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Top 5 quality-of-life mods for your bike

These are among the first mods we recommend for novice or veteran riders.

Motodeal
Top 5 quality of life mods for your bike

How long does one keep his bike fully stock? Sooner or later, you’re gonna dip your toes into modding your bike and if you’re brave enough, your motorcycle could eventually turn into a custom work suited to your needs and liking. However, modding your bike shouldn’t really always involve big drastic changes. Some mods could hardly be noticeable and yet could have a big impact on the improvement of your quality of life to your bike. While most people would probably want to go for an exhaust system modification for a louder and burlier exhaust note, consider these more low-key changes that you’ll probably thank us for after reading this. 

Sliders

Sliders

Siders are a simple add-on to your motorcycle that helps keep your frame from touching the ground should your bike tip-over or worse, in the event of a spill. They serve like roll bars, but for motorcycles. Sliders stick out far enough to keep your fairings from touching the ground. They normally are attached on the side of your bike, close to the engine, and ideally attached to the frame with proper mounting hardware. It’ll be the object of contact to the ground instead of your bike’s fairings if you have a sportbike, or engine casing, which would cost much more should you end up damaging them. Sliders are considered as the cheapest form of insurance against a tip-over or crash and are recommended for new riders as they can also protect you from getting sandwiched between your bike and the ground. 

Footpegs

Foot Pegs

Changing your stock footpegs for larger ones wouldn’t really be on the top of the list for motorcycle modifications. However, a larger platform for the feet spreads would have a significant impact on a large part of the foot. It makes finding the peg much easier after coming off from a start and it also allows you to have more control over the bike. For dirt and adventure motorcycles, its riders spend a significant amount of time standing on the footpegs especially when traveling in rough terrain and more often than not, a footpeg’s size, construction, its ability to resist mud retention, and grip play a crucial role in off-road riding. Thus its is much more common for dirt bike and adventure riders to be modifying their motorcycle’s footpegs. For sport and naked bikes, it’s not that needed, but know that a larger or slightly larger footpeg could help you keep comfortable especially on long rides. That’s why you see cruisers with substantial foot accommodation. 

Tank Grips

Tank Grips

More often than not, in stock form, motorcycles never come with tank grips, but they’re much more useful than people realize, particularly with sportbikes and naked bikes or streetfighters. There is a tendency for riders to unknowingly squeeze the tank with their knees when slowing down, taking a corner, or even speeding up. We already take a load of pressure from our wrists and arms by doing this. A bike’s nice glossy paint just doesn’t sit well with leather or denim pants when it comes to gripping. When you’re slowing down and braking quite aggressively from 6th gear down to 2nd, you would want to stop yourself from sliding forward on your seat. A tank grip would make you worry less about these things more and in effect, would give you even more control over the bike. In addition, proper tank grips would also aid you in giving you more options for repositioning our body especially when you’re attacking corners. 

Windshields

Windshields

People don’t pay a lot of attention to a motorcycle’s windshield. Some even think that your helmet’s visor serves as a good enough protection against wind. While there might be some truth to that, a helmet’s visor primarily protects your eyes from flying debris or insects that can throw you off especially at high speeds. However, they don’t really dissipate the wind that pounds against your body when traveling at high speeds as much as your motorcycle’s windshield does. Without your motorcycle’s windshield, you’ll experience more fatigue with your body fighting against the forces that try and slow you down as you gain speed. They are just as vital as they redirect airflow around the bike. Windshields are more common with sportbikes, adventure bikes, tourers, and even some scooters with larger displacements. Most of the time, motorcycle manufacturers don’t give much attention to the clear panels they attach to their bikes. For those cases that you’d want to change your bike’s windshield, you’d have to make sure that they’re aligned and installed properly so as to avoid drag. Also, make sure the product you buy is custom-fitted so you’re assured of a quality install without worrying about it flying off. 

Tires

Tires

The choice of tires you use on your motorcycle plays a huge part in your overall riding experience and even some style. A motorcycle’s tires are vital as they are the only things that keep you in contact with the road. A good set may cost you a pretty penny, but it should be worth the investment. Also, make sure that the tires you get are matched in terms of size to your bike, and make sure that you’re buying a set that is specifically designed to perform optimally given when you want to do with your machine. It makes no sense to buy knobby tires for your sportbike unless you’re modifying in that way. 

Honorable mention: Side stand enlarger

Side stand enlarger

Now, as far as side stands go, you can typically see that these pieces of metal have an end with a surface area that just about does it for the weight and size of the bike. Sometimes a bike may have a stand that is a bit on the thin side, so propping up your machine on perhaps a gravel surface may be a little nerve-wracking. A side stand enlarger will increase the surface area of your peg so you won’t have to worry about it digging into looser surfaces or toppling over in general. We love our motorcycles, and this relatively inexpensive mod can save you a lot of anxiety. It’s not the entirely needed, it just keeps you from overthinking, and it adds a nice pop of color or dimension to an otherwise mundane part of your ride. 

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