Years ago I looked into a trade school for plumbing. It was pricey but mostly covered by gov'mt grants. When I asked about placement they gave me acouple of names. When I called the companies they said they didn't care about the schooling that they hired everyone to start out as a grunt at bottom pay and then learn from there. It was all about the grant money for the school.

How does one get into the m/c tech field now w/o going to one of these "factory authorized" skools?

 

I think you start out washing bikes and fetching coffee.

 

Surely there are some techs that visit this forum that could share some insight. My personal opinion is to find a community college instead of one of these all-for-profit trade schools. A local CC would be about a 1/3 of the tuition price. I am in the auto training biz myself and I see many young folks get sucked in by the fancy schools that advertise with NASCAR, NHRA, etc. At the end of the program they are 30k in debt and the job placement consists of a phone book for what area they want to move to.

 

I have been riding bikes since I was 8 thats aaaahhhhh a long time now. I learned to work on them by starting out on the simple things and reading every manual I could find and getting my hands dirty. If you want to learn to work on your bike buy the manual and put it in the john or where ever you read the most and start reading everything in the book.

Then instead of paying someone to do something get the book out and do it yourself. A lot of the basic stuff is easy and you will learn more about your bike that way. When your friend is working on his bike go help him. It's amazing how much knowledge you can gain that way. Motors are motors they are all basically the same it's just the outsides that look different. Ask a lot of questions here it's a great resource for knowledge. As large as this sight is someone has done it before and you can learn for them. Good luck.

 

Don't care what school or the trade it teaches if the basic natural ability isn't there nothing is going to get you ahead in fife . Do you have a knack for mechanics and fixing things ? Or just what to jump the harley bandwagon ? Not meaning to any of this as a slam so hold the flames but after almost 40 yrs of turning wrench's for a living I have to ask this . Seen a lot of trade school grad's who still use a damn crescent wrench for everything as well some guys who never got past 10th grade that could do stuff with motors that still defy explanation .

 

Do dealers consider real world experience these days for new hires or do they want to see the piece of paper that says you graduated from the factory authorized training program?

I'm all for doing my own work and do as much as possible but there are some jobs and situations where some guys just need someone more experienced to take over.

I had a new front wheel assembly and rear tire installed by Daytec last week. Could have taken the wheels in myself ( I have in the past) but was pressed for time as we were leaving for the river on Friday and I only discovered the wheel problem on Tuesday night. If not for the planned trip I would have handled it myself. I know what to do but it takes me longer to do it.