Motorcycle abuse | GTAMotorcycle.com

Motorcycle abuse

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Ridin2TheGym

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What do you consider abusing a motorcycle? Revving hard as F off the line? popping wheelies? not doing the proper maintenance?

I've seen so many ads on kijiji saying motorcycle has never been abused. What does it really mean?
 
yes, maybe, yes
 
Lack of maintenance is probably the worse of all. The only problem with Wheelies is the forks seals might be leaking and revving the bike to red line is just stupid but no way to really know
 
I remember one shop selling a bike, and for a while the had a big picture of someone doing a burnout on it.

Its just words intended to project a feeling onto you.

It's probably as meaningless as "Excellent Communication Skills".
 
I remember once, being at L&L on an off night, and there were only three motorcycle people there. Me, a guy on a VFR, and some young man on a bike I can't remember, it probably had four cylinders. In the course of conversation the young man wanted to demonstrate something to us (maybe the sound of his bike?) so he walks over to his bike (which is cold and off), starts it, then immediately pins the throttle and violently, continuously bounces it off the rev limiter until he hears us yelling at him to not do that
 
Abuse is stuff that can prematurely break or wear out stuff that's expensive to repair. Some of it is obvious. Some might not be. Some things that look like abuse, aren't.

Bouncing a cold engine off the rev limiter ... actually, operating in the red zone of the tach at all ... cannot be good.
Overheating the engine is a good way to blow head gaskets and warp heads. Idling at a standstill or stuck in traffic for a long time ... is not good.
Missed shifts / grinding gears is REALLY not good.
Postponing oil changes or other maintenance ... not good.
Using oil of too low a viscosity in the hope of getting another horsepower out of the engine ... not good.
Excessive clutch slippage from a start, caused by someone who doesn't have a proper feel for clutch engagement ... not good but generally the wear parts are easily replaceable, BUT if excessive clutch particles floating around in the oil caused by excessive clutch slippage is combined with not changing the oil regularly ... not good.

Operating the engine below the red zone on the tach and with the temperature gauge in the normal range and without slipping the clutch too much when starting off ... is fair game. Backroads, track days, or roadracing - doesn't matter. Heck, even that burnout probably didn't hurt anything other than the tire, as long as someone got the tire spinning quickly (not slipping the clutch), stayed within redline, and didn't keep going until the temperature gauge was in the red.
 
There are lots of different ways to abuse a motorcycle, lack of maintenance or beating on the bikes engine etc can be just as bad as each other. My stunt bike is in better condition then a lot of peoples street bikes I see on the road today, it gets wheelied and dropped all the time but I fix everything that needs fixing. So you shouldn't judge that bikes condition based on how I ride it alone...Some people have mint looking bikes that look brand new, but they never change the oil or fluids in it till something breaks. So Ive seen it both ways bikes ridden hard and beat on but taken care of so are in good operating condition, then good looking bikes that are rarely even ridden and have had little to no maintenance and run or ride like crap.

You have to look at everything, the bike, what kind of riding it was used for, who rode it, who worked on it, what maintenance or repairs were done in its life time...
 
To be honest, outside of applying violent force to the bike it's hard to abuse a modern water cooled machine. Half the stuff that Brian just mentioned only applies to either older bikes, or bikes that have been modified for racing. Even doing stuff like being lazy with fluid changes will generally only shorten the life of components instead of making them outright explode.

The last time I did a tour of bikes for purchase, the hands-down worst, most "abused" bike was one that had just sat for over half a decade. *Everything* was shot on it - fork seals, shock, battery, chain, bearings, even the head gasket was weeping oil. Paint was still nice on it though.
 
If the bike is continually wheelied remember the front wheel components will be "practically new".

Edit: If it was me looking at a bike, aside from general condition on visual inspection (is it clean, looked after etc) then I'd be most bothered about whether regular maintenance was performed.

Shifty things I've seen: Seller "pre-warms" bike so that when it starts when buyer sees it, it starts great "first time" (see if engine is warm when you go round to look). Hack cover up jobs for tipovers/crashes not mentioned in ad.

Those two things aren't necessarily deal breakers but I'd consider it a little dishonesty on the seller's part.
 
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TwistedKestrel said:
To be honest, outside of applying violent force to the bike it's hard to abuse a modern water cooled machine. Half the stuff that Brian just mentioned only applies to either older bikes, or bikes that have been modified for racing. Even doing stuff like being lazy with fluid changes will generally only shorten the life of components instead of making them outright explode.

The last time I did a tour of bikes for purchase, the hands-down worst, most "abused" bike was one that had just sat for over half a decade. *Everything* was shot on it - fork seals, shock, battery, chain, bearings, even the head gasket was weeping oil. Paint was still nice on it though.
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Must agree, sitting is a seals worst nightmare, also brake calipers, etc...
 
Lack of abuse just means nice soft controlled landings from wheelies. Repaired/hidden crash damage also counts.
 
Zx600 said it. Lack of maintenence is the worst abuse. If yiu can't afford to keep it nice don't ride.
 
JohnnyP636 said:
There are lots of different ways to abuse a motorcycle, lack of maintenance or beating on the bikes engine etc can be just as bad as each other. My stunt bike is in better condition then a lot of peoples street bikes I see on the road today, it gets wheelied and dropped all the time but I fix everything that needs fixing. So you shouldn't judge that bikes condition based on how I ride it alone...Some people have mint looking bikes that look brand new, but they never change the oil or fluids in it till something breaks. So Ive seen it both ways bikes ridden hard and beat on but taken care of so are in good operating condition, then good looking bikes that are rarely even ridden and have had little to no maintenance and run or ride like crap.

You have to look at everything, the bike, what kind of riding it was used for, who rode it, who worked on it, what maintenance or repairs were done in its life time...
Click to expand...


Johnny p couldn't have said it better.
 
-- no oil changes
-- constant revving past redline
-- power shifting (shifting without the clutch)
-- leaving outside in the winter
-- failure to do any regular maintenance, using the wrong oil.
-- off-roading with street bike.
-- overloading the bike.
 
Some bike are also subject to emotional abuse from their owner at a young age and develop emotional problems during adult hood.


"If i was educated, I'd be a damn fool"
 
Ridin2TheGym said:
I've seen so many ads on kijiji saying motorcycle has never been abused. What does it really mean?
Click to expand...

It's just typical kijidiot language that people cut and paste from other ads, like,

"no time to ride"
"dropped in driveway by previous owner"
"custom paint"
"too many upgrades"
 
JohnnyP636 said:
You have to look at everything, the bike, what kind of riding it was used for, who rode it, who worked on it, what maintenance or repairs were done in its life time...
Click to expand...

I saw many bikes this spring, not one had any evidence of ever having bled the brakes or replaced the coolant over 8 years.
Forums obsess about oil changes, Rotella, oil analysis , full synth, blah,blah,blah but it seems few people understand what keeping the same brake fluid and coolant will do to corrosion internally.

Part of the problem is people who pay to store and maintain their bikes at some dealers who charge for "fluid inspection" every season, and that typically means nothing. Brake fluid is not supposed to be urine yellow-brown.

No one reads maintenance schedules, most used sales don't even have the manual any more.
 
Talked to a nice fella (Hayabusa, hope he's not on here) last night about his $300 oil changes. Something about fairings or some such. Apparently it's labour intensive, ergo the cost. Factored over the accrued to date milage I'm thinking about $3000 give or take. So ya, the odd oil change might get skipped.
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