If the cost for a complete paint job and airbrush work is out of the question, and a graphics kit just isn't what you are looking for, then there is always the option of pulling the plastics off and hitting them with a fresh coat of aerosol spray-paint color. This option is affordable and the results can be top-notch.

If your motorcycle's bodywork is already dull from the sun or rashed from a previous tip-over, what do you have to lose? To increase the wow factor of your aerosol spray-paint can experience, we have some points that will help you spray like a professional.

The spray-paint can instructions clearly say to shake, but you'd be surprised to know how many overlook this very basic step. Most aerosol spray-paint cans do not have a shelf life and settling of the contents may have occurred, especially with primers. Make sure you can hear the rattle clearly and shake the paint-can very well.

After you have selected and bought new tires for your motorcycle the most important: maintaining and taking care of your new tires. Here is what you need to keep in mind. Check tires pressure every now an then. There is probably no simpler procedure which is more important and mostly ignored by motorcyclists.

Check the position of your tires, for a proper alignment ensures better handling and longer wear. The valve stem cap should be securely fastened on the stem; it'll give you extra security at high speed and is an important part of your tire's sealing system.

If you want to keep the rubber shiny, then the only thing to use is good old soap and water. Before you get astride your two-wheeler, inspect the tires; this way you might prevent tire failure and even save yourself a trip to the hospital. Avoid potholes and sharp objects on the road, because they ruin your tires. Never run two tires of differing tires; the results can be disastrous. If you replace tires, make sure that you replace the tubes as well; it will prove beneficial for you in the long run. Old tubes become stretched and if an old tube is fitted into a new tire, it can crease and fail due to the thinning of the tube rubber.

One thing that almost all mechanics in Thailand seem to ignore when servicing a motorcycle is the sparkplug gap. For instance we had a client with a Yamaha YZF-R1. After we checked all sparkplug gaps, I can say that, of eight ground electrodes (each sparkplug has two of these), only one was still within tolerance. The target value for the Yamaha YZF-R1 is 0.6 to 0.7mm. Most of them were 0.75mm or greater, so I set them all back to 0.6mm.

On the upside, I'm reasonably sure the motorcycle fires up a little quicker after doing this. Before, it would sometimes take a 2 to 3-second push on the starter before the engine caught, but I'm sure this is back down to 1 to 2 seconds after doing the sparkplugs. Also with the correct sparkplug gap the engine does better with fuel economics.

If the throttle on your motorcycle doesn't snap shut automatic when you take your hand off the grip it's dangerous. In the event of an accident, the throttle should close and the motorcycle should stall or idle gently. The chances are that the rear wheel will cause much damage as you could end up pinned under a motorcycle with a racing wheel and chain grabbing at you. It might rev like mad and kill the engine due to oil starvation, or it could even manage to bounce up and keep going like ghost rider.

Like a lot of constantly used parts on your motorcycle, the throttle needs regular maintenance. You might want to check the throttle is moving freely on the handlebar, so twisting freely. That might be caused by the bar-end catching the twist grip; the twist grip being dry or caked-up and dragging on the handlebar; or it could be the throttle cable is clogged up and dragging in its sleeve.

Unscrew the handlebar-end weight and check if it's catching on the twist grip. If it is, the solution might simple be to move the twist grip assembly along a fraction.

Despite the fact that anyone who has any enthusiasm for the performance of motorcycles refers to 'horsepower', European regulations say that manufacturers must quote power outputs in kilowatts (or kW), which if you want to compare the output of latest sportsbike to grand dad's old big bike it might be of some use, I suppose... though I doubt the average grand dad wants to know that your latest sportsbike is about eighty times more powerful than his old two-wheeler...

A 'proper' mechanical horsepower is somewhere around 750 Watts (0.75kW) if you want some sort of basis for comparison. While I'm at it, you might see power outputs quoted in PS, DIN, SAE or even CV, so what's that all about? Well, PS is from the German 'pferdestärke' which literally means 'horse power'; CV is an abbreviation of the French 'cheval-vapeur', the Italian 'cavalli vapore', the Spanish 'caballos de vapeur', and the Portuguese 'cavalo-vapor', all of which pretty much translate as 'horse steam'. DIN and SAE are German and American standards, so horsepower quoted as DIN is almost inevitably PS, and if it's quoted in SAE, it's just smaller American horses to make things sound bigger than they actually are.

It's very important to have your rear wheel spaced properly in the chassis. When done correctly, the rear wheel will be in line with the backbone, which is in line with the neck and also the front end and tire. By doing this, your motorcycle will handle and perform properly and track straight while going down the road. So we decided that we will tell you how to space the rear wheel correctly.

With the tire in the frame and the axle installed, use a piece of wire or string and make a loop at one end. Pull taught on the string and sight in into the center of the backbone, then adjust the rear tire to center on the string. Now the tire is centered in the chassis.

Of course you could use rear tire laser alignment tools, but we assume that you not have them laying around. Now that you have centered the rear wheel in the chassis by using the string, it's time to measure for the wheel spacers. Measure with a machinist rule here.

We all know that fitting steel braided brake lines helps improve the feel and performance of brakes, but why is this? Brake lines on your motorcycle generally run at around 750psi and while rubber ones will pop at around 8,000psi, steel can resist up to 20,000psi – not that you are likely to ever get anywhere near this pressure figure.

So why do rubber lines feel different? Even from new, a rubber brake line will 'bell' or expand slightly under pressure. While this is initially very minimal, as the line ages the belling increases and with it the direct feel of the brake on you motorcycle is lost.

Steel braided brake lines do not allow the line to expand at all and so will deliver a constant and very direct braking feel on your motorcycle. Overall braking performance is hardly affected, but the feel is different.

Almost all motorcycles and scooters in Thailand, are equipped with hydraulic front forks. Most motorcycle mechanics do not realize that the only function of the internal fork spring is to hold up the motorcycle.

A physical property of air is that it will compress. Therefore air inside the fork will compress.

A physical property of oil is that it cannot compress. The fork oil's function is to transfer through orifices in the hydraulic fork internal dampening rods, which are most of the time below the fork springs, and regulate compression and extension of the forks.

Every motorcycle has an electrical system, even if it's nothing more than a magneto and high tension cable to the spark plug. Once lights are involved, and so the accompanying need for a charging system or direct light set-up, the motorcycle needs electrical cables and connections to unite the electrical equipment. With this article we look at some of the common methods of wiring connectors, a few of the horrors and the wire itself.

Unfortunately we can't see electrical current and a wiring diagram for even a relatively simple system, such as found on an early Honda C90 step-through motorcycle, looks already too much like city map. We can of course take the easy but more costly option of handing over our wiring issues to a motorcycle mechanic with experience in electrical-systems, but if we undertake an amount of reading on the subject , we will be able to complete wiring tasks on our motorcycles. And the mention of the city map can make a good starting point. Rather than become befuddled with the wiring diagram, think of the machine's components as destinations on a map and the wires as routes or roads uniting these destinations. It works for me.

Most motorcycle manufacturers' wiring diagrams carry a code system for the color (single or multiple) of tracer cable involved. Baffled as a small boy by a wiring diagram for a Honda C90 and – as they say – 'going off on one' my dad gave me a box of crayons and told me 'calm down' and to add appropriate color to each wire marked on the diagram. Task completed, the diagram looked 10 times clearer and much easier to understand. Using the appropriate colored tracer wires to unite the places (equipment) it was suddenly manageable and the joy of switching on the lights I'd wired, immense. Yes, it's a silly childhood story... but one which helps me even today with complicated modern wiring diagrams.

When installing a new tire, it's a good idea to put the rim on a truing stand to measure radial runout. Check lateral runout at the same time to ensure it's within 0.030 inch. Radial runout is up and down variance from concentric. If the rim has, say 0.030 inch or less radial runout, a wire spoke rim needs to be retrued to bring the radial runout within specifications. A cast rim may need replacing depending on how far above 0.030 inch the radial runout actually is.

Most motorcycle manufacturers advice replacement if radial runout exceeds 1/32 inch, which equates to 0.03125 inch. It is easy to instruct this, but not everyone has deep pockets, so compromise may save some money. I do not get antsy when replacing a rim for less fortunate customers until hitting 0.040 inch radial runout. I explain the pros and cons and let the customer decide. However, if it goes higher than 0.040 inch, then it becomes a safety issue in my mind, and I will dig in my heels and refuse to reinstall the rim.