Gear Makes Safety Simple

Women can handle a lot of the maintenance on their motorcycles—if they have the right equipment and training. The website WomenRidersNow suggests that women begin to equip their garages with these ten items:

1. Get the official service manual for your brand and model. You can back it up with a manual from Chilton, Haynes, or Clymer if the bike is from overseas and the English in its manual is hard to understand.

2. Get a comprehensive reference manual about how motorcycles work in detail, such as the one by Bruce A. Johns.

3. You’ll need good quality torque wrenches. Check your manual to see the range of torques (in ft-lbs or in in-lbs) you’ll need. Invest in quality, because you’ll need this tool for almost everything.

4. Buy a small socket set. It should include most of the sizes of sockets you’ll need, and you can take it with you when you ride.

5. A motorcycle lift can keep you from rolling in oil and dirt. Check out the types of lifts that are available and see what will work for you in terms of space, convenience, and price.

6. A mechanic’s roller seat makes it easy to move around your bike while you’re fixing it and it has a tray to hold the tools you’re using.

7. You’ll need a 12V battery charger if your bike sits still for any appreciable length of time.

8. A multimeter lets you check measure resistance, volts, and amperes. You can use it for many things, beginning with checking your battery voltage. If you won’t use it much, just get an inexpensive model, but for more extensive work, invest in a larger one meant for professionals.

9. You should check tire pressure before each ride, so get a tire gauge.

10. Robert Pirsig wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance back in the 1960s, and it’s still one of the classics. It will help you take maintaining your ride to a whole new level.

Any of these items would make a great gift for a woman who loves to ride. (Hint!)