Maintaining your motorcycle is as important as maintaining your car. Motorcycles have some safety features, but routine maintenance is still important for any motorcycle owner. Here are some easy maintenance tasks that you can do to keep your motorcycle healthy. 

Walk around and look at it

This is a simple tip, but as RevZilla put it, when was the last time that you took the time to look at each part of your bike? Things very rarely break all of a sudden, it’s usually a more gradual decline. If you can spot it through routine checks with your own eyeballs, then you can get it fixed before it breaks. 

Check your battery

Having your battery fail on you while on a ride is an easily preventable situation. There are a lot of ways you can inspect your bike’s battery, but here are some other general tips. 

Be sure to check your battery with a multimeter tool every now and again to ensure that it’s in good health. Inspect your battery’s fuses if you know how to, and even if you don’t, try to keep a spare battery onboard in case the fuses get blown. And if your battery is over 5 years old, RevZilla suggests that you replace it now instead of waiting for it to die, as it will cost you more if you wait.

Tire checks

A bike’s tires are actually more resilient than many may think. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be wary of your tires getting too worn, though. You should do occasional checks to ensure that your tires are not damaged or on the verge of death.

Drive chain inspection

In general, good old-fashioned eyeballs are your best bet for inspecting your drive train. If nothing seems cracked or damaged, then it should be fine. You can also do a more detailed inspection with a gauge. In any case, be sure to routinely clean and lubricate the drive chain.

Brake checks

Brake pads are meant to fall apart slowly, so be sure that your brake pads can still do the job by inspecting its thickness. You can check your bike’s manual for the minimum brake pad thickness that’s safe to ride with. 

Brake line maintenance will depend on what kind of brake line you have, but RevZilla mentions that stainless steel ones are the best. Also, be sure to check your brake fluids. Your bike’s manual should tell you when you need to replace them.

Other fluids

Just like a car, changing your bike’s fluids should be a routine job. Again, refer to your manual to see when you need to do so. That said, you should change your coolant and your oil at least once a season according to RevZilla.

Filter check

You will also have to check your bike’s manual to see when you should do a filter change. RevZilla recommends always getting a new oil filter every time you change your oil. For your air filter and your fuel filter, you should refer to your bike’s manual to see when to replace them.

Controls check

This calls for checking more than just your throttle and clutch. RevZilla says you should also check your mirrors, your brakes, and your shifter to make sure that everything works smoothly. 

As usual, you can lubricate your controls if it doesn’t feel smooth enough and if it looks damaged, then you can replace or repair it now instead of waiting for it to fully break. 

Final inspections

Be sure to double-check anything you might’ve tampered with accidentally while doing earlier motorcycle maintenance checks. Also, be sure to check things like your tire pressure and the lights and horn. Lastly, there’s no better test than the road, and a quick shakedown ride is a great way to figure out if your bike has any other issues.