| We all have to have maintenance carried out on or bikes at some time, and for this we have two options, three if you include 'Phone a friend'! We either take it to a dealer / workshops or do it ourselves! Now the workshop option is by far the easiest, but it is the most expensive and if what is reported in 'Ride' magazine is general, then you will never know whether all that should be done, has been done! Even if you are charged for it! My experience is that even having tyres changed, nuts & bolts are not tightened to the correct torque, mostly due to a torque wrench never seeing the light of day! Carrying out your own maintenance requires that you have the correct tools for the job in hand, and a workshop manual, which will tell you how to go about what you are going to do and also the correct torque settings for the various nuts & bolts when you re-assemble what ever you have played with! You will need a good quality metric socket set, which should include a socket for the rear axle nut, 15/16" is the one I use but the metric equivalent is available, A set of feeler gauges, screwdrivers of which a set with changeable heads is most useful, a set of metric allen keys, and the most important tool of all, a torque wrench! There are two types, which are available, the cheapest of which is the torsion bar type. The bar has a scale attached to it and from the handle end a pointer is set to the mid range point on the scale, which is zero force. Either side of zero, the scale will be marked in Kgf / m, Nm or ft / lbs ( lbf / ft ). As the bar is pulled to tighten the nut or bolt, the bar will bend and the scale will move beneath the pointer. When the pointer is at the desired point, the torque is set! The second type is a spring loaded one, which is adjusted to a pre-determined setting, once the desired torque is reached, the bar will make a loud click and if you stop pulling on the bar, then the correct torque is set! This is preferable when you have multiple nuts / bolts to do up to the same torque setting! All / any combinations of force, Kgf / m, Nm or ft / lbs ( lbf / ft ) may be shown, and as they are all printed in the workshop manual, you can use which ever you wish, as they all mean that the same force is being applied to the nut or bolt, and what you call it matters not a jot! That said, I prefer ft / lbs because that is what I am comfortable with! So why is it important to tighten nuts and bolts to the correct torque? Well too loose and they will come undone and that could well be deadly! Too tight and the threads of the nut , casting or bolt may strip, or the bolt / stud may shear! This too can cost you your life, and even if it didn't , serious injury to yourself or your wallet could well happen! Commonly needed torque settings Rear axle nut 65 ft / lbs Front axle nut 43 ft / lbs Front axle pinch bolts 16 ft / lbs Brake caliper bolts 20 ft / lbs Brake caliper pin 17 ft / lbs Front sprocket retaining bolt 40 ft / lbs Rear sprocket retaining nuts 80 ft / lbs So off you go, get a genuine workshop manual and get properly tooled up, and you will have made the second best buys you have ever made after buying your hornet! It will save you money, you will know that the job has been done properly and you will get great satisfaction from doing it yourself! Have fun! John aka Wun Tun |
