New Bike Setup/Maintenance

[No-Fear]

LOL, never run the bike in with the oil that come in it, if you check the oil that comes in it, it's runny as hell, and only has about 500ml in the engine. thats the first thing to do, dump that camel piss oil, put some Mobil/valveline/shell oil in it, change it after each ride for the first 1-2tanks.
Once run in, run motul 5100.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

[stink]

OK now what is it?

Run in with original oil or change it?

Seems to be some different opinions.

 

[Bones]

hay mate. with regards to the rear shock i believe the nut your trying to adjust is your pre-load nut. if im not mistaken its the nut thats in direct contact with the spring yes??? if this is true all this will do is stiffen the rear shock for a harder ride. this in some cases can be good if your getting alot of air and need some more take in your shock. the thing with these shocks is the length (270mm, 280mm etc...) is a fixed size and thus cant be changed, only preload is adjustable so unfortunatly unless you make a form of bracket for the swingarm or the frame to extend the distance from shock to bolt holes in some fashion unfortunatly your stuck to that certain size.

personally my motor is a GPX and the oil that came with it was of a good quality to run in, if you feel the need, you can change the oil but make sure its a mineral oil to run in on, their your only boundaries for your oil and run in period. after this go with motul 5100 as i have found its one of the better oils to use in these bikes. the stock oil isnt of the best grade but it also will do the job it needs to do, dont forget its only supposed to be in there for 1 - 2 tanks of fuel so i wouldnt be too worried about it.

the throttle play is the ammount you can turn the throttle freely without effecting the actual throttle (if that makes sence) there is a certain ammount of slack in the beginning where you should be able to turn your throttle without effecting the revs of the bike, this is what the manual is refering to. personally i only have like 4mm of play in my throttle as i like to be able to feel the response at slight touch from take off.

as another member here said, let off the throttle, change gear and the back on the hammer, will keep the gear transitions nice and smooth and preserve the life of your semi auto clutch

hope this all helps mate.

Cheers, Tony.

 

[stink]

hay mate. with regards to the rear shock i believe the nut your trying to adjust is your pre-load nut. if im not mistaken its the nut thats in direct contact with the spring yes??? if this is true all this will do is stiffen the rear shock for a harder ride. this in some cases can be good if your getting alot of air and need some more take in your shock. the thing with these shocks is the length (270mm, 280mm etc...) is a fixed size and thus cant be changed, only preload is adjustable so unfortunatly unless you make a form of bracket for the swingarm or the frame to extend the distance from shock to bolt holes in some fashion unfortunatly your stuck to that certain size.

personally my motor is a GPX and the oil that came with it was of a good quality to run in, if you feel the need, you can change the oil but make sure its a mineral oil to run in on, their your only boundaries for your oil and run in period. after this go with motul 5100 as i have found its one of the better oils to use in these bikes. the stock oil isnt of the best grade but it also will do the job it needs to do, dont forget its only supposed to be in there for 1 - 2 tanks of fuel so i wouldnt be too worried about it.

the throttle play is the ammount you can turn the throttle freely without effecting the actual throttle (if that makes sence) there is a certain ammount of slack in the beginning where you should be able to turn your throttle without effecting the revs of the bike, this is what the manual is refering to. personally i only have like 4mm of play in my throttle as i like to be able to feel the response at slight touch from take off.

as another member here said, let off the throttle, change gear and the back on the hammer, will keep the gear transitions nice and smooth and preserve the life of your semi auto clutch

hope this all helps mate.

Cheers, Tony.

Thanks Again Tony,

You have explained things very well, in regards to the shock yes thats the nut i was talking about. So to adjust the preload what do i do? I notice there is like a valve on it, i assume i just release all the air from the shock?

Yeah the play in the throttle is pretty much the same as yours its no more than 5mm so i will just see how it feels when i get it running.

Well should have it completed this arvo, gonna do the locktight as you suggest and fuel it up and see how she goes. The young fella is out so i have a couple of hours to play with it.

Thanks so much again
Stink

 

[Bones]

pending on what you would like to do with the rear shock. if it is too stiff you can loosen the preload nut, re-oil the shock (quite a task in my eyes and fiddily) of release SOME air pressure. if you want to stiffen the shock up a little you can adjust preload, heavier oil or put some more air into it. NOTE this could be a nitrogen gassed shock and air would not do it justice, find out before playing with the valve and air / nitrogen volumes as i cant gaurentee what gas is contained.

the throttle seems to be fine but i would give it a little more slack, probably 10mm for the youngster so when he backs off the bike actually stops, i have a tendancy to not want to stop hence the small throttle play i have, your young lad may be a little nervous and require the throttle to stop when he turns it, hence a little more play to take this into consideration.

from here you should be fine and dont be troubled about asking so many questions mate, we all ask questions and am more than happy to answer whatever we can.

Cheers, Tony.

 

[stink]

HI Again,

Just finished getting the bike together and she kicked over first time no problem.

Now stupid question - was sussing out how the gears work and i know on normal bikes neutral is sort of half up from first. On this bike to change gears its all down but how do i find neutral? 1 up doesnt do it so i found myself just clicking up continually then down and it would roll free? not making sense to me, can anyone shed some light?

Anyway just got to do the final tighten and all should be good for Xmas day

Cheers Stink

 

[Poppy]

Sounds like you may have a rotary gearbox, all down. Starting from neutral first down is 1st, then 2nd, 3rd and 4th. One more down will find neutral and it all starts again. If you lift up from neutral you will be in 4th.
My first bike (Bridgestone 100 in 1969) had a rotary box.

 

[stink]

HI All,

Thanks Poppy , that would make sense.

Did some measuring last night and the bike is way to tall for my young bloke, he wont be able to get his toes to the ground. Bit of a shame but i suppose he can grow into it.

I suppose there is not much alternative to lowering the bike without getting an engineer involved or something? It needs to come down about 4 inch.

Cheers Stink

 

[miniryda]

Did some measuring last night and the bike is way to tall for my young bloke, he wont be able to get his toes to the ground. Bit of a shame but i suppose he can grow into it.

I suppose there is not much alternative to lowering the bike without getting an engineer involved or something? It needs to come down about 4 inch.

Cheers Stink


try a 10" wheel conversion (10"front 10"rear) pretty cheap on ebay or where you bought it from make sure it has the right brake set up e.g disc front/rear or drum front/rear or disc front drum rear.should give you 2" front 1"rear.if you have a 14"front 12"rear
lower the rear spring platform or turn the nut (ontop of the spring) to the top of the shock as this will decrese the pre load on the spring (making it softer lowering the bike)as low as it will go sounds like your son will be pretty lite not much travel .
then lower the forks in the triple clamp as much as posible maybe 1"or 2" should give you a bit more he will grow into it then as he grows or better ability lift it back up alittle at a time

 

[stink]

Did some measuring last night and the bike is way to tall for my young bloke, he wont be able to get his toes to the ground. Bit of a shame but i suppose he can grow into it.

I suppose there is not much alternative to lowering the bike without getting an engineer involved or something? It needs to come down about 4 inch.

Cheers Stink


try a 10" wheel conversion (10"front 10"rear) pretty cheap on ebay or where you bought it from make sure it has the right brake set up e.g disc front/rear or drum front/rear or disc front drum rear.should give you 2" front 1"rear.if you have a 14"front 12"rear
lower the rear spring platform or turn the nut (ontop of the spring) to the top of the shock as this will decrese the pre load on the spring (making it softer lowering the bike)as low as it will go sounds like your son will be pretty lite not much travel .
then lower the forks in the triple clamp as much as posible maybe 1"or 2" should give you a bit more he will grow into it then as he grows or better ability lift it back up alittle at a time

Yeah ok will look into the wheel conversion.

With the shock it has one nut that is on the thread and tight up against the spring. Now i have tried to wind this down which would expand the spring thus making the preload nice and loose? But i can only get it like about three turns with a set of multigrips and it will not go down any further, i mean theres still heaps of thread but its just so tight.

Not sure on the triple clamp thing but will have a look this afternoon and see what you mean.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Ghostryder]

to loosen the back shock get a universal C-spanner and that will do the job

 

[miniryda]

Yeah ok will look into the wheel conversion.

With the shock it has one nut that is on the thread and tight up against the spring. Now i have tried to wind this down which would expand the spring thus making the preload nice and loose? But i can only get it like about three turns with a set of multigrips and it will not go down any further, i mean theres still heaps of thread but its just so tight.

Not sure on the triple clamp thing but will have a look this afternoon and see what you mean.

Thanks for the advice


if you look at the nut it may be actualy 2 nuts one is a lock nut the other is the ajuster first loosen the lock nut then you should be able to easly back the ajusting nut off if that fails pull the shock out (2 bolts ) take it to a bike shop may have right tools atherwise sound as tho the thread stuffed shuold not be that hard are you sure you are turning the right way (righty tighty lefty loosey)

 

[stink]

Im almost positive its only one nut and yeah i am turning left bringing the but down towards the ground which should expand the spring.
If i had the wheels of the ground would that make any difference?

 

[Scott Kornish]

Excellent post! It seems that most of the problems people have with the Chinese bikes would be solved with a little bit of preemptive maintenance.

 

[Bones]

hay mate, i am assuming your preload nut is on the bottom of your shock with the spring above it. for some reason the chinese put the shocks upside down now, why your guess is as good as mine but if this is the case your actually turning the nut the wrong way. if the nut IS on the bottom then your going to need to turn the nut clockwise to loosen it up. if your unsure look closly at the thread and see what direction its turning. there is also the option of the nut being cross threaded and if this is the case i hope your multi-grips havnt eaten too much of your preload nut as its warranty will be voided if this is the case. of course if the nut is on the top then your turning the nut counter-clockwise to loosen off. if need be take a picture of the setup including the swingarm, and shock in the one image and we can base our conclusions on that. also take a close up of the nut with some of the thread showing so we can see if there is some kind of crossthreading going on.

let us know if you get any further mate.

Cheers, Tony.

 

[rokzuk]

Hey Stink, congrats on the new bike. Not sure if anyone addressed the issue of adjusting the rear shock but my agb29 which uses a fastace rear shock has a very small set screw in the spanner nut that sets on top of your rear spring. It is a very small set screw so you may have to look all around the spanner nut due to it may be on the back side out of sight. Take a minute and look. Hope this helps.

 

[SCRUFFO]

Hi guys i have been following this thread closly as i have just purchased a MSO XR7 for my 9yr old son for xmas & would like to thank Ken & Linda from Motospeed for there great service.Ken even delivered the bike to me on the freeway after i blew a head gasket in the car on the way down to pick the bike up which not to many dealers would consider doing i'm sure & until coming across this forum i was going to purchase a ABG 21 of ebay but looked in to the MSO after reading all the good feedback on there bikes & service on here & even better i'm only 50 min away.

Stink i have played with the back shock aswell to lower the bike a little even tho my son could touch the ground on the test bike we first looked at .I had to remove the rear shock from the bike to adjust it.I have screwed the nut right to the top of the shock as my son is very light & wont,t be jumping for quite a while there fore it doesn't need much preload.I won't know till xmas day until he sits on it tho it seems to have lowered it heaps.

"Quote"then lower the forks in the triple clamp as much as posible maybe 1"or 2" should give you a bit more he will grow into it then as he grows or better ability lift it back up alittle at a time "Quote"

I'm lead to believe that doing this with the forks can make the steering twitchy & more sensitive the higher the speed

 

[Bones]

spot on about the front forks there mate, they will become more twitchy if you were to lower your tripple clamps on the forks. this is because your handle bar clearence to the ground has altered and when you lean in the distance from the handlebar and the ground becomes closer, thus more twitchy. if your son has some riding experience it might be worth while to do this as it will lower the bike and still be ridable for him.

hope this clears that question up.

Cheers, Tony.

P.S: if there are any blemishes in my description guys please dont hesitate to correct me. Cheers..

 

[john_1182]

hi, im a brand new member here and to bikes in general, i am looking at getting a Atomik AX PRO 125 for my self (same with my cousins) to race on the farm i am wondering your opinions on this bike and maybe some hints tips for set up? i know the basics oil, air filter, lock tight, this may be a stupid question, would i even fit on this bike comfortably im 24 and about 75 kg... thanx

 

[john_1182]

sorry i said the wrong bike in my post, we are looking at the 2007 Atomik PRO X 125.