Motorcycle Pre-Trip Checklist
In the interests of safety, keeping your motorcycle well-maintained should be a top priority. Collisions and breakdowns are often the result of a bike that’s in disrepair, which is why performing regular maintenance tasks at home and getting your bike professionally serviced is so important.
Before every ride, you can reduce your risk of getting into an accident by performing a pre-trip inspection to make sure every component of your bike is in good working order. Indian Motorcycle® of Orange County in Westminster is your southern California dealership, so we’ve provided you with the following pre-trip checklist to help you ready yourself for all of your upcoming motorcycle rides.
Check Your Tires
The two wheels of your bike are responsible for holding up the weight of you and the motorcycle itself, and they maintain constant contact with roads of varying quality. This can result in damage over time as well as low pressure. Use a tire-pressure gauge like the one you keep in your car’s glovebox to check the tire pressure on both tires and air them up according to the manufacturer’s recommended psi levels.
While you’re down there, examine each wheel for signs of uneven or excess wear, bald spots, low tread, cracks or embedded objects that may merit repair or replacement. Never ride on bad tires!
Test Your Throttle, Clutch & Brakes
These components are vital to your bike’s functioning, so it’s important to test them out and make sure each of them works properly. If you feel resistance while switching gears or hear grinding, then your clutch may not be engaging fully. Squealing brakes or brakes that are slow to respond also need to be looked at. A throttle that idles at high speeds when you’re not in gear is a throttle that isn’t closing properly. Each of these issues needs professional attention.
Fill Up Your Tank
This might seem like an obvious tip, but plenty of riders have risked riding with the needle on “empty” and gotten themselves stranded by the side of the road with no gas in their tank. Before you hit the highway, make sure to fill up your tank with gas. You never know when you’ll have to take a long detour or when there might be a big gap between stations in the middle of nowhere.
Inspect Fluids
Check your motorcycle’s oil as you would on a standard vehicle by removing the dipstick, wiping it with a cloth or paper towel, re-inserting it and removing it again. Compare the color and consistency of the oil to the chart. If you’ve got transparent, runny oil, then you’re in good shape and only need to top it off. However, if you’ve got sludgy, opaque oil, then it’s time for a change. Take note of any metal shavings in the oil, as this means parts of your engine are grinding together and you’ll need to take your bike into the mechanic pronto.
As for brake fluid and coolant, you’ll just want to check the levels of the reservoirs and top off the fluid where necessary. However, if you find pooling fluids under your bike, that’s also an issue that merits professional attention. Keep your radiator cap tightly sealed and never let your brake fluid completely run out!
Remember that you can always contact the service department here at Indian Motorcycle® of Orange County if you come across a maintenance issue you can’t address at home. Our staff will be more than happy to set up an appointment for you with our service department. Still don’t have a bike? Visit our Westminster, California, dealership today to take a look at our current stock of new and used motorcycles for sale, including Indian® motorcycles. Indian Motorcycle® of Orange County welcomes all of our SoCal customers throughout the Inland Empire, including everyone in greater Los Angeles.