Tools for newbies starting out

[Dodgyiti]

For newbies starting out doing their own maintence.
Although modern bikes are complex and in some cases tricky to do more than the basics, there is still a number of things you can do at home, to save money and make sure your bike is safe.
Before you even start to tinker with your bike, get some decent tools.
Don't use the factory tool kit if you can help it, these items are good if you need them on the side of the road, but the quality is in nearly all cases- crap.
The first thing to buy is an allen key set, then a select few spanners, pliers and so forth.
Do not buy a set of allen keys in a nice big set from an auto outlet for $15 or less !
These cheap items will bend, or worse, wreck the heads of those shallow head fairing bolts. Spend a minum of $25 on a small metric name brand set. The ones with a ball end on the long part of the shaft are best. The extra cost will pay its self back in no time, or the first time you use them.
Again with the spanners, you dont need 20 sizes to do routine maintence procedures. Get a ruler and measure the heads of the most common bolts on your bike, these are the size spanners you only need. Common to most jap bikes are 8,10,12,13,14,17,19,and something over 20mm for axle bolts. See, its far from a full set, you might even only need half of those sizes. Open end and ring combination spanners are best, ring one end, open the other.
Reasonable quality will do, second hand tool shops often have a good selection of loose spanners, rather than buying a full set.
Invest $10 or more on some good short and long nose pliers, these are so usefull, and crucial to the skin on your hands that they must do the job well and be of good quality.
A 10 inch crescent spanner is also good to have, only use it when you have to though, they do tend to round the heads off bolts when in the hands of begginers.
OK, so you now have some tools, and are keen to get stuck in?
Right, the best bit of maintence is preventitive. Wash the bike, and while you are at it, take a good look at everything, make sure it all looks OK.
Now get your spanners and allen key set and go over the whole bike, checking every nut and bolt to see it it is tight, not break a sweat tight though, just put the spanner on it, or allen key and give it a little pressure in the clockwise direction. If it dosent move, then sweet, go on to the next one. If it does move, or tighten with a little bit of pressure, then it might have worked loose. Tighten it up, and check on it after a few good rides. If it is loose again, then undo the offending fastner and put a drop of Loctite green on the theads after you have cleaned it up and tighten it up again.
Want a workshop manual for your bike? check the library before you go spending $30-$50 for your own copy, then check this site and the rest of the web first, there is usually some helpfull information out there without shelling out the $$
If you do find a loose bolt, and your not sure how tight it should be, generally you can feel it nip up, and its really hard to explain, sometimes you can find a bolt the same size,and test it to see how tight it is by undoing it then tightening it again to how it was, then tightening your loose bolt to the same. A torque wrench is expensice and not really needed untill you get pretty serious. Most modern bikes will never really have a problem, but at least doing this every 6 months or WOF time as i call it, will give you familiarity with your bike and using tools.
Oil changes, and filters is a good place to start. Changing the plugs would be the next thing, but buy some metric feeler guages and have the plug gap before you stat eh?
Good luck, I am all typed out. Remember, everybody has to start some where, and good tools will do the job for your lifetime, not just the bikes.

[StoneChucker]

And my 5, err sorry, thats soon to be 10 cents:

When you buy a torque wrench, make sure the torque settings you are following are for the RIGHT bolt! Otherwise, you'll be tightening away happily, waiting for the wrench to click when suddenly KA PINK, clatter..... off pops the head of the bolt you are trying to tighten, leaving the shaft in the bolt hole, and leaving you with a feeling of being shafted!

[saiko]

And my 5, err sorry, thats soon to be 10 cents:

When you buy a torque wrench, make sure the torque settings you are following are for the RIGHT bolt! Otherwise, you'll be tightening away happily, waiting for the wrench to click when suddenly KA PINK, clatter..... off pops the head of the bolt you are trying to tighten, leaving the shaft in the bolt hole, and leaving you with a feeling of being shafted!

Man that happened to me - remember to give it a good arc - if you tighten in little movements, it won't read right, and a high tensile head bolt is the worst bitch to drill out & remove with screw extractors

[Paul in NZ]

Bloody HATE Torque wrenches... They have collectively killed more bolts than anything else. Ya gotta develop the 'feel' (delivered in a Barry White voice) babes....

Paul N

[Madmax]

bummer is some of the small torque wrenchs cost more
than the big ones (check out the snap on catalogs)

[Dodgyiti]

Open to comments, every body has learnt from their mistakes.
You all would be jelous of my 3/8 drive torque wrench with dial guage, and Im not telling how much it cost, but 1 weeks wages for a 3rd year apprentice is close!
It is difficult to explain tightness to begginners.
I just had a nice newbie round here so I could look at a few things on his bike for him, which inspired me to write this thread.
I think when you are starting out, you buy the gear , the bike and get your licence, and by then you are strapped for $$, so it is a good time to do a few things for your self.
And I am no expert mechanic, but I am an engineer by trade and have worked as an automotive mechanic for a few years, also no problem has ever beaten me or have had to take a bike to the shop so far.

[Motu]

Hammers - there is a whole world of hammers...an extention of your arm,persuader of the beligerant.

[Dodgyiti]

Hammers - there is a whole world of hammers...an extention of your arm,persuader of the beligerant.

As a first year apprentice, fresh out of school, my wise old Scottish tradesman's first words of emparting knowlege were;
"If it dunnie give ya trouble lad, ya needs a bigger hammer"
I have lived the rest of my life by those important words of wisdom.

[justsomeguy]

Thanks for the help Dodgyiti.........


Will let you know tomorrow how it goes

[Motu]

The most important hammer is a fairly lightweight job used for tapping things off,on,around,backwards and forwards.I've had several over the years - often a 1lb job,sometimes I shorten the handle,you never use full force blows with this hammer...best of all are a panel hammer,you can use fast light blows to work away at something,very accurate to use.At the moment I alternate between a small brass hammer and a small dead blow - the thing is to hit without damage.

I have a large ball pein hammer that gives the death blow - if I hear the guys smacking away on something stubborn,I come along with my stick arms,killer hammer and a 300mm punch I made from a Landrover axle...a couple of really serious blows from this sorts things out.You gotta know when to tap,and when to really slam....as with nuts and bolts,it's all in the ''feel''.

[Ixion]

The most important thing of all was left out. A bl**dy solid vice solidly bolted down to a bl**dy solid workbench. Absolutely nothing worse than trying to work on something that you cant get a decent grip on.

I reckon it's false economy to buy cheap or even not-so-cheap tools. Buy the best you can get. Don't go to places like Repco, go to where the engineers go Paykels, Morris Black and Matheson, Trade Tools. You'll pay for brand names like Stahlwille, Sidchrome, SnapOn, Koken, Patience and Nicolson. But in the end run it works out cheaper. Just factor in the cost of the parts ruined because a spanner slipped or a drill broke.

[erik]

I dunno about that. I think some stuff you're better off getting them cheaper. Like with the vacuum gauges and compression gauge that I got. They were waaaaay cheaper from Mt Eden Cycles than similar items would have been from www.sulco.co.nz which I think is supposed to be a professional supplier. Perhaps they aren't quite as good quality, but for me they are more than adequate.
One thing that I think should be pointed out to newbies is the difference between phillips head and posidrive screws/screwdrivers and the importance of getting the correct sized/type screwdriver for the screw. In my experience, the screws on my bike are all phillips head, whereas screws used in carpentry are posidrive. They look similar, but it's easier to strip the head of the screw if you use the wrong screwdriver.

[Ixion]

I dunno about that. I think some stuff you're better off getting them cheaper. Like with the vacuum gauges and compression gauge that I got.

Yes, I'd go along with buying cheap (or cheaper, anyway) on something like that. A vac guage isn't going to damage anything if it is poor quality, and the small amount of use that a biker would give does not justify professional quality.

My observation was toward spanners, screwdrivers , sockets things like that where low quality can actually damage parts. Cheap spanners or sockets will round off bolt heads, cheap screwdrivers, apart from failing to remove the screw, will tear up the screw head so that it can't be removed. Etc

[Madmax]

shit im on motos side on this point

[Ixion]

shit im on motos side on this point

Always wise to keep onside with the guy who's got the big hammer