Share your maintenance schedules

[just-startin]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the game and I'm wondering what kind of maintenance actions you perform and when. I'm looking at a 125 or 250 2-stroke ( think YZ or CR )

What do you currently do after every ride?:
Clean bike ( Do I just hit it with a waterblaster ? )
Clean airfilter ?
Wipe down shocks ? ( do you wipe them with an oily rag or something ? )

What do you currently do at set intervals?:
Insert rough estimate of hours or whatever you use to measure your intervals
Replace airfilter at xx hours
Rebuild front shocks at xx hours
Rebuild rear shocks at xx hours
Clean and rebuild carb at xx hours
Repace rings at xx hours
Replace piston at xx hours
Rebuild bottom end at xx hours
Replace chain at xx hours
Replace tyres at xx hours
Replace spark plug at xx hours
Replace coolant at xx hours
Replace transmission fluid at xx hours

Cheers :)

 

[JunkmanDT250]

After each ride:
1. Remove all the plastics and the seat and scrub the bike clean with mild soap (dawn)a brush and then gently rinse. I never use high pressure for fear of forcing water into places it shouldnt be.

2. Clean and relube the chain and check tension.
3. Clean and reoil airfilter.
4. Check tires and set pressure.
5. Check for any obvious damage that may have occured during last ride.

Every 3rd ride(In addition to above):

1. Check torque on wheels, handlebars, and any other fasteners I can.
2. Change trans oil (If I have ben riding in wet conditions this is done immediately after the ride).
3. Check spokes for looseness.

I do alot more maintenance tha this including a complete teardown and go through at the end of the riding season or every 6 months, depending how much I ride. My suggestion is to get the owners manual and follow the recomendations and tailor changes to that to fit your riding environment. Hope this helps.

 

[just-startin]

Thanks for that. Good advice, I didn't think of checking torques on fasteners and inspecting spokes as part of a maintenance schedule, that could save me from a serious crash someday

I guess I'm a little worried about the costs involved with riding. Every bike I'm looking at buying seems to have had a new piston or a complete rebuild "xx" hours ago. Which seems to indicate that new pistons and rebuilds are a common and neccessary occurrence. What I don't know is how many hours between these in order to estimate ongoing costs

 

[ericz103]

Every ride
Check chain tension lube chain
bleed forks for air
Wash if excessively muddy

Every three rides
Change tranny fluid
Check/change air filter

When I think about it
Check tire pressure and spokes.
Check fasteners
Check brakes

When its needed
change piston and ring..maybe twice a year
also do a new plug with that


Problably not the role model maintenance schedule...but its worked so far. I don't understand the whole changing a top end after three rides. Seems to me you would have to really ring the crap out of your bike to make it worth it. And I am not fast enough to do that.

 

[just-startin]

change piston and ring..maybe twice a year

Wow ! I had no idea it was that often. How many hours would you be riding between new pistons ?

What's rough cost of a 125 or 250 2-stroke piston ? ( based on medium-quality piston )

 

[JunkmanDT250]

Id say 40 hours or so between top end rebuild(depending on how you ride) or when you start to see a degrade in compression/performance. I keep track of how many hours I ride and pull a compression check every 10. When the compression starts to fall off I usually get ready for a top end rebuild.

 

[just-startin]

Gotcha,
Assuming no obvious damage does a routine top end rebuild just consist of new piston and rings or do you need to do other things as well ( do anything to the cylinder or head ? replace power valves etc ? )

Actually, scratch that. I reckon I've expended my set number of newb questions :nod: that's what search is for : http://www.dirtrider.net/forums3/showthread.php?t=115918

However, I'm still keen to see my original table completed with rough values for the number of hours per maintenance action :laugh:

 

[stumanarama]

its no where near ideal and I'm sure I'm going to get reamed by everyone for saying it, but in the near year I've had my 95 I've never done a topend rebuild. It still has oodles of power, tons of compression and starts on the first kick every time( i kick it over slowly once or twice to prime it) and for those reasons I don't see an immediate need to replace my topend. On the other hand, I have replaced my fork seals after they ever so blatantly shat there oil all over the garage floor one night. and I have changed my chain and sprockets and repacked my headset bearings, and yada yada yada normal maintenance but as for the topend, why fix it if it ain't broke?(or showing signs that it may be broke soon) did that make sense?
.02$

 

[mxmatthew]

on my old bike I did a top end once a year. I ride probably about 4 hours a week for about 6 months of the year.

The last 2 times I did it the piston skirt was starting to crack. They were not forged pistons, mind you. That could've been some major damage if that came loose.

It made me glad I did it. Something to think about.....

 

[mxmatthew]

Oh and the last piston kit I bought was a wiseco forged piston (including all gaskets, rings and bearings needed) and I believe it was under $200.

 

[just-startin]

OK, thanks guys, there's a bit of consensus there. I'll work on around 40 hours between top-end rebuilds.

The parts cost does not seem exorbitant, especially compared to replacing everything as a result of failure.

How about shocks ? Rebuild once a year ? Rough parts costs for rebuilding these ?