Too cheap to pay anyone to do anything for one and for two...I wouldn't feel comfortable having someone else work on my bike. What next...want to **** my wife too?
What amazes me is the people here "wrenching" on expensive toys that they have no business working on. Hang around here, and hearing the oops, or "I have a question", will make you fear buying a used bike.
Some people should just not even try it. There are those of us who can those of us who try and those of us who have no clue.
I was taking lawnmowers apart and learning how to fix them when I was in grade school. I grew up a po boy and the only way I could have a bicycle/car/motorcycle was to buy one that was cheap and needed work so I could fix them myself cheaply. These days I still do most all of my own wrenching. It gets to be a problem though with a lot of the electronics requiring specific high dollar scan tools and all.
And yes, not everybody can do it. I think the world of my brother in law but I don't want to see him with even a screwdriver in his hand, he has no mechanical skills at all.
I did frame up restorations, engine, transmission , suspension rebuilds on British sports cars for 13 years. That was about 20 years ago. Working on the bikes is therapeutic. I'm quite comfortable with a wrench in my hand but working on the bikes is different. Not knowing what you don't know based on real experiences is the scary part of big jobs. The manual goes just so far. With proper tools you can escape the trauma of messing up with shortcuts and makeups. And that helps.
I had a broken kick starter shaft replaced in 1965 because I didn't have the tools for it then. In 1978, I had the valves shimmed on a Suzuki because I didn't have the special shims or the tools needed again. Then... never mind, hasn't been a then since then. Frame ups don't scare me and for a long time I've bought any tool I didn't have. Yeah, gets expensive. Still, hell of a lot cheaper than dealers, and I never have any problems with what got done. Nobody even touches my tires either, except this guy I'm training.
I come from a time when you either knew how to wrench or you didn't ride much, habits been good to me for 4-1/2 decades on 2 wheels, Built many a bike from a bare frame and a pile of boxes, sig bike being one of them.
Last edited by TwiZted Biker; 01-03-2018 at 12:00 AM.
i do my own because i let the dealer near it twice and they f'd up/made the wrong call twice twice. no more unless it's something i am 100% unwilling to learn.
01-02-2018 | 07:27 PM
