Essential Motorbike Maintenance Tips
If you’re a motorbike owner, then it’s essential that you know how to properly maintain your bike. This means not only doing pre-ride checks, which we’ll be covering shortly, but also taking steps to ensure the good health of your bike in the long term. Part of maintaining your bike is having motorbike insurance in place.
Key points
What Are The Essential Pre-Ride Motorbike Checks?
- Petrol: This one is simple – make sure you have enough petrol (or charge in the case of an electric motorbike) for your journey.
- Oil: You should also check the oil level of your bike before setting off on a journey.
- Water: If your motorbike uses coolant, you should also check its level.
- Drive: This refers to the chain tension. You should ensure it’s correct and well lubricated too.
- Rubber: You should check your tyre pressure as well as looking for any damage to the tyres. You should also check tread depth.
- Suspension & Brakes: Lastly is the suspension and brakes of your bike. You should test your brakes before setting off, including checking the brake fluid levels. You should also check the suspension is correct.
It’s easy to remember the above checks by using the acronym POWDERS. You should always make sure you do these checks any time you’re taking your motorbike out.
What should I do to ensure the long term health of my motorbike?
As well as doing the pre-ride checks mentioned above, you should also ensure that your bike is kept clean and you regularly test any nuts and bolts that might become loose over time.
What is the best type of motorbike insurance to get?
The main types of policies you can choose from are:
- Third party only: This won’t provide any real protection for your motorbike but it will make it legal to ride.
- Third party, fire and theft: As well as third party cover, you’ll also have cover for theft of your bike as well as damage caused by fire.
- Fully comprehensive: A fully comprehensive policy will cover your bike for damage from collisions, even if you were to blame. It usually includes fire and theft too.
You can also get additional types of cover such as breakdown recovery and legal expenses. Generally it’s a good idea to get the most protection you can while staying within your budget.
In Summary
- You should always carry out the POWDERS pre-ride checks before any journey on your motorbike.
- You should also carry out general maintenance on your bike, such as keeping it clean and checking nuts and bolts regularly.
- You’ll need to get motorbike insurance to make your bike road legal.
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