Before buying your first motorcycle you should take some time to ask yourself some important questions. You might think you're in the market for a Harley motorcycle and then suddenly find yourself uncomfortable with the massive size and weight of the bike.  A lot of people jump in headfirst when buying a motorcycle without actually putting the time and research into doing a little homework before dropping the big bucks.

Answer these questions before making the leap.

What is your riding style?

This is an important question to ask yourself, because there are many different types of bikes out there and they all offer a different style of ride. Answering this question will help you determine exactly what kind of bike you should get for yourself.

Are you experienced?

There is absolutely no doubt that riding a motorcycle is great fun. But we all know it can be just as dangerous, especially when inexperienced. Obviously you should have your M license before riding, but make sure that invest the time into learning how to ride properly, and take an extra course if you are not 100% sure that you are ready to head out on the open highway.

How much money do you want to spend?

Buying a motorcycle is usually for fun or a hobby, since most people have other forms of transportation. Bikes range anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000 or more for a brand new model. You can find plenty of great deals through dealerships and private sales, so take your time and shop around for the best deals without sacrificing good quality.

Now that you have all that figured out, don't forget about your accessories! You will need some good riding gear, depending on what state you live in, you may be required to wear full leathers when you ride. Some states such as Florida and California don't even require a helmet, but it's wise to wear one anyway.

Although most people prefer to store their motorcycles during the winter months, those of you who don't will still be able to use these helpful tips to keep your bike in the best shape possible. Even though many of you have most likely already started your winter storage process, for those that wait until the last minute it's not too late to get started on preparing your motorcycle for its way too long winter sabbatical.

Here is a basic check list below that you should have done before you put your bike away to ensure that your ride will be running smoothly for the spring.

1. Give your motorcycle good wash and lubricant

Salt, dirt and sand will rust, damage and corrode the surface of your bike if you put it away dirty.  You should always make sure to give your motorcycle a good cleaning before you put it away for the winter. Lubricating the chain, and cables and all moving parts is crucial so that they don't rust.

2. Be sure to get a fuel stabilizer

Leaving gas in your bike tank for more than 3 or 4 weeks while it's sitting is not smart. Any gas that remains in the tank will begin to oxidize and become varnish. This is very damaging to your bike, so make sure that you empty your tank and get a fuel stabilizer to get rid of any residue.

3. Get the oil changed

Once you have added fuel stabilizer, you can now get your oil changed. Same as leaving fuel in the tank, old oil will be contaminated and will oxidize after a long period of time. Although it seems pointless to many, changing the oil will actually freshen it up for when it's ready to come out of storage after a long winter. It will remove old dirt and debris from your tank and will keep your engine running smooth.

4. Take care of your battery

If you live in a cold climate, you need to make sure to remove your battery and place it somewhere where it can store in a nice cool and dry place. It's imperative that you also keep your battery charged so that it doesn't lose its life after a long period of not running.

5. Cover your motorcycle

Seems pretty cut and dry, but a lot of people store their bikes in garages without a cover. It's a simple solution to what could end up costing you money later on.

There are several other things that can be done to prepare your bike for storage, but above are the 5 most important steps to ensure that your bike will run smoothly when you’re ready to ride in the Spring.

We were making survey about what items motorcyclists are bringing with them on a road. Besides wearing personal items such as cell phone, cash, credit cards, the majority of motorcyclists are thinking about Murphy’s Law and take spare motorcycle parts more or less. According to our survey the most needed on-the-road items are mentioned down bellow. 

Tools for repairing more perishable motorcycle parts. Most of the motorcycles come with toolkits, but if you don’t have one, it would be advisable to get equipped with pliers, wrenches, wire cutters, duct tape and of course pump or CO2 cartridges ( little battery-sized cylinders that deliver a burst of pressured gas and refill tires really fast).  

Key spare motorcycle parts. It’s really good to take extra spark plugs, fuses, bulbs, chain oil on the road. You never know when a motorcycle part will break down.

First Aid Kit. You’ll never know what will happen on the road. You can get scratches, burns from the pipe and similar little accidents.

GPS. If you don’t have one already mounted on your motorcycle it’s good to have portable GPS with you. It’s really easy to get lost on the road.

Before going out on the road it’s recommended to inspect your motorcycle. First, make sure your tires are properly inflated by mounting air pressure monitor to them. Check your controls (brakes and clutch) if they work well. Checking the lights before going on the road is really essential. Make sure your headlights, turn signals and brake lights are working. And lastly check all oils and fluids; everything from engine oil to brake fluid. 

Today we will be making retrospective by interviewing experienced motorcycle repair guy about his rarest motorcycle part issues he ever collided. If you want to share some weird problem please feel free to comment down bellow. Note* we’re talking about problems connected mostly to really old motorcycles, age 20-30 years.

Weird motorcycle part problem - The headlight comes on/ doesn’t want to turn off when the motorcycle gets wet:

Whenever the motorcycle gets wet from washing or raining the headlight comes on regardless of the off position of the headlight switch or the ignition switch. The only way to turn the headlight off is to disengage the battery.

Weird motorcycle part problem solution:

The most probable issue is that the wiring is getting wet and it holds water. The motorcycle must get wet so the headlight comes on again and then you’ll need to track the connections to find the short.

Another similar and hard for resolving problem – the high beam control light and the rear indicators are on but the motorcycle itself doesn’t want to start. Just the same as the previous problem the battery needs to be disengaged and after the first starting attempt the condition is the same.

This issue is mostly connected to the wirings but for resolving it needs to be inspected more carefully and the solution depends of the motorcycle parts and of the motorcycle brand.  

As I said before everyone is encouraged to share their stories associated with unusual motorcycle parts issues.  

Do you have Harley Davidson motorcycle that warms up while running? What happens if you run your motorcycle with wrong battery.

The answer to these questions sometimes is simple and sometimes you’ll need help from experts to solve the issue. The following issues are more or less represented at same-brand motorcycles:

Issue 1:  Motor warming up at Harley Davidson.  Accompanying to this issue is having difficulty when getting into neutral while running and when you have to stop at traffic lights. On the other side your motorcycle doesn’t have difficulty getting into neutral before starting it.

Solution 1: There is no real solution for this issue because it’s quite common at many Harley Davidson motorcycles. Sometimes helps changing the oil into a different brand.

Issue 2: Running a motorcycle with wrong. Having installed wrong motorcycle part in your motorcycle is really wrong decision.  The charging system can be damaged and it might overcharge and blow out most of the light bulbs including the expensive front headlight.

Solution 2: The solution is preservation your motorcycle by installing original motorcycle parts.

Issue 3:  Old motorcycle doesn’t want to idle down. This motorcycle parts issue is common with old motorcycles that weren’t running for years.

Solution 3: The issue in the vacuum leaks around the shafts through the body that the butterfly valves pivot on. Sometimes they cause the linkage to bind up not letting the RPMs to drop off quickly. You can help to reduce the problem by backing out the mixture screw 2-3 turns.  

If we’ll run through previous blog posts, we’ll notice that many of motorcycle parts issues are more or less connected to carburetor’s work.  Carburetor is known as pretty vital motorcycle part.  The engine without carburetor, would not work. Let us explain what actually carburetor does for our motorcycle in next paragraph.

Today we won’t bother you with modern motorcycle carburetor but with the simplest one that have been around for quite a while. In the picture you’ll see a carburetor on a spark ignition engine which is not the same as motorcycle with diesel engine. The main difference between carburetor on a spark ignition engine and carburetor on a diesel engine is that the first one controls the engine speed by throttling the amount of air send to the engine (carburetor on a diesel engine doesn’t work with air throttling).

The main motorcycle parts of spark ignition engine carburetor are:

Fuel bowl. This motorcycle part provides a source of fuel. It’s like one big dish with fuel where the air pressure over the fuel is equal to the normal atmospheric pressure level. Regulation of the air pressure in the fuel bowl is done by the fuel bowl vent- basic carburetor’s part.

Venturi. This part is portion of the carburetor’s main air passage that momentarily narrows down. How venturi accelerate air coming into the engine?  Some guy called Venturi found out that if you took passageway like a tube, and narrowed it down just a bit in the middle, the air flowing through it would have to accelerate as it went through the narrowed down portion. It would then return to its normal speed at the other side of the tube where things open up again.

Fuel jet. This motorcycle part is connection between the Fuel bowl and the Venturi motorcycle part. How the fuel comes from the bowl to the venturi? Well, pretty much simple pressure technique: As the airflow in the venture accelerates its pressure drops below normal surrounding atmospheric pressure, but the air pressure in the fuel bowl is still at normal atmospheric level and the difference between the two is what draws the fuel up through the jet passage.

Throttle butterfly. Some carburetors have throttle butterfly part. This motorcycle part is there to control the amount of air going into the engine. The stationery engines have a fixed rate carburetor and don’t vary the amount of airflow.

In the upcoming blog posts we’ll get to know more complex carburetors and other main motorcycle parts.

Cleaning motorcycle parts can be tough from time to time. For example, cleaning rusted motorcycle fuel tank can be quite challenging. Besides cleaning the actual motorcycle part it’s also recommended to pay attention on the other accompanying tiny motorcycle parts. Let’s start with cleaning:

Fuel Tank. Fuel tanks in most cases get rusted when the there’s fuel inside siting for a long time. We have already discussed how to clean rusted motorcycle fuel tank and we won’t talk about again. The only suggestion we have here is to invest in new motorcycle part called inline fuel filter (of course if you don’t have one yet).  This filter can stop the dirt and rust going through the jets and you’ll save yourself from having engine problem.

Carburetor. Use Yamaha carb cleaner or boil your carburetor in a lemon juice for 20 minutes and blow out all the passageways. The main and idle jets can be cleaned with guitar wire. When installing the carburetor checks that there are no air leaks on the intake tube. Air leaks can lean out the fuel mixture causing a misfire.

Filters. Make sure the air filter is clean. There is also a fuel filter on the fuel petcock valve inside the fuel tank; it’s possible to be plugged up. And tank air vent needs to be clear.

Connections. Clean all the electronic ignition connections with electronic spray cleaner. 

After doing comparison on what kind of problems at motorcycle parts would be common. Here are few that caught our attention:

Old non-running motorcycle sitting outside.  We already have been talking about motorcycle parts intervention  when power is off  previously, but let’s look at this problem from a different angle:  After cleaning the gas tank, carburetor and changing the spark plug and fluids the motorcycle could work but after a while the engine would cut off.  If we are talking about Kawasaki dirt bike good idea is to check the valve clearance. If none of the valves are too tight then it might be a sticky valve.  For this run ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) or top end fuel additive in the fuel. Motorcycle parts Tip: Often sputtering is a lack of fuel but a spark plug reading should tell. Black is too much fuel and light color mean lean or hot fuel mixtures.

Backfire out of pipes.  Some motorcycle guys would try to replace all spark plugs and I’m sure their backfire would remain the same.  The backfire is probably unburned fuel lighting off in the exhaust system, after fuel fouling the spark plugs.  Also it could be a failed air cut valve diaphragm. Few motorcycle part checks can be done: check the pulse generators in the stator at the connectors with an OHM meter (if both read the same, than they are okay), check the air cut valve first if it’s on that carburetor and check the first fouled spark plug’s cylinder is attached to.

That’s all for today, soon there will be more common motorcycle part problems. 

Today we are going to explain the basic motorcycle parts safety check motorcyclists should do before riding their motorcycle. There are numerous motorcycle parts that should be checked but this basic safety check includes only few:

1. First motorcycle part that should be checked is the tires from your motorcycle. More precisely the amount of air in your tires should be examined.  The best way is to follow the service manual from your motorcycle model. For example the touring motorcycle model tires air states anywhere from 36 to 42 pounds. Mature motorcyclists would tell to keep 40 pounds in mind.
2. Another thing that is good to check and to make sure, is that all lights are working properly. First you are going to turn on your ignition, check your left and right turn signals, front and rear, headlight and bright light and horn. After you have checked your headlight, you want to check your taillight and brake light. Make sure that your tail light is working. Depress your front brake and watch your brake light come on. Come around to the rear brake pedal, and you can press your rear brake pedal and watch your brake light come on.
3. After the checking of your lightning you need to check your rear tire as well as your front tire. Check under your bike and make sure there are no leaks of any kind of oil or any other lubricants.
4. Sit on our bike and adjust your mirrors. Make sure your mirrors are in proper position.

By checking this few motorcycle parts you are pretty much ready to pass your basic on the road safety check.