Motorcycle Maintenance
Your motorcycle provides you with an easy, affordable and convenient means of transportation for both work and leisure. Whether you like to use your motorcycle for daily work commutes or for weekend touring trips, you’ll only get the most out of your bike if you put something back into it. Maintaining your motorcycle is a key part of motorcycle ownership. While you may think that maintenance must be done by an expert, the truth is that you can perform many of the tasks in your garage, which will help keep your motorcycle in peak condition.
Wisconsin Harley-Davidson, located in Oconomowoc, is your local Harley-Davidson® motorcycle dealer. Below, you’ll find some of our recommendations for common motorcycle maintenance tasks that you can easily perform at home with the right tools.
1. Read Your Owner’s Manual
While the tips below are broadly applicable to many different types of motorcycle, it’s always smart to know how your particular bike functions. Check your owner’s manual for advice on what fuel and oil to use, what products you should use to clean your bike and what pressure your tires should maintain. Keep track of maintenance and repairs in your owner’s manual so that you have a handy record in the event you choose to sell your bike later on.
2. Check Tire Pressure & Condition
Your bike’s tires maintain constant contact with the highway and take a lot of abuse. It’s important to make sure they’re in good shape before each ride. Use a tire-pressure gauge to check the psi level of each tire and compare it to the psi level in your owner’s manual. Air up tires as needed.
While you’re down there, make sure that your tires don’t have any cracks in the sidewall, bald treads or embedded objects in them. Riding on bad tires is never safe, so be sure to replace or repair faulty tires before your next ride.
3. Change Oil
Just like a car engine, your motorcycle engine requires oil to keep its parts limber and functional. Check your oil by removing the dipstick, wiping it with a soft cloth, reinserting it into the reservoir and removing it again to check the color and consistency of your oil. If your oil is clear and runny, you can simply top it off and move on, but if it’s sludgy and thick, you need an oil change. Make sure that the oil filter is changed at the same time.
4. Tend To Your Battery
Your bike won’t start without a functional battery, so if you’re having issues with your engine turning over, then check your battery. Old batteries may need to be replaced, but a newer battery may have simply run out of charge. If your battery continues to drain quickly, then you may have an issue with your alternator.
If you plan to store your bike for some length of time, it’s smart to place your battery on a tender, which plugs into the wall and keeps your battery’s charge topped up. Allowing the battery to wear down will result in it ceasing to hold a charge, necessitating an expensive replacement.
5. Get Your Bike Serviced
Of course, you can only do so much at home, and you may find that there are some problems you just can’t address. That’s where the experts come in. Contact the Wisconsin Harley-Davidson service department to schedule a maintenance appointment with our team of professional mechanics. We can take a look at your motorcycle and figure out what the issue is, then fix it so that you can get back on the road as soon as possible.
If you need a new bike, then take a look at the stock of new and used motorcycles for sale at our Oconomowoc dealership location by browsing through our website. Wisconsin Harley-Davidson proudly serves the cities of Milwaukee and Madison, WI.