-Wash your bike!!!! I understand that it is called a DIRTBIKE but come on. Dirtbike means that it is suppose to ride on the dirt not the dirt ride on the bike. When was the last time that you really wahed your bike. Last week or when you first bought it. And I mean really sat down and cleaned the chain thoroughly, washed behind and underneath the swingarm and cleaned all the gunk on the linkage and underside of the motor. For several people washing a bike consists of throwing the bike on thier least favorite stand (cause they don't want thier fancy race stand to be caked in mud) and spraying from a distance no less than 80 feet with a garden hose. Washing a bike in my opinion is the very best thing you can do for your bike. Take the time to pull the plastics, tank and grab a bottle of your favortie cleaner and a toothbrush. By doing this you throughly get to see what kind of condition your bike is really in. You are able to look at the frame and subframe for cracks or stress marks. You are able to see how seals, chain sliders and many other parts are handling your repentive abuse. Bike washing of this sort is also a great pregreasing ritual which I will explain in the next section. But consider this as givine your bike a conplete physical, and one sweet-looking ride to take out to your next trip.
-Grease the moving parts!! Grease is your bikes favorite friend. We all know that grease can be a messy thing but it rules on the more bang for your buck scale than any other thing you can do to your bike. Grease is cheap but a real life saver when you think about it. Bikes are comprised of more than 25 bearings and pivot points. All of which play a major part in bike movement. You can have the most powerful engine and best suspension done by your favortie shop but if your wheel or linkage bearings are rusted or seized all that power and suspension do you no good. To test this therory ride your bike at your favorite track or trail for as long as you want. Once done go home and spend the time to wash and regrease everything. Head, wheel, linkage, kickstarter and pivot points. As long as you dont find any broken, bent or rusted bearings you will find out the next time that you go riding the bike well handle and run better than before. And in the long run the more you grease your bike the less you have to buy the things you didnt grease.
-Care for your cables. Stiff or sticky cables are difficult to pull and can fatigue you more than you realize. Your hands are what keep you and your bike in control, so you want your control mechanisms to work as easily as possible. A smooth and easy throttle is always easier to control than a rough sticky one. And everyone knows that a well-lubricated clutch makes for a sweet clutch pull. So take the time pull the cables and give them a squirt of cable lube. The other side of lubricating you cables is that the life of the cable greatly increases.
-Change your fluids. The most neglected part of any bike is often the most crucial. Fluids play a big part not in just your engine but also in your forks and shock. These fluids just as your engine fuilds do not last forever. Engine oil after a long period of time gunks up thus cause the motor to spool slower and cause a big power drag. The same plays in the suspension. Your forks have more than twice the oil capacity of the shock, so the shock's oil is worked harder and subjected to much greater heat. Once the fluid breaks down your suspension becomes severaly affected. Your handling becomes worse and overall your body takes the landings. So all that revalveing of your suspension, the high performance piston, the hundreds of dollars you spend each time you ride only goes to waste if you run your bike unitl the fluid goes bad. Change your fluid often.
-Bleed the air from your forks. Actually do this now AND each time you ride. The fork is a somewhat sealed system, and it works best when the air pressure inside matches the pressure outside. If you go up or down in altitude, the pressure will be off. Plus, pressure builds with tempature and while you ride. There's a reason the fork manufacture put a bleed screw on top. If your really smart, buy some of the push button type bleeders, install them and have a better suspension action at the push of a button.
-Dial in your suspension. You can spend thousands of dollars in engine mods and go fast parts for your bike to get that factory bike look and feel. But the crucial element is your suspension. Everyone has thier own way of setting up thier suspension and it may be time consuming but force yourself to take a day to learn how to set up your suspension and what each adjustment does to your bike. If still having trouble there are many articles on the web on how to set up your suspension. And if you are like me and forget things of this nature Eric Waunch has a video that you can purchase to help remind you of the small things. Just follow the link.
http://ewmxschools.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/133607815/m/929105685 -
