What up all. Today I want to share some information with you that probably most go unnoticed. I just like everyone else when it comes to riding. Check your gas, oil, and air pressure in the tires. Make sure you got all your gear, and then you just hop on and go or haul it somewhere and then hop on and go. Afterwards it's hauled up, a short trip to the car wash and then unpack. I know how busy everyone is and I'm just as bad as anyone when it comes to after ride inspections. Sometimes I've been so busy it's not rare to see my truck loaded full of gear (Quad, boots, helmet, toolbox, and gas cans ect.) in the back of my truck at a party or club. Thank god for secure Valet parking!

But today I wanted to open your eyes to something you might not have taken into consideration before. Have you ever went riding and noticed a friend of yours quad is missing a fender bolt, or other misc. bolt, or missing bracket, cracked frame. Today I plan on giving some tips on what you can do to try and prevent this from happening.

Ok so you just pulled into your place, you've just stopped at the local car wash and you blew most of the mud off your quad, Hell you were even nice enough to wash all the mud pies into the drain too, right? HA who am I kidding, I don't either.

Ok first off what you want to do is get changed into some cloths you feel comfortable working in and not afraid to get wet and dirty. First you want to disconnect your battery if you have one. If not that's fine. Then removed all your plastic, place all your nuts and bolts in a bowl or safe place not to loose them, I myself use a magnetic tray. You can remove the gas tank if you want just make sure you plug the gas line going into the carb if you do.

Another thing you can do its stand your quad up on the grab bar and remove any skid plates, factory or aftermarket, and place them aside too. What we want to accomplish is have 100% visibility of the chassis and motor. Nerf bars and head guards too.

Now that you have all your plastic and skid plates off, and/or gas tank. Move it out where you can wash your quad again. Get some soap, and a pressure washer, if you have one, or just a regular garden hose. Now go over the quad really good, try and make that quad look like it just came out of the crate at the dealership. Stand it up on its grab bar and wash the under side too. Don't neglect anything. Go ahead and clean up that plastic too, you'll be surprise were dirt and mud will end up, along with those skid plates and nerf bars. And let it dry. Go grab a drink or something to eat since you've been riding all day and probably don't want to be doing this anyway, and come back when it's dry.

Ok now that it's dry lets get started. First give the quad a once over. Just check everything out. Make sure nothing is bent or broken. Look for loose bolts and electrical connections.

Now the fun really begins try and get your quad on an ATV stand or something that will allow all four wheels off the ground.

Now just go ahead and Check the front end of the quad out (by front end I mean everything from the front bumper to where the motor sits in the frame).

Check for slop in the steering, make sure everything if nice and firm. Check the tie rods and see if they are loose. Spin the front wheels to check the condition of the bearing. If they spin with out much noise its probably pretty good, if you here a crunching or grinding noise it's probably not good. Go ahead and check the front braking system. Make sure all the brake line clamps are nice and tight. You don't want them loose and having your brake line's rub against something making them weak and overtime full of holes. Make sure all your lug nuts are there along with the spindle bolt; also make sure all the cotter pins are in the tie rod ends and spindle shafts. If you have an oil cooler or oil tank go ahead and check those bolts to see if they are nice and tight. Now go ahead and look over the front end checking for missing bolts, nuts, and cracks in the frame or anything out of the usual. That and go ahead and grab that nasty soggy patch of grass and mud that's been sitting in the spot of the frame since your first ride, I know its gross but looks how much better your quad will look.

Another thing, if you haven't done it in a while, Get out the grease gun and go over all the grease zirts on the front end. Ball joints and tie rod ends get to be expensive to replace and dangerous if they break due to improper maintence.

Ok now let's move to the motor and mid section (From the front of the motor to the swing arm pivot bolt).

The power plant, the mojo, the heart and soul of your quad lays right here. First things first. Check over the entire motor. Make none of the gaskets are leaking, there is no oil seeping from anywhere or anything like that. Go ahead and check over all the engine side case bolts to make sure they are tight. Go ahead and grab the motor (Careful it may still be hot if it is just do this later) Grab that motor with both hands and give it a shake (Don't shake it like a mad man, you might make it fall off your stand causing personal injury or injury to your quad) make sure the mounts are still holding, if the motor is a little loose you got problems, if the whole bike shakes when you do your good. But just to be on the safe side go ahead and check over the motor mounts. Make sure none are broken or any bolts are missing. Another thing is check the chain guard and case saver. Most after market ones comes loose over time so check over those bolts too.

Go ahead and check the oil level too, along with the anti-freeze if you're a water cooled quad. Another thing to check is the exhaust; make sure it's tight and secure along with the carb and intake manifolds. Go over and check the shifter lever and back brake system too. Add fluid if necessary.

Here is a tricky part that requires a lot of detail. Be sure you go over all the welds in this area. The motor is the core and this is where the frame will pick up the most damage due to the high vibrations. So look over every little weld, be sure to stand it on the grab bar and look under neither while you're at it, because broke frames mean, no fun for you.

Now to the rear of the bike (Swing arm pivot bolt to the grab bar) First, you want to make sure the sub-frame bolts are still tight so with the quad in the air go ahead and grab the grab bar and shake it a little not a whole lot like before, but if there is any play tighten up the bolts and go from there.

Another thing to look for is the swing arm, play very close attention to the rear shock linkage, make sure none of the bolts are broken (I have seen this on a 250R before) and make sure they have plenty of grease. Like I said before you might hit those zirts a little bit with some grease. Other things to check back here are the axle bearings and the swing are pivot bolt it self. This is done quite easy, by just grabbing the swing arm and shaking it back and forth if there is any play, find the reason why. The axle, do the same thing. Bad bearings can chew up and axle really bad and then your 300 dollars back because you just bought a new axle. Other things to check is the hub bolts, if the hubs on your bike are not tight you'll be looking for a new axle shortly. Snug them up and put a cotter key in them and your set. Make sure all your lug nuts are there too. Check over the braking system as stated before. Look at your grab bar make sure all the bolts are there, and to see if it's bent or m e ssed up if you ride wheelies and stand it up once in a while.

Once you have done all this, go ahead and take if off the maintence stand and stand it on the grab bar. Give the bottom side and check out everything underneath. Take note of any dents or scraps along the bottom of the frame. It may also help you out to stand it up this way to get a better look at different things.

Once this is all done go ahead and put all the stuff you took off, on, if you feel like it.

The purpose of doing things like this is to get to know your machine. The better you take care of them the longer they will last. By doing simple things like cleaning your quad thoroughly and inspecting it after a ride will let you know what your machine is capable of. Factory race teams do this after every race they go to, sometime even in between races on the same day. Though we do not put our machines under as much stress as factory pro riders, who says we can't take care of our stuff just as much as those guys.

So I hope I've explained what things to look out for when inspecting your machine after a long day or riding. Seems to always pay off in the end weather it be fixing a small problem that could turn into a big one or just know for peace of mind that your quad is 100%. Now it may be a little extreme checking it out every day if you ride everyday but, please do yourself a favor and check it out. Your quad will love you for it.

Written by pharit for atvwire.com 25 March 2007