Getting started in motorcycle mechanics

[Dennis]

I was responding to an email from Rusty Bucket about an Ironhead Sportster and a funny "popping" sound the clutch was making and attempts to adjust it out.  While writing my response I thought I should share it with the brethren;

Re: Leanne's Clutch.  Wow, that takes me back to an inspiring event when I first realized I had to learn to work on my bikes, rather than take them to a mechanic.

Summer, 1981 and I was a 20 year old proud owner of a slightly used 1979 Sportster chic magnet.  I lived two hours from Kamloops Harley Davidson.  My clutch was making a funny ?popping? noise when I pulled in the lever.  I opened up the clutch adjuster on the primary and started twisting the screw in and out.  Suddenly, the clutch lever went limp in my hand, obviously not actuating anything.  Distressed, I loaded the bike in a 1963 International Harvester which was blowing so much oil out the rocker cover onto the manifold (which easily blew through the firewall) that I had to drive the two hours to Kamloops with the windows down and smoke billowing out like a scene from Cheech & Chong.

After about a 30 second inspection by the mechanic he says to me,
?You just drove down from 100 Mile House??    ?yes?
?In that"? [nodding towards my truck]   ?yes?
?Because of this"? [wiggling the limp clutch lever] ?yes?
?Kid, if you're gonna own a Harley, you gotta learn to fix it.?

He then opened up the primary and showed me how my clutch cable had fallen off and that putting it back together was as complicated as a belt buckle.   I've done virtually all my own mechanical repairs since.

So what inspired you to first get your hands dirty on rusty old metal?  To challenge stripped threads and impossibly corroded parts and think "I can fix it"?

It would be fun to read some other mechanical firsts.  Maybe some great mechanical disasters or other mechanical events that changed your lives.

Peace & Grease, Dennis

[fast1]

  By the time I was 10 I could take my bicycle apart and back together. My 9th summer was spent mostly as a pedestrian waiting for the old man to fix my bike. A neighbor who was an automotive mech. taught me and helped me chop my first bike. When I bought a motorcycle (first three actually) it was a Yamaha. Got to know the staff pretty well. Back then you could actually call or drop by to ask the wrench questions. That man was Danny Quebec. When Bob Williams started Cycle North in what is now Desjardin's across from Chieftan he offered me a job. Fall of 1990. Dan would go to great lengths to teach me how things work and how to fix them, however if I asked a question that had already been answered he became instantly angry. Insults were quickly followed by wrenches and other tools hurled in my general direction. Good thing he was a lousy aim. While one would never get away with this practice today it made me pay close attention. Many of those lessons I still pass on almost verbatim-without the wrenches. Cheers.

[stevecrout]

In the earlier days it was bicycles. They came apart regularly and had bits changed and mucked about with. Paint, banana seats and paperboy carrier baskets on the front. Used to deliver prescriptions on Saturday afternoons then repaint and make adjustments to the bikes on Sunday.
Had my real exposure to the taste of grease and diesel when I got to know a fellow by the name of Jack Mcinnes. This guy could fix anything. He was patient enough to include me in some of his work. I was mesmorized by his ability to take stuff apart and figure out what it needed and even remember how it went back together. For years I spent more time in his shop than I did at home. I can remember his favourite phrase for me -  "Hey, what the f__k you doin?" He had a unique way of showing someone how to do stuff and it took a while to really understand what he meant by "it's only a machine - everything comes apart, everything can be fixed but it's the smarter guy that knows when to toss it out when you reach FUBAR."  Funny how that applies to a lot of other things too.

[Rusty Bucket]

  Yeah, like Steve and his mentor, it was a turning point for me to begin saying to myself, "Humans put this together - I'm human - I should be able to take it apart."  It takes only a little longer to arrive at the corollary, 'Taking a thing apart is one thing - humans are good at that - the real test is putting it back together again - just being a human isn't exactly a guarantee on that part.' 

[Billy Thunder]

 When I was a teenager, I was a sucker for a good sub $100 car, so I was no stranger to a wrench. When I decided to buy a motorcycle, it had to be a Harley (and it had to be cheap!).  Again with the wrenches! Some stuff I could do - other things I got soaked for @ the old Harley shop. About that time, my friend Stu Reese put together the old waterbuffalo and that ment weekend rides all over the interior of BC. Stu was more into preventive maintenance, so we would often schedule a couple hours of work on the 'boikes' prior to the weekend. Old Sportsters being what they are... most of the wrenching was done on my bike. lol
 I really miss ya, Stu.
 

[Kaw-meister]

by the age of ten i had been fixing my own bike tires for three years and of course cut the forks off an old donor to add them and make mine a chopper. last chopper i have owned. then dad bought an auto wrecker. i spent every day after schooltinkering on something. at twelve i was driving the 52 gm 1ton wrecker in the back yard. the first car that was given to me was a 49Merc 2dr coupe, which i did nothing with and it left. since then i have gone throught about 15 chev pickups, comets, mustangs, ltds, ranchero, camaros, ford pickups, dodge pickups, road runner, coronet, olds's, buicks, datsun's, jeeps, about 40 speeding tickets, couple of passing on right and a bunch of others that aren't that bad. along the way i just kept plugging away knowing that someone else works on this stuff, so why can't I? I am still awaiting the opportunity to work on a rocket.

[Fritz]

I am still awaiting the opportunity to work on a rocket.

Hey....I bet BullDog has a Rocket that needs some work on....   !!!