, including a set of needle nose; vice grips
• rubber mallet

*Every now and then, you'll need a metric socket on a Harley, or an English unit socket on a Japanese or European bike

I'm sure I've left something out, but you get the idea. These tools should get you started.  By the way, you can sometimes use a 12-point socket to work a torx head bolt.

Establish a place in which to work

An indoor work space is preferable to an outdoor space in most cases in order to keep out of the weather and to secure the job site if you need to step away before the work is completed. Dropping fasteners and other small parts is a given, so you will want to work on a clean, smooth floor with plenty of lighting. Ideally, you will have at least one movable light you can redirect to where you need light most. You will also want good ventilation so you can handle the emissions from glues, paints, and bike exhaust.

I use my own garage for smaller, simpler jobs and my friend Mike's for the more difficult tasks. His garage is heated for winter comfort and equipped with multiple large fans for summer comfort. He also has excellent lighting, a compressor with an overhead-mounted hose for use with pneumatic tools or for filling tires, and a wide variety of tools such as a bench grinder and drill press. (Thank you Mike!)  

Identify local professionals

I've gotten a lot of great advice from local professional mechanics. It wasn't free. Whenever I pay for work on my bike, I make every effort to learn as much as I can about the problem and the fix. I don't return to places where the staff won't discuss the details about what's wrong with my machine.

When you do your own work, you will occasionally run into a problem you can't solve but also find you are unable to back out of. That's when you need help and if you have a good relationship with a local professional, he (or she) can save you in a jam.

Tap into the Internet

There seems to be a mailing list or forum for every brand of motorcycle. I am a member of the HD Forums. These have been very helpful to me. For example, a couple of years ago when I added lights to my detachable Tour-Pak, I wanted to use modular wire connectors and the local HD dealership was useless when I tried to get any information from them. Other members of the HD Forum for my bike had posted all kinds of details I was able to use to order the parts I needed. WIth a quick search just now, I also found (but can't claim to have used yet) the 06 Harley-Davidson FLHTCI Electra Glide Classic discussion list. 

More recently, I have discovered how amazingly helpful YouTube videos can be. I found it a great revelation that mechanics and competent amateurs have posted extremely useful videos demonstrating even some fairly complex tasks, such as replacing the stator of a Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic motorcycle. I am only beginning to mine this treasure trove of information.

Before you pay big bucks to have a professional mess with your bike, ask yourself if you might be able to take care of it yourself. It's a major disappointment how many so-called professionals have made gross errors on my bike, given me grief while doing so, and then handed me a big bill at the end to add insult to injury. It's not been always a smooth or pleasant experience, but it has been very fulfilling, learning to maintain my own machine. Maybe it's something you would also find worthwhile.