Bike Wrenching

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RoadKing
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Bike Wrenching

Post by RoadKing »

I enjoy visiting the tech section from time to time even though there are brands, including Intruder, that I know little about. Vicariously takes me back to younger years when I did the majority of my own wrenching and was constantly in conversation with others about the mechanics of bikes. I loved it. Maintained and rebuilt bikes and trucks with a drive and passion. But then my body began to hurt, chronic pain that took the enjoyment out of the all nighters in a cold garage or barn. Now others care for my machines so I can keep riding. I miss the work and feeling of accomplishment but can do little of it any more. The old times come back to me each time I browse the technical section here. Also, and needless to say, I always know the best of the best when it comes to Harley mechanics and it is exciting talking with them when possible.

However, and that’s a big HOWEVER, I plan to soon purchase a good bike lift and get my ‘67 up where I can tear it apart and do a complete rebuild taking my time. It will be a challenge but I look forward to it. Not having to kneel or bend will be helpful. Going to the tech section here has been inspiring.
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury…
Signifying nothing”

Signifying monkey, stay up in your tree. Always lying and signifying, but you better not monkey with me.

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hillsy
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by hillsy »

A bike lift makes a BIG difference when it comes to wrenching. Make sure you get one that can adjust to any height, not just full up. And pneumatic ones are the easiest to use IMO.

Good luck with it - hope you get busy with the spanners again [emoji106]

old time rider
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by old time rider »

Enjoy. Would rather do my own work if able but do not enjoy it like when young. Have a knee high heavy wood bench I made when drag racing.Then no trouble pushing a big heavy bike up on it by my self. Last few years not so. 1967 second year for shovel. Owned a 66 FLH for 11years. Think oil pump about only change for 67? They have the better looking flat cam cover and car looking points cover over top it through 1969. Good luck RK.

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franktiregod
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by franktiregod »

When I was about 18, my friends boss was showing us pictures of the hot rods he used to own. The guy was in his 40's and didnt have them any longer. We asked why he sold them and he said, You get older and you dont feel like working on stuff anymore. You would just rather drop it off at a shop and be done with it.

Me and my friend looked at each other in absolute shock! Not work on stuff? What? No way!

Well now I am 49 and I tell you even though I have a decent shop and I would rather be out riding than at home working on stuff. Funny how time changes us.

Goods luck on your project :cheers:

RoadKing
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by RoadKing »

franktiregod wrote:When I was about 18, my friends boss was showing us pictures of the hot rods he used to own. The guy was in his 40's and didnt have them any longer. We asked why he sold them and he said, You get older and you dont feel like working on stuff anymore. You would just rather drop it off at a shop and be done with it.

Me and my friend looked at each other in absolute shock! Not work on stuff? What? No way!

Well now I am 49 and I tell you even though I have a decent shop and I would rather be out riding than at home working on stuff. Funny how time changes us.

Goods luck on your project :cheers:
Franktire, when I was in my 40’s and 50’s I did my best work. Many nights I came home from construction work and worked on my bikes in the living room. Countless times I awoke middle of the night laying on the carpet next to my bike, wrench in hand. It was a passion that still burns but at least in those days I could still get up easily from the floor without screams of pain and agony! :lolfall:
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury…
Signifying nothing”

Signifying monkey, stay up in your tree. Always lying and signifying, but you better not monkey with me.

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franktiregod
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by franktiregod »

I have had back pain since I was 18 and fell off a house. Occasionally so bad I can hardly walk. Right now I have torn ligaments in my right shoulder and a bruised elbow that hurts like hell on the left because I fell on my damn elbow while getting under a trailer in the garage. :bang:

I would rather be riding. I have worked most of my life and most of the time my kids were growing up I had two jobs. I plan to finish my Valiant and then my son can be the wrench turner while I go exploring with Angela. I may buy a toy here and there but the days of hard core projects are probably over for me.

If I had it to do over, I would not have even built my shop. But hindsight is always 20/20.

navigator
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by navigator »

I still wrench my own stuff, but getting older has also slowed me down.
Since I'm retired, there is no rush to complete a project, not like I need to ride it tomorrow....it's zero out and loads of ice.
I currently have three projects going in 3 different bays. and two more on ice (see what I did there?)
I started them before the holidays, now I need to get back to them.
The zero turn mower needs:
oil change, new battery, deck belt, and a new deck roller, and some sharp blades.
The plow tractor needs:
water pump and hoses (blew up during the last storm)
Her bike needs:
her new hard bags installed, air filters, check the sync and lash.
My bike needs it's annual look through.
Life goes on, Get yourself a nice lift RK and have some fun tinkering.

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franktiregod
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by franktiregod »

Whats the saying, getting old aint for the weak. :lmao:

I have said it before, when I was about 29 a guy who was in his forties told me, "It all goes to hell after 40".

I laughed when he said that. I am now 49 and I aint laughing anymore. :eek:

navigator
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by navigator »

Wrenching is always fun when other wrench heads are hanging out with you, 'helping' you and supervising with beer in hand. :lmao:
When younger and racing 4WD on the weekends, we'd all get together after work and fix what we broke the last weekend.
Fun times.

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SuzyRidr2
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by SuzyRidr2 »

I've never been much of a wrench, but over the years (until recently) I have enjoyed maintaining my Suzuki as much as riding it. Two less than ideal experiences with dealership wrenches convinced me that I needed to figure out how to do things myself if I wanted to be safe and have confidence in my ride when out on the road. My bike was returned to me with missing rubber grommets on the faux tank and red gasket sealer squirted into the exhaust flanges - discovered when I had to pull the exhaust and replace the gaskets to fix an exhaust leak that developed after they worked on it. A fellow I spoke with at the dealership when picking my bike up told me a story about a friend who had a front brake caliper fall off and dangle by the brake line on the way home after picking his bike up from that same dealership.

Since, I've done my own mods, oil & fluid changes, exhaust, brakes, master cylinder rebuilds, and general troubleshooting and repair. I even did my own stage 3 re-jetting with a lot of questions answered and published how-to by people like Half Crazy on the old board. I figure the worst that can happen is I can't fix it and I'll have to take it to someone who can. Nothing lost there, except maybe the cost of some parts if I boogar them up trying to fix it myself. I've always drawn the line at wrestling with tires though. I take it to the shop where they have the right equipment.
lovineveryminuteofit

Tbeck
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by Tbeck »

I've limited my wrenching type work to oil/tire changes and home projects. It's getting really hard to see which limit's accomplishment of finer repair work. I weigh each task based on what I can see.

navigator
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by navigator »

Half the time you don't see what you're wrenching. You let your fingers do the walking.

lonerider
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by lonerider »

When I was in my 40s I was in the best shape of my life. Worked a full day, came home and worked on whatever street rod project I was into, went out and ran a 5 mile route, went back out to the garage for another couple of hours, went to bed and half the time was on call programmer so got calls at all hours of the night. I wasn't into motorcycles yet, but had fun tinkering with the rods and maintaining the commuter cars. The last several projects I did were 51 Ford with 283, 40 Ford 283, 36 Ford PU sbc, 48 Ford F1 360, 34 Pontiac 2 dr sbc, 55 Chev small block, and wife's 66 Pontiac 389.

Point is, I had oodles of energy and never seemed to get tired. Now at 74 I don't think I could hold down a full time job if I wanted to. But I still do my own oil changes and light maintenance like brakes and tuneups. A friend of mine just had a 66th birthday and said man I really am starting to feel OLD. I said, shit, I wish I were 66 years old again!

.

old time rider
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by old time rider »

66 would be better than now! 71 and can still ride all day but work way down on the able part last two years. Did give my grandson two half days of work on his new house. So hot one day and had twenty years on one next to me.Felt like had been in the hay field all day at bath time.Wore out and sore the next day. Knees,ankles,and not far back! Guess be glad can still do some work. Drove the 37 out of the barn and let idle at 14 degrees before getting ready to drive to a winter cruise in a small rod shop today. Went back out and left rear wheel wet all over out side? Look under and think brake line so pop lid on Master and its a little low on one side. A little must go a long way from looks of tire! Turn it around and put back in barn with ass end facing out. Temps are forcast to go from below to above average in next three days so more work :bonk: . Its ten years older than me and like me needs work about any where you want to! :lmao: Had it since 1977 and could sell it about any time I want,just don't want.
Suited up and rode the motorcycle to cruise in. Did not use elc because only eight miles to it. Had a great time with old friends not seen since last big cruise in/show in the summer. Good day for old man and kid is taking us out at 5:30 .Man I love her just as much as when she was three and that was to Mars and back. :kiss: :putput:

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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by HARRIS »

FRIENDS, THE GOLDEN YEARS ARE A LIE ......
Luck & Experience:
You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck

Tbeck
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by Tbeck »

Nav, you are correct, but you need to be able to see enough to know where the hands need to go to start. When you can't see that it's better to leave it to other's.
Speaking of leaving it to other's, I am TERRIBLE when it comes to letting other's wrench around me. Anyone else that way?

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Prodigal_Sun
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by Prodigal_Sun »

I spent most of my time in my 20's single and either unemployed or part-timer somewhere. I didn't have the dough to lay out for someone else to work on my stuff, but I had loads of free time. I learned to wrench out of necessity. I love high quality aftermarket parts. My goal was always to modify it as much as I could afford while making it look and run like it rolled off the factory floor that way. More or less :lol:

Now with the wife 2 kids and a full time job it's tough to find the time energy or desire to get out there and do any serious work on anything unless I absolutely have to. If it's an emergency job I'll thrash from the time I get out of work until it's done. I can get most things done in 6-7 hours leaving me 5-6 hours to sleep before I have to get ready for work the next day, anything bigger than that I have to give up weekend time, which is no bueno. If I have a big project that I want to do I'll try and hammer it out on a Saturday, but it gets tough not to have the little one's constantly distracting me by "helping" or keep the wife from feeling neglected. That and I have to sneak my own money away to make purchases :bang: :OhNo; :lolfall: that's the price of "growing up" I guess :Umm: ;IDunno:

I'm 43 and I have more knowledge and ability than at any other time in my life, but I get less of what I want done than ever :bonk: I guess I have my one main project (the scoot right now) that I do what I want on, a load of side projects I may or may not ever get to, and my daily driver that I just do what needs to be done on. Seems to workout ok like that
:evil: [emoji56]

I have a lot of opinions, some of them professional, some of them educated, most of them I just pulled out of my @$$

Some of my best stupidity is largely self-inflicted. :roll:
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RoadKing
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by RoadKing »

As I approached age 60 certain realities finally sunk in. As I say, the discomfort of pain reduced the desire and ambition to wrench. Another reality was time, as has already been mentioned by others this thread. It took me an entire day to do a brake job on my trucks while a shop could do it in hours. Time. While the shop was doing the brake job I could spend my time taking care of other important matters. Time. At age 60 most of my time was behind me with the time still in front uncertain. Time. The reality of retirement only a few years away I decided to spend time in a different way. Riding is still fun and actually healing as I’m sure many of you are aware. So, now I spend my time riding and occasionally wiping clean thousands of dollars of mechanical tools that no longer get very dirty or used while trusted mechanics work on my bikes. Time.
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury…
Signifying nothing”

Signifying monkey, stay up in your tree. Always lying and signifying, but you better not monkey with me.

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Suzuki Johnny
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by Suzuki Johnny »

I still do the basic maintenance on my bikes.. oil and filter changes and the like...anything I can do to save a few bucks
Local shop runs a special every now and then ...79 bucks for a dino oil and filter change...
Not bad .... runs me about $49 bucks to do it myself
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Prodigal_Sun
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Re: Bike Wrenching

Post by Prodigal_Sun »

"Trusted Mechanics" is the key phrase in that for me. Those are tough to find around here, and they usually struggle to stay in business competing against the loudmouth b.s. artists that the ignorant masses seem to flock to in droves. There's one place I "trust" because I worked with the owner when he was a tech at the Suzuki/Kawasaki dealer. But mostly he's working on special projects. I know he'll let me work on my own stuff there, but I feel like I'm taking unfair advantage by doing that. ;IDunno: Most of the things I could pay him for I can do myself, and I've gotten fussy over the years about the way things are done... Sometimes "by the book" won't cut it. Occasionally the book was either written to work universally or by some lawsuit phobic suit. :hat: :lolfall:

At least one of my kids is obsessed with anything with a motor and, as grandma used to say, is "full of piss and vinegar." :lol: he's six, so with any luck in another 20 years when I'm getting ready to retire, he'll know what he's doing and I can keep him close enough to work on things together once in a while.
:evil: [emoji56]

I have a lot of opinions, some of them professional, some of them educated, most of them I just pulled out of my @$$

Some of my best stupidity is largely self-inflicted. :roll:
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