DIY? YNOT!

HAVING grown up in the sixties, I got used to tinkering with the lawn mower, until the neighbor kicked me outa his back yard...

Dad's truck, our lawn mower, or my bikes.  Most of what I learned, I learned from other's with more experience. Reading the manuals, watching and asking questions.  It helped that by the time I was old enough to do my trade at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology* as a machinist, I had been riding for nearly 10 years. Okay, so most of the bikes then were simple.  Two strokes ruled, brakes were mechanical drums, bikes were smaller.  Even the coveted (by me if no one else) British twins were mechanically very easy to work on.

Sure helps having added a center stand on my DL 650 Suzuki V Strom

Singles became twins.  Twins became triples and riders of the time owning British, American or Japanese machines  (** More of that later) didn't have much choice but to do their own work. If you got a flat, you fixed it, sometimes right beside the road.  If a plug fouled (common on the Kawasaki/Suzuki/Yamaha machines of the day, you pulled over, took out your plug wrench, burned of the excess gas with a match, and scraped it with some sandpaper and went on, even if it meant doing it every 15 minutes.  The term "whiskered" had nothing to do with my paltry beard.

Now this was tricky, but where there is a will, and a hydraulic jack, there's a way

If you owned a bike, or for that matter a truck or car... you simply learned to do stuff because you couldn't afford the dealer costs... if you could find a dealer that is.


Eventually I learned what failed most often with various brands, what parts you needed to carry, and you did your own work.  Sometime, if you were good enough, you had friends lined up to install some brake pads, synchronize the carbs if there were more than one ***.

Checking valves, changing oil, installing two new tires.

As things got more sophisticated, you bought more expensive machines but still did the work.  I can't tell you how much money I've saved from A) riding a frugal motorcycle but also B) doing repairs myself.

Replacing for an extra tooth.

Once I was in the biz, I got my mechanics license and opened a shop.  Then another shop... and yet another.  Writing my motorcycles mechanics provincial license was hard.  The entire test as I remember it, dealt with machinery that was already totally obsolete.  We weren't getting many people coming into Freedom Cycle to get their BSA or Norton or MZ tuned up!  Good thing I grew up on Japanese stuff, cuz that's what people wanted.

DIY, YNOT

Even today, at 63 years of age, I often do work myself.  I have a pretty well equipped garage and a decent toolbox.  Not as decent as it was 25 years ago but good enough to check valve clearances on my three XT Yamaha's or replacing a chain and sprockets on one of my dirt bikes or as often happens, the buddies bikes.

Izzy,keeping an eye (literally) on my work

THE latest project I've dipped my hands into, was fashioning a home made "cruise control" for both my DL 650 Suzuki and my Citicom 300 scooter, while today I pulled the rear wheel from the V Strom to replace the tire and both front and back on my Thunderbird.  My tire changer is of questionable quality, all those "reviews" I read prior to buying it must have been penned by the same guy (or woman being fair) that used to write add copy for the tabloids!

Once removed from the bikes, the wheels went into a local shop to have the new rubber installed.  The DL uses a big tubeless 70/30 road/trail tire, while the T Bird uses tubed types and is going to be wearing some Dunlop 404's.

I didn't have any problems dismounting the Shinko from the DL 650, certainly having a center stand is worth it's weight in gold, well... nearly as much. The rear on the Triumph came off pretty easily even though I have saddlebags bolted on and it is after all, more of a looker than a sports bike.

The front tire, which is normally the easiest was an absolute bit_h to remove.

Obviously being original, it protested it's forced removal and checking the various forums, a common ailment on those era Brit bikes.  Sometimes you use brain to do these things, and sometimes your brain tells you to use more brawn, in my case my biggest, heaviest hammer became the instrument of choice, and not surprisingly, did the job, YAY!!!




SO... tomorrow the tires come home, I'll be about 700 bucks poorer, but I'll have them installed before the weekend.  I'd do it tomorrow but the crew is coming to put in our heat exchanger in the great room!

No... it's not a DIY paying to do that, not my area of expertise, which is another thing I learned long ago.  Sometimes, ya just gotta bite the bullet and pay the pros...

* NAIT
**Remember when the establishment considered the Japanese to be "junk."  Now they're saying that about the Chinese, who btw, copied much of what they've learned from the other side of the South China Sea
***we used to use Popsicle sticks in the carburetor slides to synchronize them