You’ve recently acquired a vintage motorcycle and spent hours cleaning and tuning it. Finally, you took it out for a long ride.

However, the imprecise handling may make the ride less enjoyable than you expected. It doesn’t have to be that way!

Worn-out parts can take the fun out of riding an old bike, but a little time in the garage can solve the problem. Let’s go over some improvements you can make to your vintage motorcycle to restore its original performance.

Wheels and Tires

Many vintage motorcycles out there have rock-hard, dry-rotted, and cracked tires. Replacing them with new tires is the simplest and most significant improvement you can make to enhance the ride quality and handling of your old bike. There are plenty of vintage-style tires available that match the look or performance you’re aiming for and, most importantly, come in the correct sizes for your bike.

Many vintage bikes have spoked wheels, which usually can be retensioned and straightened if they wobble.

If the rims have taken too many hits or have rusty spokes, you can replace them yourself and have perfectly round and straight wheels, just like when they rolled off the showroom floor decades ago.

Replacing your old wheel bearings with a new set of sealed bearings is a relatively easy job that will not only allow the bike to roll smoothly but also eliminate any lateral play in the hub caused by worn ball bearings and races. Even a small amount of play in the bearing can result in a much larger wobble in the tire. New bearings are a significant improvement in the way a bike handles.

Front Suspension

Start by checking for play in the fork tubes. This is easier to do with the front wheel removed, allowing you to feel each tube independently. Many forks come with replaceable bushings to ensure the forks compress and the sliders move up and down smoothly, without any looseness. Once the front wheel is removed, it’s usually just one bolt per slider to separate them from the fork stanchions. This is an excellent way to ensure the shock rods move freely and aren’t rusting. This is also a great time to replace the fork seals and dust wipers.

With the fork stanchions left in the triple clamps and the sliders removed, place a straight edge on all sides of the fork stanchions to ensure they aren’t bent. If you don’t have a straight edge, you can simply remove each tube from the triple clamps and roll them on a flat surface. This is a surefire way to detect a bent fork tube.

If you don’t have any reason to disassemble the fork, at least change the fork oil. With old-style shock rod forks, you can experiment with different fork oil weights to change the fork’s response. Heavier oil equates to more damping, while lighter oil reduces damping. I recommend going just one or two grades in either direction from what your manual recommends for the best results.

For those pushing the limits on their old bike, a great improvement for your front fork is a Race Tech gold valve cartridge emulator. They are available for many different models and make your fork work like a modern cartridge fork while maintaining the look and originality of the stock fork.

Rear Suspension

The twin rear shocks commonly found on older bikes are easy to inspect and replace. Ensure there is no play in the upper and lower eyelets where they mount to the bike by lifting the rear of the bike and moving them. A small amount of movement is acceptable since they may have rubber bushings, but if there’s noticeable noise, it’s time for new bushings. Also, check for leaks and pitted shock shafts. Rear shocks are filled with oil from the factory to provide damping and are usually neglected for the life of the bike. If you remove them and give them a quick bounce against the ground and they stick or rebound too quickly, it’s time to replace them.

There are many replacement shocks available for a variety of bikes and in many different lengths. You can upgrade to better ones that feature more preload adjustment and adjustable damping, which will definitely improve the ride quality of your vintage bike.

Frame

The steering head bearings are another often-overlooked service item on older motorcycles. This causes the bike to want to self-center the fork while riding, as the ball bearings usually create indentations in the cups. This definitely makes the bike feel strange to ride. Fortunately, replacement bearings and races are easy to find for most older motorcycles.

A popular upgrade is switching from ball bearings to tapered roller bearings. These bearings spread the load over a wider area, preventing them from creating those indentations I mentioned earlier.

Add swingarm bearings or bushings to the list of often-neglected maintenance items. When these elements are neglected, it creates excessive play between the swingarm and frame. This causes the rear wheel to move relative to the front wheel, definitely another “bad feeling” when it comes to riding old bikes. You can usually check for this play by grabbing the top of the rear wheel and trying to move it side to side while holding the bike’s seat. You shouldn’t feel any looseness or hear any metal clanking here.

Fortunately, this is a relatively simple fix. Replacement bushings or bearings are available for most bikes. Sometimes you might be better off taking the swingarm to a local bike shop to have them press in your new bearings and seals, but this is a relatively inexpensive way to get your old bike running smoothly.

Drivetrain

If your vintage bike has a chain, you’ll want to inspect the condition of the chain and sprockets to see if anything needs replacing. After ensuring the chain and sprockets are in good condition, check the cush drive rubbers. These are rubber dampers typically found in the rear hub that isolate the drivetrain from the rear wheel. This helps protect the drivetrain from mechanical shocks transmitted to the rear wheel from the road surface. Once these rubber dampers wear out, they allow the drivetrain to tilt due to acceleration and deceleration forces from the chain to the rear wheel. This excess movement makes the bike feel disconnected from the throttle. You might also hear a metallic noise from the footpegs if the cush drive rubbers are worn.

Again, this is a relatively inexpensive and easy repair. Just remove the sprocket carrier and replace the old rubbers with new ones. This made a big difference in the overall feel of some old bikes I’ve ridden. Some bikes have a cush drive integrated into the clutch or primary drive instead of the rear hub, so be sure to refer to your factory service manual to see where exactly they are located in your machine.

The takeaway here is that old bikes tend to have worn parts. This can make them feel a bit unstable or unpredictable during a ride, but with a little TLC and thoughtful upgrades, your old motorcycle can feel like new again and be much more enjoyable to ride.

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Five Tips to Improve the Handling of Your Vintage Motorcycle

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