Essentials for the DIY spanner jockey

One very good way to save money on your motorbike for new trick bits is to do as much of the maintenance yourself as you can. From servicing to changing pads, chains, exhaust systms and balancing and jetting carbs (if you're into that kind of ancient magic). So here are 10 things any budding home mechanic should have.

A service manual

Sure youtubing tutorials is fine but having a proper reference book dedicated to your specific machine is the best way to go. Also, books don't run out of battery or wifi signal and will supply you with all the relevant information you need to tackle any job on your bike from the simple to the complex.

Torque wrench

There are a good few nuts and bolts on a bike that need torquing up the right amount. Front axle nuts for instance if over torqued will pinch the forks together and could cause adverse handling effects and have a potential to decrease the service life of your wheel bearings despite having spacers. Under torqued fixings have a potential to work themselves loose. Manufactures don't say X bolt needs Y torque for the fun of it. So get a decent torque wrench.

Note on expensive vs less expensive torque wrenches.

Sure you can drop £400 on a nice digital Snap-On wrench but are you going to be using it day-in day-out? Unlikely. So what is the main difference between say a £250 torque wrench and a £50 one? Mostly it's the calibration. More expensive wrenches are calibrated to finer tolerances which might be down to 0.1 of Nm while less expensive ones will have slightly larger margin of error, perhaps 0.5 Nm. Less expensive wrenches will also lose the calibration quicker as well, but at the rate most home mechanics use them this won't be notable at all. If you're maintaining a lot of bikes on the reg or you race and do all your own work so you'll be torquing all the time, then sure invest in some good digital equipment, but for everyone else, a less expensive vernier gauge torque wrench will provide you with years of service for less than half the cost. 

Zip ties

God be praised for the wonder that are zip ties. These fantastic fixing should be in every mechanics tool box for jobs like tidying up wiring to holding broken bits and pieces in place to securing bodywork or organising other tools. Get some.

Decent socket and allen key set.

Get it in a 3/8 drive and with a half decent ratchet and a couple of extenders there shouldn't be many fittings on your bike that you won't be able to tackle, except perhaps fairing clips but there is a special place in Hell reserved for the guy who came up with those infernal things. 

Lock wire.

Like zip ties, lock wire has a multitude of uses form securing bolt heads to stop them working loose to holding parts in place. The benefit of lock wire is that it can also be used on things that get hot, like engine and exhaust mountings.

Disposable rubber gloves.

There are a good few mucky jobs on bikes like chain maintenance that can leave your hands with some hard to shift crud on them. Gloves will aid in not just keeping your paws cleaner but also keeping them free form potentially hazardous substances like brake fluid and carb cleaner, which unlike Oil of Olay is pretty bad for your skin.

Workshop light

Not much on a bike is hard to get at or see but there are a good few dingy crannies that can be difficult to examine particularly if you have to work after dark or in fading or low light. Having a decent portable workshop light is a must for illuminating while your ruminate on the current mechanical puzzle you're trying to tackle.

Kerosene/Parafin

Being a light oil Kero is a very cost effective way of tackling chain cleaning as it works out on average as much as £2 cheaper per 100ml than aerosol chain cleaners like those offered by brands like Motul and Muck Off. It will also tackle other hard to shift grease and oil deposits on the bike and is safe top use on plastics as well as metals.

Silicone spray

Apart from bringing up your bike like it's new after a good clean, silicone spray is also excellent at offering a lasting protective layer for your machine's body work and engine repelling both muck and water. Because of silicone's nature it is safe to use around electrics, plastics and metal. Just keep it away form braking surfaces and control surfaces as it will leave them slick as well.

1/2 drive breaker bar and a few choice 1/2" sockets. 

A 3/8 drive will get through most stuff but the 1/2 drive is the ultimate tool for releasing those tough to shift nuts and bolts like rear axle nuts and front sprocket nuts. Just get a few sockets in some useful sizes and there shouldn't be a fixing on your bike you can't tackle no matter how tough it wants to act. Most breakers are also long enough to brace on the ground as well which makes them very useful for torquing up front and rear axle fixings leaving your hands free for your wrench. I haven't found much I can't shift with a 600mm breaker.

Paddock and head stand

Together these offer a much more inexpensive option to hydraulic table lifts and require a whole bunch less space to use. They are inexpensive to buy, practically require zero maintenance and are small enough to keep in pretty much any cupboard but they will make tackling jobs like removing wheels and fuel tanks, taking on engine maintenance and lubricating chains so much less hassle if your bike is not fitted with a centre stand.

After you've got the basics down and are more familiar with tackling jobs on your bike you can add to your kit as and when is necessary getting more specialised tools to tackle more complex jobs. What's more you'll save even more money for that new Yoshi system you've been eyeing up while quietly hiding the fact from the Missus'.

 

5 Bikes that will make you rich in the next 5 years

Everyone knows what a "future classic" is. Though the term is banded around with gay abandon sometimes the seller of said clapped out non-runner may actually be onto something. Though second hand market trends are hard to predict due to their fluid and spontaneous nature last year's trash may very well be next year's treasure. 

What drives market trends? Well this is a very hard question to answer as not everything that is old or rare is necessarily worth anything. Some bikes will just be old and cheap, I can't see anyone paying top dollar for a Suzuki Katana anytime soon, but a late 90's YZF-R1? What drives market trends in bikes are a number of things. Rarity is one of them but is hard to pin down, not everything that is rare is valuable. Nostalgia is a big factor, after a period of time a bike will slip into just being old, after slightly more time it will slip into the era of nostalgia depending on it's initial reputation. 

Look out for flagship bikes, first of their kinds or bikes that already have a growing following or a good reputation. Pinning what makes a bike saleable outside of it's time of release is hard, but it's not impossible.  

So here are 5 bikes to look out for.

Honda CBR900RR 

Honda's flag ship superbike particularly in it's earlier forms are rocketing in value with second hand market values creeping up around 30% even in the last year or two, with values now exceeding £3,000 for a mint one on the private market and in dealers clean bikes can fetch £4,500. But there are still bargains to be had for the sharp eyed buyer as there are plenty for less than £2,500 out there that can easily make £5k in the next few years.

Look out for the early 900RR, 929 and 954 models. 

Honda XR250, 400 and 650

Some dirt bikes are just dirt bikes, others for whatever reason are legendary. Either for their reliability, ridability or just their fun value. Honda's XR range is no exception to this. With clean bikes feting over £2,000 with prices on the rise as they have slipped into that eerie land of biking nostalgia harking from the days when you didn't need to rebuild a top end after so many hours of use. Despite the deluge of brand new Euro bikes dominating the dirt market there is still a strong pull for these old thumpers thanks to their simplicity, reliability and the fact that they tractor through pretty much anything you throw at them. 

Sharp eyed buyers can pick a slightly tatty and well used one up for £1,000-1,300 throw a bit of cash and time at it and sell it for a handsome profit, hanging onto it is likely to prove even more profitable. 

Yamaha YZF-R1

The competition to Honda's Fireblade came in the shape of Yamaha's very own flagship superbike, the R1. A few years ago you could pick up an older model for next to nothing. They weren't considered special and more considered behind the times. But thanks to the speed at which sportbike tech moves, the early R1s are coming back in as a way to seek thrills on a budget as despite their age, they're still a lot of bike. 

This has done a great thing to their secondhand market by pushing demand up and therefore prices too. Clean examples can fetch £3,000, mint examples can be more. But there are still plenty to be had for less and with a little time I can see them running right along side the older Fireblades in terms of price. 

Suzuki GSX1300 R 'Hayabusa' 

The bulbous and slippery hyerbike has always had a following. And that's good. Released in 1999 this monstrous rocket ship can now be had for considerably less cash. With earlier models fetching more money thanks to the less electronic corking of the motors and prices set to rise as interest grows. I've seen these sell for £4k in dealerships. But the sharp eyed among us can pick them up for considerably less, particularity on the European market. 

If you have an early 2000s one, hang onto it. 

Kawasaki ZX9R 

The mean green machine is quite a bike and easily a future money spinner as of course Kwak don't make the mighty ZX9R anymore. But with interest steadily growing as an affordable hyperbike that can see near 200mph with some modification, prices are rising as demand is growing but less bikes are on the market. 

Just remember that 

Interest / Demand + Rarity = Cash. 

~

This is by no means an exhaustive list. But the votes are in on these bikes as they are steadily rising in price. Given that emissions testing has largely killed off the 600 supersport market as well look out for some tasty bargains in the half litre class that could very well land you in the cash later on. The CBR600F4 and F4i's have seen a hike in price in recent years as well.