Try A Trade: Drive Your Future | Description
Try A Trade: Drive Your Future | Description
www.conestogac.on.ca
Sent from the future
Free motorcycle repair course
- Thread starter Scuba Steve
- Start date
www.conestogac.on.ca
Sent from the future
Cool. 160 hours of free instruction should get you a long way.Try A Trade: Drive Your Future | Description
Try A Trade: Drive Your Future | Description
Sent from the future
When my parents were young adults, evening classes were offered at high schools on cooking, small engine maintenance, etc. Great way to utilize under utilized buildings and spread useful knowledge to the population.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
YouTube and a Royal enfield will make you expert mechanic in no time
Bashing
Is this from personal experience?
bigpoppa
Well-known member
was just kiddin
If I had the time, and I lived in the Guelph area, and enough time off work…I’d be all over it!
Until that time…YouTube it is.
Until that time…YouTube it is.
Back in the early 90's I went to a model railway show in Toronto. There was (and still is) a club where members would run miniature live steam trains, some large enough to ride on.
I saw a model of the locomotive shown below, a gear driven Shay. They were designed for low speed, hauling heavy tonnage up and down steep grades. The model was about 8 feet long and weighed 600-800 pounds.
I talked with the fellow who owned it AND BUILT IT. He was a tool & die maker at GM (I think) and built it over several years of evening machine shop courses in Toronto area high schools. He was just there to use the tools. He made all the running gear, drive gear, etc. but I don't know about the boiler.
I love talking to people like that, and admire and those skills.
Steam is cool but can be a logistical nightmare. It can go so wrong and hurt/kill people so if you are building pressure, you want legit inspections and insurance. Those push it beyond economical viability for most. Display steam that does no work so therefore does not have to build pressure is far safer but less fun. If you want to learn about cool old ways to do things Vintage Machinery.org on youtube (keith rucker) is very good.
Long ago I was gifted Marks Handbook from 1941. It took a while but I got through the entire 2200 pages. Lots of cool stuff in there on steam, lubrication using whale products, making babbitt bearings, etc.
This place is a must see, especially if you have kids.
I haven't taken that Conestoga course, but they could use this as a text book.
Says it's closing down?This place is a must see, especially if you have kids.
St. Jacobs & Aberfoyle Model Railway
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
St. Jacobs & Aberfoyle Model Railway will be closing permanently in St. Jacobs as of December 12, 2023.Thank you to the thousands of fans who have visited us as a family favorite, over our fifty years, here and in Aberfoyle.
We hope you’ll stop by until December 10/11 for a last visit.
Very sad. I've taken my grandkids there many times. It never gets old.
There's a place on guelph line south of hwy 7 that's still active with some history
Relax
Well-known member
Guess it depends on the model. For mine, quick release for the side panels, tail, and fuel lines, single bolt tank removal, single sided swing arm never needs chain adjustment or alignment with wheel replacement, oil changes without exhaust removal, clutch plate/basket parts without dumping engine oil or getting it on your hands. This thing is a joy to work on and has spoiled me for anything else I've ridden, even compared to my practically naked KTM. Desmo valve adjustments are a learning curve, though.
Last edited:
Absolutely.
I went to the Huntsville & Lake of Bays Rwy. a few years ago. The number of people available with a boiler ticket capable of starting, operating or repairing the real thing are pretty rare these days. I imagine the larger models like the one I mentioned require a ticket/license to operate.
That's the radial/streetcar museum and it's an EXCELLENT visit. They have vintage equipment from different long defunct systems in Ontario like Oshawa, St. Catherines, Cormwall and Ottawa plus lots of vintage TTC stuff. Many of the members are either active or retired TTC employees.
I was there a few years ago standing on a cobblestone spot between the tracks chatting with a member of the museum. I remarked about the stones below our feet and that I recall them being so common around the world. The fellow told me that much of those cobbles that we see her in North American port cities came across the Atlantic as ballast in sailing vessels. When the ship arrived here the ballast was unloaded and replaced with cargo for the return trip. Some of those stones would date from the Roman Empire.
Yeah. I thought about going and then when I reviewed it, part of of the class is 12 hours about how to create a resume, cover letter, and send a job application email...
Then there's 16 hours about "workplace communication, document use, and math."
In the end it's actually only 48 hours that's motorcycle-specific, and this is the course description:
"In this course you will learn about the maintenance of a motorcycle and fundamental knowledge of the components. You will be required to demonstrate safe workplace practices and procedures, including the use of personal protective equipment."
The last thing I want to do is have to sit drive an hour each way to sit through 28 hours of how-to-get-a-job-and-be-an-employee school. I'd honestly rather pay money for a good course or well structured program, so I started looking into doing the class portion of the mechanic school, not really to do the apprenticeship after but just as something to do.
Hopefully this freebie program will be a good inspiration for some future motorcycle techs though, and the school gets a good turn out, because honestly, we need more good motorcycle mechanics.
