How Many Of You Have Been Forced To Become Amateur Mechanics? | Page 8 | GTAMotorcycle.com

How Many Of You Have Been Forced To Become Amateur Mechanics?

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As my years wear on and my back wears out, my interest in wrenching on things is decreasing vs just paying someone else do do it (and as financial freedom goes the other way and becomes more positive) the pendulum is definitely waving towards the "Just pay someone else" side of things.

The exception being if it's something I'm interested in doing.

It's then that sometimes you find work done by others who really shouldn't have tried however as it becomes abundantly clear to all who follow them that they really had zero f'n idea what they were doing.. I'll post the details on that in my Micro Camper thread... Ugh.
 
Will be swapping the winter tires off the car today.
I have three lunkheads hanging around, in various states of wakefulness, and the tools that I need.

Driveway is on a bit of a slope, so I'll take it easy and make sure the wheel chocks are set properly.
 
PrivatePilot said:
As my years wear on and my back wears out, my interest in wrenching on things is decreasing vs just paying someone else do do it (and as financial freedom goes the other way and becomes more positive) the pendulum is definitely waving towards the "Just pay someone else" side of things.

The exception being if it's something I'm interested in doing.
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I feel that for sure.

One such task is flushing the brake fluid on the VFR. The linked Braking system makes it such a chore and seems too troublesome to DIY.
 
Still doing my own work. True I'm getting on in years, but I still get satisfaction out of doing it myself. I do a better job than most mechs will do, and I fix other problems I find along the way. Gives me peace of mind. Admittedly I bought a new bike with a 2 year warranty last year to lessen the need to wrench, but I still accessorised it with fog lights, fairing, heated grips, and I'll be installing cruise control if I like the bike enough. My Harley will need a bit of maintenance work this year, but it's an easy bike to wrench on.
 
bitzz said:
If you're using Ted Rose as your median example of a good mechanic, you'll be fine.
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There's another guy nobody knows about who is good and old school. It's this older black guy, tall, skinny with greyish hair that works as a mechanic at Daytona Motor Sports. This guy was the only one that was able to pin-point why my 750cc old bike lacked the power it was supposed to have. Faulty, leaking rubber carburetor boot and cracked engine case. No wonder the damn thing didn't want to start in the morning, it didn't have compression.
 
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My first real job was at a Hurry Lube, Quick Lube place...a stepping stone to becoming a mechanic. I could tell you quite a few horror stories. Even oil changes can go terribly wrong in the hands of a lay person.

The guy formerly known as Mladin.
 
Pegassus said:
There's another guy nobody knows about who is good and old school. It's this older black guy, tall, skinny with greyish hair that works as a mechanic at Daytona Motor Sports. This guy was the only one that was able to pin-point why my 750cc old bike lacked the power it was supposed to have. Faulty, leaking rubber carburetor boot and cracked engine case. No wonder the damn thing didn't want to start in the morning, it didn't have compression.
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Stevie Lewis? Steve is one of the best bike mechanics in the country.
He doesn't work at Daytona anymore... didn't Daytona close?
 
I completed the first ever engine oil and oil filter change, done on my own! I have officially moved over from paying someone to do it over the past decade, to DIY. When the cost of paying someone to do the same work multiples ~25 times, you realize it's time to invest in some good tools :)

Fingers crossed -- I did follow the torque specs given in the manual...
 
kurtrules said:
I completed the first ever engine oil and oil filter change, done on my own! I have officially moved over from paying someone to do it over the past decade, to DIY.
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Oil changes really are one of the best and easiest DIY money savers. I always cringe a little when someone tells me they just paid $80 or something to get their oil change done at HalfAssLube or whereever when I know I could have done it in my garage for $55=$60 less.

In the last 3 weeks I've done 2 oil changes - one on my Vulcan (~$30 and 15 minutes) and my daughters Kia, ~$20 and another 15 minutes.
 
Any of you have any luck changing tires on your own? The tires on my DRZ are 5 years old and probably need of a replacing, except I'm not going to wait a month or two to get an appointment at GP bikes or some other place. If I buy the tires online, can I just spoon the old ones off and then put the new ones on? I've swapped out bicycle and ATV tires before, but never motorcycle tires.

My dad has an old balancer that I could use, but I don't have any weights on my rims so I don't know if my wheels were ever balanced from the factory.
 
As long as it's not a really stiff sidewall like on a heavy cruiser or tourer,diy changes are not that difficult. Warm the tire in the sun. Use plenty of lube.i balance the front, but on a chain drive bike i just line up the balance dot. Never had a problem.
 
48Connor said:
Any of you have any luck changing tires on your own? The tires on my DRZ are 5 years old and probably need of a replacing, except I'm not going to wait a month or two to get an appointment at GP bikes or some other place. If I buy the tires online, can I just spoon the old ones off and then put the new ones on? I've swapped out bicycle and ATV tires before, but never motorcycle tires.

My dad has an old balancer that I could use, but I don't have any weights on my rims so I don't know if my wheels were ever balanced from the factory.
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My network includes people with their own tire machines, who I hand a $20 to, and the tire gets changed. Most of the time, it's not worth the aggravation (and scratched rims) to do it myself. I have my own manual tire-changing contraption that I use when I have time and patience on my hands.
 
48Connor said:
Any of you have any luck changing tires on your own? The tires on my DRZ are 5 years old and probably need of a replacing, except I'm not going to wait a month or two to get an appointment at GP bikes or some other place. If I buy the tires online, can I just spoon the old ones off and then put the new ones on? I've swapped out bicycle and ATV tires before, but never motorcycle tires.

My dad has an old balancer that I could use, but I don't have any weights on my rims so I don't know if my wheels were ever balanced from the factory.
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FWIW, when a balancing discussion came up before, many people were of the opinion that balancing the rear was not required (assume stem and dot were appropriately oriented). For a while, the balance beads you put in seemed really popular but they seem to have disappeared. Not sure if that is because they didn't work, were too expensive, or something else?

I had a bad balance at a bike shop before but it didn't show up until well into 172 territory. They rebalanced and I was fine. At lower speeds on the DRZ, balance will be less critical. I don't know if the balance the shop did made it worse or just didn't improve it enough.
 
One of Reciprocity's tips on balancing was to put the dot opposite the valve (motorcycle only) . I do it all the time now.
Last two I did, didn't need weights.
 
48Connor said:
Any of you have any luck changing tires on your own? The tires on my DRZ are 5 years old and probably need of a replacing, except I'm not going to wait a month or two to get an appointment at GP bikes or some other place. If I buy the tires online, can I just spoon the old ones off and then put the new ones on? I've swapped out bicycle and ATV tires before, but never motorcycle tires.

My dad has an old balancer that I could use, but I don't have any weights on my rims so I don't know if my wheels were ever balanced from the factory.
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See if you can find smaller moto shops. If you can take your wheels off and either buy tires from them or bring your own, most should be able to squeeze you in.
 
Wrenching on the Z900, SV650, and CBR600 was fine because of the lack of electronics :|

I am tempted on trying to do the chain and sprocket on the cbr
 
Gary said:
One of Reciprocity's tips on balancing was to put the dot opposite the valve (motorcycle only) . I do it all the time now.
Last two I did, didn't need weights.
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This didn't work for me - I had a brain fart and did this accidentally on my last front tire change. Isn't the dot supposed to be the lightest part of the tire, to be offset by the additional weight of the tire valve?
 
Relax said:
This didn't work for me - I had a brain fart and did this accidentally on my last front tire change. Isn't the dot supposed to be the lightest part of the tire, to be offset by the additional weight of the tire valve?
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That's my understanding.
The last pair I did (over winter) were a buddy's harley tires, with tubes. I put the dot opposite the stem.
Put them on my balancer, neither wanted to stop. Buddy laughed.
I haven't done my own in 7 years, but my box from Pete's came thursday.
I'll mount them opposite, and report back. (a month or 2 away)
 
Gary said:
One of Reciprocity's tips on balancing was to put the dot opposite the valve (motorcycle only) . I do it all the time now.
Last two I did, didn't need weights.
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When I bought my tires it didn't have a dot maybe cuz it's for a small bike.
I used 2 jack stands and a rod , it worked for me. Thank you YouTube:)
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