Why are motorcycle service intervals given in hours?

Because load, not distance, is what wears an off-road engine and suspension. Two hours of tight singletrack and two hours of gravel road cover very different distances at very different loads, so KTM, Husqvarna, Honda and every suspension maker publish off-road schedules in operating hours. Racing typically halves them.

Maintenance reference

Moto service intervals: the complete reference

Q: How often should I service a dirt bike?

Per component, and mostly in engine hours rather than kilometres. On a 4-stroke enduro that means engine oil, filter and oil screen every 15 hours, valve clearance every 30 to 45 hours depending on model year and displacement, air filter every 15 hours, fork and shock oil around 30 hours with a full service at 40 to 45 hours, and coolant every 24 months. Your own owner's manual always wins.

Q: Do electric dirt bikes need servicing?

Yes, just not the engine parts. A Sur-Ron or Talaria still has brake fluid on a schedule (10,000 km or 12 months on the Sur-Ron manuals), a reduction gearbox oil on the Talaria at 1,000 km for the 2022 Sting and 5,000 km for the Sting R and MX4, a drive belt to inspect, plus suspension, chain, sprockets, pads and tyres that all wear normally.

Off-road service is hours first. An engine and a set of forks do not care how far the wheel rolled, they care how long they were loaded and how hot they got. This is the whole picture in one place: what to service, at what hour figure, and which platform the number actually belongs to, with deeper guides per system below.

The master table

Grouped by system. Where a row splits by model year or displacement, the split is real and comes from the manufacturer, not from rounding.

Suspension

Item	Interval	Applies to
Fork oil and seals	30 h / 12 mo	Typical off-road fork. Race use drops it to about 20 h.
Complete fork service	40-45 h / 12 mo	45 h on WP XPLOR enduro forks, the figure KTM and Husqvarna enduro schedules publish.
Fork oil, motocross	7.5 h raced	Showa on Honda CRF450R: outer chamber oil every 3 races. KYB and Yamaha use the same cycle.
Shock oil and nitrogen	30 h / 12 mo	KYB, Showa, WP. Ohlins TTX and FOX powersports shocks run far longer for non-race use.
Complete shock service	40-45 h / 12 mo	45 h on WP XPLOR and PDS enduro shocks.
E-moto fork and shock	50 h / 6 mo	Sur-Ron, Talaria, Segway. Loam estimate: those makers publish inspection, not internal service hours.

Full brand table, race intervals and what each tier includes.

Engine, 4-stroke enduro (KTM and Husqvarna)

Item	Interval	Applies to
Engine oil, filter, oil screen	15 h / 750 km	Model year 2023 and earlier. First change at 1 h.
Engine oil, filter, oil screen	15 h / 1,000 km	2024 and later. The hours did not move, the kilometre milestone did.
Valve clearance	30 h / 1,500 km	2023 and earlier, all displacements.
Valve clearance	45 h / 3,000 km	2024 and later, 250 and 350 only.
Valve clearance	30 h	2024 and later, 450 and 500. The longer figure is not theirs.
Air filter	15 h	Clean far more often in mud and dust.
Coolant	24 mo	Explicit in the 2024 matrix, applied conservatively to older bikes.
Brake fluid	90 h / 24 mo	2024 and later. Earlier bikes are on an annual convention, not a published figure.

Engine, 2-stroke enduro (KTM and Husqvarna)

Item	Interval	Applies to
Transmission oil	40 h	2023 and earlier, first change at 5 h.
Transmission oil	45 h / 24 mo	2024 and later, first change at 1 h.
Top end, piston and rings	80 h	2023 and earlier. 40 h if raced, 10 h in sand.
Top end, piston and rings	45 h	2024 and later, folded into the 45 and 90 h engine service.
Power valve	40 h / 45 h	Check with the piston. 10 h if raced on the older schedule.
Spark plug	40 h / 45 h	Plug and connector together.
Air filter	20 h / 15 h	20 h up to 2023, 15 h from 2024. 10 h racing.
Coolant	48 mo / 24 mo	48 months on the older TPI schedule, 24 months from 2024.

Dual-sport (Honda CRF300L and Rally)

Item	Interval	Applies to
Engine oil	12,000 km	First change at 1,000 km. This is a road-biased schedule, not an enduro one.
Oil filter	24,000 km	Every other oil change.
Valve clearance	24,000 km	Intake 0.16 mm, exhaust 0.27 mm, cold.
Air filter	18,000 km	Replace, not clean. Sooner in dust or wet.
Spark plug	24,000 km	Inspect at 24,000 km, replace at 48,000 km.
Coolant	36 mo	Around 0.77 L on a drain.
Brake fluid	24 mo	Sealed system, every two years.

Electric (Sur-Ron, Talaria, Segway, Stark)

Item	Interval	Applies to
Brake fluid	10,000 km / 12 mo	Sur-Ron Light Bee 2024 and later, and Ultra Bee.
Reduction gearbox oil	1,000 km	Talaria Sting 2022. First change at 300 km, roughly 120 to 150 ml.
Reduction gearbox oil	5,000 km	Talaria Sting R and MX4, 2023 and later. Roughly 70 to 90 ml.
Primary drive belt	inspect 6 mo	Light Bee, Ultra Bee, Stark Varg. Condition driven, no published replace interval.
Fork and shock	50 h / 6 mo	Loam estimate for stock e-moto units, see the suspension guide.
Tyres	4,000 km	Loam estimate, a tread check prompt rather than a replace order.

The full Sur-Ron and Talaria schedule, including the fluid warning that matters most.

Drivetrain, brakes and consumables

Item	Interval	Applies to
Chain	3% elongation	Measured, not guessed. The replace limit for a 420, 428 or 520 roller chain.
Chain, distance prompt	8,000-20,000 km	A scheduled maximum, not real life. It prompts a measurement, never a replacement.
Sprockets	inspect 12,000 km	Loam prompt. Hooked teeth and a worn chain go together.
Brake pads	inspect 10,000 km	Loam prompt at roughly half the Sur-Ron manual's 20,000 km or 2.5 mm replace figure.
Mousse insert, rear	20-30 h, 6 mo cap	Loam estimate. 20 h motocross, 30 h enduro, and the calendar cap always applies.
Mousse insert, front	30-45 h, 6 mo cap	A front mousse takes far fewer big hits, so it lives around 1.5 times as long.
Wheel and steering-head bearings	check 6 mo	Calendar check, sooner after river crossings or a pressure wash.

Why the kilometre figure lies, and how to measure the 3 percent.

Intervals are a starting point, not gospel. Sand, mud, dust, deep water and a pressure washer shorten every one of them, and racing roughly halves the suspension and engine figures. Your own owner's manual is the authority for your bike, your model year and your displacement. These figures summarise the published guidance the app ships against.

Hours, not months, and definitely not memory

Two hours of tight, hot, first-gear singletrack and two hours of open trail cover completely different distances at completely different loads. That is why every off-road schedule worth reading is written in operating hours: an engine hour is a real unit of wear, a kilometre off-road is not. The catch is that hours only exist if something counts them. Bikes with an hour meter cover the engine and nothing else, so the fork, the shock, the mousse and the gearbox all end up on the same clock as the last time you happened to think about them.

Loam Moto counts moving time from the ride itself, not elapsed time, and runs a separate clock per component. A stop at a gate or a viewpoint does not age your fork oil.

Where these numbers come from

Every periodic interval the app ships traces to a named source: KTM and Husqvarna owner's manuals for the 2-stroke and 4-stroke enduro schedules, the Honda CRF300L manual for the dual-sport rows, the Sur-Ron Light Bee and Ultra Bee manuals and the Talaria Sting and MX4 manuals for the electric rows, and factory suspension documentation from Showa, KYB, WP and Ohlins plus published tuner guidance for fork and shock hours.

Where no manufacturer publishes a figure, the app does not invent one. Off-road tread life and mousse life have no OEM spec, so they ship as conservative estimates that can only ever raise an amber "check this" flag, never a red "replace now". Two brake-fluid rows on the Talaria e-motos are a dealer convention rather than a manual figure, and they are labelled that way in the app's own sign-off record. The rule the dataset is held to is short: no fabricated intervals.

Deep dives

Fork and shock service intervalsWP, KYB, Showa, Ohlins and e-moto stock units: oil service vs full rebuild, in ride hours. -> Engine service intervals by hoursOil, valves, air filter, coolant and the 2-stroke top end, for KTM, Husqvarna and Honda. -> Chain and sprocket wearThe 3 percent elongation limit, why kilometres lie, slack, and when sprockets go with it. -> Sur-Ron and Talaria service scheduleGearbox oil, brake fluid, belt, tyres and suspension for Light Bee, Ultra Bee, Sting and MX4. -> What Loam Moto doesGPS ride tracking, hours and kilometre clocks per part, private by design. -> What's new in Loam MotoRoute following, pre-ride service checks, watch control and the printable service record. ->

FAQ

How often should I service a dirt bike?

Per component, not per bike. On a 4-stroke enduro: oil, filter and screen every 15 hours, valves every 30 to 45 hours depending on year and displacement, air filter every 15 hours, fork and shock oil around 30 hours with a full service at 40 to 45, coolant every 24 months. The tables above have the rest.

Why hours instead of kilometres?

Because load is what wears an off-road bike and distance is a poor proxy for load. An hour of technical riding can be five kilometres or forty. Manufacturers publish off-road schedules in operating hours for exactly this reason, and they usually publish a shorter figure again for racing.

Do electric dirt bikes need servicing?

Yes, minus the engine. Brake fluid, gearbox oil on a Talaria, the drive belt, suspension, chain, sprockets, pads, bearings and tyres all still have clocks. The e-moto guide has the published figures per model.

Put every clock on autopilot

Loam Moto runs an independent service clock for each part, fed by real moving time and distance from the ride you just did. Any motorcycle or e-moto, petrol or electric. Your garage and your GPS tracks stay on your phone.

See a demo garage