For some people doing maintenance on their motorcycle is something they leave to the professionals, they take their bikes into garages and get a mechanic to do the work. This is usually down to not knowing what to do to keep their bike in good shape.
While this is fine for some, you can save a lot of money buy doing the basic tasks yourself.
Take for instance a tire change. The average cost for replacing a tire can be anywhere between £30-£60 each plus the cost of the tire. That is if you take the bike to the garage and get them to take the wheel off, replace tire and reinstall.
Whereas if you take a loose wheel to them that price will drop to around £10-£15.
Taking the wheel off your bike can be daunting at first, there's axles, bearings, spacers, disc brakes etc to get confused about. But when you have done it once you will wonder why you every took it for the garage to do.
In this article I am going to concentrate on the front wheel, as there are differences in how to approach the removal of the rear.
First of all you are going to need:
- A front stand or jack that can lift the front wheel of the ground safely. (Essential)
- A selection of sockets and Allen wrenches (essential, sizes differ by bike model make sure you have them before attempting removal)
- A torque wrench
- A box that you can use to store all associated parts during removal (recommended)
- A rear stand (recommended)
The steps you will need take are as follows:
1. Removes fairings, fenders and any plastics that may be in the way.
Very simple step, most fairings are held in place by Allen bolts, just unscrew and remove anything that me impede the removal of the wheel.
2. Remove brakes.
There are two methods to this depending on if you have disc brakes, or drum brakes.
A. Disc brakes.
Remove caliper by unscrewing caliper mounts from fork legs. Gently pull the caliper away from the disc and secure with a cable tie/string as not to stress the brake hoses, repeat for second caliper.
B. Drum brakes.
Unscrew and remove linkage/cable that connects the brakes to the controls
3. Loosen the axle.
Again there are different ways to do this depending on bike.
A. If your bike has "pinch bolts" you must loosen these first. Then using correct size sockets hold one side of the axle still and loosen the other side. Do not remove yet, just loosen.
B. If your bike doesn't have pinch bolts simply loosen the axle as described above.
4. Lift the bike.
Now you need to lift the bike, weather using a front stand or a jack make sure the bike is safe and stable at all times. Only attempt on level firm ground, and once lifted secure with straps.
I also use a rear stand in this step as it keeps the bike level and more stable.
Lift the bike just until the suspension is fully unloaded you want the wheel to be just touching the floor.
5. Remove axle
YOU ARE NOW READY TO REMOVE THE AXLE, fully unscrew the axle and pinch bolts. The axle may need a slight tap with a rubber mallet to break free from the fork legs.
When it comes out you will have to catch the Speedo mechanism and any spacers that are used on the front wheel. Make sure you know which ones fit were.
The front wheel should now roll out.
You are now free to do maintainance on the front wheel without being charged mechanics fees.
Change tires, brake discs, bearings, whatever you choose.
To install the wheel simply do these steps backwards making sure all bolts are torque to factory settings (user manual for our machine has details)
Tips
- Clean and sand off any corrosion on the wheel spacers before reinstalling, it not only makes you bike look better but it removes the chance of foreign objects entering your bearings.
- Right down descriptions of parts removed and were they go.
- Keep parts in separate sections of a little box.
- If you don't have a box, replace the axle onto the fork legs with the right parts in the right order while the wheel is off.
Clean all parts thoroughly before replacing wheel, grit and dirt are your bearings worst enemy.
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