Well,

After approx 3 years of ownership I have a burning question.

Sometimes I think that I am almost OCD when it comes to my VTR.

I ride it and thrash it and then feel guilty if I don't lavish some care and attention on it.!

What do you do?

Do you check everything and then make sure it's clean? or do you just park,it up until the next time and then thrash it again wondering when something's gunna give?

Tell us what you do and what you have found during your maintenance regime*

 

I tend to do preventative maintenance checks once a week due to all the issues I have had since the rebuild. Generally I have to add a small amount of break fluid to the clutch master cylinder due to a very small leak.

Since I don't have a garage I would also clean her up about every week and a half mainly to get the tree sap off.

 

Other than a regular pre ride safety check, cleaning and major maintenance will wait till the roads are long term wet. Could be as late as Christmas. Although an thorough check over by Thanksgiving will help with the Christmas list. Lol

 

Regular maintenance and adjustments, cleaning... no so much, in fact other than wiping here and there never actually washed it, don't see the point, the next ride I gets bugs and road dirt again, if it was parked in my leaving room, it would be a different story!

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

My bike has never seen water other than rain since I have owned it.

Common sense prevails here as we all seem to do the right thing by our bikes.

I guess that if something was wrong we would all feel it when we rode the bike.

I hate bugs, and there are plenty here in Oz at this time of year.

I believe that their bodies contain acids that if left on the bike will blemish the paint etc.

I am truly obsessed with keeping my bike clean as well as running the best I can get it to with all the mods I have done.

 

I check the basic maintenance items every couple weeks or so. Just recently got my superhawk but on my previous 4 bikes I've always kept up on maintenance. The last thing you want is to neglect it for a long period of time and have something go wrong during a long ride

 

I ride every day so cant check between every ride. I try to wash it once a week or so.

You hope to feel if something is amiss but really you should take the time to clean it since it tends to make you look at all the places stuff can go wrong.

At least check tire pressure. This bike is hyper sensitive to wrong (low) pressure.

I also try to clean the chain since I hate having to buy new ones and change them.

 

I use kerosene to clean my chain and inside where the clutch push rod goes.

I always oil my chain after a ride.

 

I check: tire pressure, all fluids, chain tension, and lights every ride and oil the chain when I get home. And every 16k do a tear down of the front end to check bearings in the steering head and swing arm, replace air filter, valve adjustment, and check for chaffing wires and loose hardware. It's a bit over bored but when I have nothing else to do then perfect timing.