Whether or not you understood it at school, geometry plays an important role in determining how your motorcycle feels and handles. So it can't be ignored. But you don't need to be a geek to tell the difference between rake and trail.

Walk around any motorcycle showroom, flick through magazines or read articles on Internet, and you're guaranteed to come across a motorcycle specification panel at some point. But apart from glancing at the peak power and torque figures, which other information do you retain? No, not a lot; we're the same. Which is hardly surprising, given the density of information packed into a specification panel. And if the numbers don't mean much to you, they're a tad boring too.

But there's often an important story hidden away in these information cluster-bombs – and it's nothing to do with how much power the engine makes. These figures, if you're able to interpret them, tell you what to expect when you try and ride down a twisty back road, and how it'll behave while using countless tanks of fuel heading up to the North of the country. The language in which these insights are written is geometry.

Don't panic – there's not risk of after-school detention. The measurements we're talking about are grouped under the 'geometry' banner, you don't need a white lab-coat to understand, use or even calculate the basics for yourself.

Think of a motorcycle with a long wheelbase and another with a short wheelbase. Chances are, you thought of a tourer or cruiser first, and perhaps a 600cc sportsbike second. Why is that, and are you right?

Too much engine oil! You've tipped in more engine oil than your motorcycle engine needs. It's not as bad as under-filling but too much oil in an motorcycle engine can cause a range of problems, the excess out of a breather pipe which can contaminate your air filter or make your tires dangerously slippery.

The solution's simple. Remove the excess. It's very difficult to do by taking out the oil drain bolt, so buy a big syringe instead. Fishing shops, pharmacies and chemists sell them and you can get really big ones from some shops (100ml or more).

Your motorcycle helmet is your most piece of riding kit, legally obliged to wear, for the good reason that it could save your life. But it needs looking after. Exposed to the elements, on the outside, and your greasy head, on the inside, it gets grimy and smelly pretty quickly. There are three main parts to keep clean – the outer shell, simply to look smart; the interior lining, to keep it fresh and odor-free; and the visor, so you can see through it clearly. The good news is, there are innumerable products on the market to help with each of these jobs – all manner of cleaners, treatments, sprays, polishes and potions.

Use cleaners and polishes to keep your flashy paintjob sparkling in the sun. Helmet cleaners are formulated to break down tough dirt such as road grime and splattered insects. The advantage over plain water is that you can simply spray on then wipe off, with less need for elbow grease. Cleaner-impregnated wipes are particularly useful, as you keep a stash under your motorcycle's seat and use them 'on the go'. Importantly, helmet cleaners are non-corrosive to paint, so won't having a dulling effect. Once you've removed the crud, you'll want to restore a sheen – and that's where a helmet-specific polish comes in handy.

You cleaning spray or polish is only as good as the cloth you use to apply and wipe it off with. These cloths are made from super-soft, non-scratch materials to ensure that your motorcycle helmet's shiny finish isn't attacked or scratched. Mini-sponges, such as the world famous V2, provide invaluable mobile cleaning, which you can keep in your pocket and whip out at a moment's notice – essential in the muddy depths of rural Thailand in the raining season and it also works wonders with splattered insects...

If you like me have some stainless steel exhaust pipes on your motorcycle which have patches of dark color on them and wonder if there's a way to get them back to as-new condition... Stainless steel can discolor but it's possible to get it sparkling again. The quick way is to leave the exhaust in place, get some steel wool with some metal polish. Put a bit of polish on the steel wool and give the exhaust pipes a rub. It takes a bit of elbow grease but it'll bring them up nicely.

If you want to do a really impressive job, you'll have to take the exhaust system off. Running the engine to heat the studs makes them less likely to shear off. Once the exhaust has cooled, you can use increasingly fine grades of wet and dry paper to remove the surface contaminants and bring the exhaust to a mirror shine.

To be honest, motorcycles tend to be very reliable these days. Thanks to improvements like electronic ignition and better electrical connectors, sitting hopeless by the side of the road has become less a part of motorcycling life than it was a decade or so ago.

But there are still a few perils that can leave you stranded. However, forewarned is forearmed, so you should take action against there mini-disasters. A session in the workshop, slipping a few choice components under you seat, should see you immune to many breakdowns!

An underseat treasure trove of anti-disaster goodies is a genius move. It'll depend on how much space you have of course, but at the very least, try and include a puncture repair kit, with come co2 canisters. An 2,000 THB emergency money will guard against those 'came out without the wallet and am 200km from home' moments. The motorcycle's tool kit is worth keeping in place, but you might want to dump some of the more useless items and replace with your own bits. Cable ties, lockwire and a small roll of tape can help patch up light accident damager enough to get you home, and a spring link for your chain could help if the chain breaks (although you'll probably have bigger worries). Finally, a spare headlight bulb, a ziplock bag of fuses and a length of wire will help sort any electrical miseries. Add in an energy bar too, for those 'sat waiting for hours before help came around' scenarios.

If you can wire up a household plug you can fit a DIY motorcycle alarm. Just select one you can find online. Most not cost that much and they are really very simple to install. Some aftermarket motorcycle alarms are approved by European insurance companies and will cost a lot more and we know not everybody can afford that. Anyway, if you going to install your own aftermarket motorcycle alarm, you should know a few things.

Positioning the alarm unit is the first job. For a quick install you can use one of the rubber bands that hold the tool kit or a lock in place under the seat. For a better job use cable ties, small bolts, Velcro or the sticky pads from number plates and stash it out of the way somewhere. It doesn't have to go under your seat but that's the most obvious place.

To get the alarm working, connect the red wire to the battery positive and the black to anywhere on the frame which will act as an earth. That's it – there's no need to do anything more if you don't want to. For a more secure installation use a live feed rather than the battery positive.

Carbon fiber protection doesn't replace anything, it merely adds another layer of protection for your machine in the event of a crash. Carbon fiber replacement parts are interchangeable with stock items, the main advantage being their lighter weight – although this is only around 10 percent over fiberglass.

Carbon fiber is used mainly to save weight. The lighter your machine is, the quicker it will accelerate, it's as simple as that. Replacing various parts of your bodywork with carbon items shaves weight from your machine. Often we're only talking about a few hundred grams, but big weight gains can be had if you replace a whole fairing, for example. But carbon fiber engine and frame protection can save you money and hassle too. Carbon's strength, combined with Kevlar's abrasion resistance, makes it good for protecting frames, and saves cracked engine covers. If you're racing, you may soon ask for engine protectors to save time clearing up spills from cracked cases.

Fuel injection is now fairly ubiquitous on modern motorcycles. And if you've got an early injection motorcycle, your injectors could be well over a decade old. But when is the last time you gave them any thought? Or any servicing attention?

Modern electronic fuel injection systems use injector units with ever-smaller nozzles and components, and if these small nozzles get blocked with deposits from fuel contaminants, it can affect the amount of fuel that is squirted in by the ECU. Which can cause inefficient running, and, in extreme cases on highly tuned motorcycles, possible engine damage.

Most motorcycle manufacturers don't have a standard servicing. On of the motorcycle manufacturers in Thailand said 'Because the injection system is under pressure, and sealed there is no way air can get in, so you don't get any degradation of the parts, so they don't have a service life.' So according to this motorcycle manufacturer's schedules, its injectors never need cleaning in normal service...

But luckily some motorcycle manufacturers offer a slightly different view: 'There's no set cleaning regime for fuel injectors for a motorcycle in normal use, but if a motorcycle's left to stand for a considerable period then the fuel will go off and the injectors would need checking.'

We'd all love to have the ultimate workshop to make life easier when we work on our motorcycles, wouldn't we? Obviously, there are loads of wonderful goodies you can pack in there but you can't have everything. So we've come up with what we think are the 10 best to start making your dream shop come true.

First on our list has to be a motorcycle lifter and/or race stands. If you've worked on your motorcycle in the past, you've probably spent some of you time crawling or lying around on the floor trying to adjust your chain, change a wheel or change the engine oil and find that sump plug. When you go to a mechanic for a service you'll almost certainly find one or more lifters and a bunch of race stands to suit various models. (if they have them not think twice to let them work on your motorcycle.) Motorcycle lifts are easy to use, can be operated on you own and won't break the bank in terms of cost. One benefit of a motorcycle lifter is that it brings your machine up to the perfect height for you to work on it and then easily lowers it to the floor once the job's done.

Put down a good-size piece of industrial carpet where you park your motorcycle so that if you have to lie down you'll be reasonably comfortable. And butterfingers, pay attention: all those tiny little nuts, bolts and clips that you drop won't bounce on the concrete and spring off into oblivion, never to be seen again. Carpet cushions the fall!.

A passing fad in MotoGP and Superbikes but a motorcycle with rim tape can still look good can't it? We recently taped a rim with reflective rim tape, making the motorcycle more visible in the dark too.

Get the rims spotlessly clean, free from any grime or grease and completely dry. I'd wash, rinse and then use an alcohol-based cleaner, which will clean up and evaporate quickly. Some dedicated 'wheel cleaning' products are oil-based and may not help the tape adhere.

Best done with the wheels (both of them) up on a stand because the job's easier when you can spin the wheels. It can be done without but you'll need some help to hold and move the motorcycle. Another alternative is taking the wheels out and getting them inside but in that case make sure the wheels are flat and held down well.