Can you fix it or are you helpless?

[sondela]

[QUOTE=Mystic13;1933552] My son is 9 and rides. We've just bought / found him another bike that is barely going. His mission is to strip it down and rebuild it. He's keen to give it a go.

Luckily he's like me and my dad. We just like pulling things apart to see how they work. Pulling apart is becoming a lost art.

Kids today don't get the opportunity to pull things apart. But when i was a kid we didn't have much in the way of entertainment.
[QUOTE]

Kids today just need a Dad who gives em bikes in bits to put back together! Then they'll be fine..
They pick up the interest in pulling stuff apart when they see things put back together..

[Gremlin]

I've learnt my lessons... and I will happily admit to being one that doesn't give it a go. I've broken enough things to realise motors and I don't mix other than me telling it to go.

My last test was changing the lock set on a givi top box. Relatively simple wouldn't you say? Compared to the wiring loom, carbs etc, whatever. Well, a couple of hours later, lots of swear words, I had it back together (only a couple of failed attempts before that). I ended up with a spring and a washer left over, and I have no idea where they fell out of. Even better... it works perfectly fine! (perhaps I'm better than givi at building these things with fewer parts?)

It would be suicidal to try working on my bike. Most spectacular was finding out the hard way that the fuel pump circuit has enough power for the fuel pump only. Don't try stealing some of the juice (especially when you have no idea how to test whether its a good idea in the first place)

Now... give me a computer, thats eeeeaaaasy.

[mdnzz]

When I was younger I never had been shown how to do anything, either had to ask or try and figure it out for myself.
If it was still over my head I figured thats what they pay other people for and let them do it.

Now I like to try and get my hands dirty and give everything a go, I still ask questions and still try to figure it out myself.
However I am realistic enough to know without some guidence there are certain tasks I would not attempt alone.

[DarkLord]

I figured out how to install my own clutch cable when it snapped on me - took a lot of swearing, help from a flatmate and I ended up being over 2 hours late for work, but I got there.

I couldn't get the bike started as the electrics wouldn't turn on, so I just popped off the seat cover, checked the battery terminal and sure enough one of the terminal screws was slightly loose, so all I did was tighten it and I was off.

When my brake pads were grinding metal I got them changed by cycletreads as I just needed new ones on urgently but over the weekend I took my callipers off, pulled them apart so that I will know how to re install them myself.

I'm definitely keen to give it a go too, I'm kind of a mechanical noob still but I really want to learn and feel like I've done well for my year of riding.

[Bass]

I do realise that you are trying to be funny (and often I do laugh at you comments, as you do have talent) but to grab points from the younger brigade by slagging the bikes of the past is like pissing on your granbdfathers grave.

I was there. Todays bikes are better. But those old girls were not that bad.

IMHO you take this a tad too seriously, but then I guess satire is not to everyone's taste.

As for your comments on the "old girls", you have a lot of supporters out there. My wife and I went to the classic meet at Puke last weekend. They ran out of programmes on the Saturday and the carpark overflowed when Sunday is normally the big day.
Watching Kevin Schwantz just flying on a Manx Norton is a memory that will stay with me forever.

The roadside fix thing depends a lot on the bike these days. My DR is pretty simple and so I will have a crack at pretty much anything (not that she has ever stranded me on the roadside, which is actually the biggest difference from yesteryear). The Trumpy however is a different beast altogether. The tank has to come off just to get at the plugs and it requires special tools. The fuel pump is buried inside and so there are 4 hoses and 2 electrical connections. The owner is actually discouraged from fiddling, but then it too has been ultra reliable so far.

[Pixie]

I wouldn't let a grease monkey near my bike.
Why pay money to have it buggered up?

[FROSTY:Me]

I guess I'm lucky . for me the decision is -Is it something I can fix here/now or does it need to go home the workshop.?

[MsKABC]

Well I wouldn't have the faintest clue about fixing machinery, as my expertise in the stereotypical world of "blokes" is limited to changing tyres in under 5 minutes, riding motorcycles, driving heavy machinery, fishing and backing trailers.

My husband on the other hand, is one of those too-tight-to-pay-someone-else, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none types, so he'll have a go at pretty much anything.

Of course it depends on the bike - my "mature" honda and my previous gpz have had all manner of modifications & maintenance done on them. This includes a gutting and rebuilding of the exhaust on the Bros so that now it sounds like a REAL v-twin And then there's his yet-to-be-raced bucket racer.....

The temperamental Italian that graces us with its presence, with all its electronic witchcraft, fuel-injected whatsits and carbon fibre thingamebobbits....well, he's a bit too frightened (or maybe realistic?) to touch that!

[MsKABC]

And I would have to add that I had my gpz worked on at two different "professional" workshops, yet it never ran as well as it did once my husband got hold of it

[McWild]

I come from a family very much uninterested in anything automotive. Great parents on other fronts, sure.
But DIY has pretty much never existed in our household, cars have existed solely as a mode of transport, and bikes? McWild, wtf are you interested in bikes for all of a sudden?

So I'm very much a call-for-the-cavalry type person. But hopefully oppurtunities will arise in the future for me to learn all the bits and bobs.

Could be a long road though. I found out the other day what a "circlip" was after one sprung off my kickstart. I only found out what a "carburettor" was a couple months ago, from wikipedia after curiosity finally drove me to it.

And when I told my parents that my new RG had a "powervalve", the response was, "Hmm. I don't like the sound of that."

Similar situation where I tried to convince them that it was SUPPOSED to burn oil.

[MsKABC]

I found out the other day what a "circlip" was after one sprung off my kickstart. I only found out what a "carburettor" was a couple months ago, from wikipedia after curiosity finally drove me to it.

Oh dear, you are in a bad way, aren't you? Even I know what those 2 things are! I'm sure there must be courses offered in your area? Or maybe you could organise a KB-Chch spanner night? Great way to meet people too.

[McWild]

Hey I know what they are now.
Yeah we have maintenance evenings coming up once our Wednesday night rides finish for the season.

There is hope after all!

[elevenhundred]

If I have the tools to do the job or can bodge up some tools to do the job then I will give it a go. It's hard to stuff up if you follow a careful routine i.e. remember where everything went, don't lose anything and never force anything until you know it is supposed to be forced

[imdying]

EFI doesn't stop you working on a bike, only ignorance does that. Actually makes it easier in some regards; when was the last time a carby said to you 'Excuse me, but one of my jets is blocked'.

[Rosie]

I'll always have a go at diagnosis. I'm not always very good at it, and even if I find the problem I often won't be able to fix it myself. But I do try. And that's the important part, right?