Servicing, repairs and keeping a motorcycle running.
The one calculation behind the whole chart Final drive ratio is the rear sprocket’s tooth count divided by the front sprocket’s tooth count. Nothing else goes into it: final drive ratio = rear teeth ÷ front teeth A 45-tooth rear on a 16-tooth front is 45 ÷ 16 = 2.81:1, meaning the gearbox output shaft … Read more
The short answer, and the condition attached to it Yes — on most modern motorcycles, changing a sprocket changes what the speedometer reads, and by an amount you can calculate exactly before you buy anything. But it depends entirely on where the bike takes its speed signal from, and that is the part almost nobody … Read more
What the three digits actually mean A motorcycle chain is stamped with a three-digit number — 420, 428, 520, 525, 530 — and the number is not a model code. It is two measurements written next to each other. The first digit is the pitch, in eighths of an inch. Pitch is the distance from … Read more
You are scrolling through the classifieds, you spot a great deal on a used bike with 45,000 miles, and you immediately ask yourself: exactly what is a lot of miles for a motorcycle? The honest answer is that it depends completely on the type of machine you are looking at. While 45,000 miles on a … Read more
You walk into the garage, do your standard pre-ride inspection, and spot it: a thin, oily smear running down the chrome of your front suspension. Or maybe it has already progressed further — a thick, grimy crust of dried oil and road dirt forming a dark ring around the lower fork tube. This is a … Read more
A “12-volt” motorcycle battery does not actually read 12.0V when it is healthy — if yours does, it is nearly dead. The name “12V motorcycle battery” refers to the nominal system voltage, not the actual reading you should see on a multimeter. Understanding what voltage your battery should show at rest, during cranking, and while … Read more
Picture this: you walk out of a dealership holding a $600 bill for a “tune-up” you genuinely thought would cost $150. Or you pay an independent shop $80 and spend the rest of the week wondering if safety corners were cut. The direct answer is that a basic motorcycle tune-up cost typically ranges from $100 to $300 at most … Read more
Picture this scenario: you park your bike in November and throw a tarp over it. Spring rolls around, you gear up, hit the starter button — and get a dead click, flat-spotted tires, and a carburetor gummed up solid with green varnish. Do not be that rider. Properly winterizing a motorcycle takes about two to three hours … Read more
If I had a dollar for every time a new rider asked me, “how long do motorcycles last?”, I could buy a brand-new showroom floor model. The short answer: a well-maintained motorcycle can easily last 50,000 to 200,000+ miles — or survive 20+ years on the road. But as any experienced mechanic will tell you, the long … Read more
Your motorcycle’s stator is the component responsible for generating the electricity that charges your battery and powers every electrical system on the bike — lights, ignition, fuel injection, instruments, heated grips, everything. When riders say their “stator is fried,” they mean their bike has stopped generating electricity. The battery drains, the lights dim, and eventually … Read more
