Today is National Lube Your Shifter Day

[Beemeridian]

11

[jeepinbanditrider]

Good advice especially or those that ride rain or shine or do a lot of distance riding.

[boxermania]

Well I have my 3 in 1 oil can out but nothing to oil....raining dogs and cats here......center stand and side stand are usually forgotten, good call.

[CycleRob]

The shift linkage does get overlooked more often than not. Add the clutch & brake lever pivots to that list. In general, the lower on the bike parts are, the more hostile the environment is for them.

Those passenger footpegs could use a complete teardown every couple years to clean away the dirt and corrosion so all the moving parts can be lightly greased. That'd be the pin, plate, spring and ball.

[Beemeridian]

11

[CycleRob]

Removing the wire clips and popping off the ball socketed linkage for a thorough cleaning/greasing really improves shifting smoothness. It is a real improvement, especially for you all weather rain riders after 4 or 5 years. That neglect really should NOT be happening because it is a maintenance item. Rain riding is bad because the roadside water puddle is not pure clean water. It is dirty and in Northern climates in the spring can also have traces of road salt in it. When that mixture gets into even a greased ball socket, it will contaminate that grease and eventually displace it all over time. Then you eventually have 2 dry dirty balls in 2 dry dirty sockets and lately you seem to be missing a gear every so often. That's not good for the tranny, so the shift linkage's scheduled cleaning/greasing is a must.

My new bike has the same wire retained ball-n-socket set up and short shifter rod. It has rubber ring "seals" that keep the dirt out and the grease in. It looks like a right sized fat O-ring could do the same thing. Cool.

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[frankc]

The oil-soaked rubber donut-shaped seals that keep dirt and moisture out of the ball & socket joints of the shift linkage tend to deteriorate and fall off after a few years. I recently replaced mine when servicing the linkage. They are a bit tricky to get on, but seem like a good thing to have in place. Part number is 23417650149 and price is about $1.20 each (need 2).

Frank