LADIES: Are you "mechanically inclined"?

[Chatty Cathy]

YOU SHOULD AT LEAST learn how to change a flat tire on your bike and how to start it by popping the clutch in case your battery ever goes dead and it won't start. Knowing those two small things are MOST useful to us riders. Just have a friend that rides or your significant other show you how.
Could be the difference between making it home, or not.

HAPPY TRAILS!!! CHATTY CATHY

[Christina]

My dad taught me stuff to do on the car. I would like to think in most instances it's the same on a bike. Bottom line is I don't like chancing my safety or my passengers just so i can tinker in my garage. I'm sure that sounds extreme to some. Instead I trade out some mechanic work on my bike for a nice lasagne dinner. I trade my kitchen talent for the talent of my bike mechanic friend. Works out for both of us.

[Shorts]

edit: deleted inflamatory post.

[coffee_brake]

Aww, great thread! You girls are making me have hope for us all!

NOBODY touches my bikes. Well, I allow my husband to ride them or move them out of his way, but NOBODY does work on my bikes but me. I do my own valve adjusts, forks maintenance/replacements front and rear, primary drive shoes, brakes upgrades, and electric accessory add-ons. I ain't skeered! There were some wonderful folks, chiefly my "do it yourself" parents and some rare sympathetic independent mechanics who would explain things or even loan a tool early on, of course with the return gesture of lots of free advertising or a 6-pack of something nice.

That said, I don't have the tools to do a top-end re-build or the camshaft bearing replacement which I need in a few more thousand miles, so then I'll have to take them in. But I can bet I'll be standing at the bay door watching, every minute. And buying the mechanic a nice big bottle of Crown Royal. It goes a long way toward good will, let me tell ya! Keeps the bill down, too.

For me, following the instructions in a Clymers or Service Manual is very easy, and asking online to fill in the gaps works. It helps that I can ride a different bike while one is down for as long as it takes to understand the problem. Yes, I'm slow, but I'm thorough. I guess some of ya'll say it's just hard to read the book and understand. I have to agree because some of the mechanics I actually would trust, say they hate the manual too.

At the same time, though, Ladies, don't get taken for a ride! Maintenance is NOT a hard thing to understand and lots of shops will really exploit your fear of wrenching! The same determination that maybe got you through a hard college class, or got you through your kid's "terrible twos" or helped you keep your finances straight...that same determination is how you learn to work on your own bike. That, and not getting frustrated with your mistakes. You just decide, "It's time to learn this and I'm going to do this, even if it takes all week!"

I have a carb rebuild for an old inline four waiting at my garage table. I've worked on and synched (and even totally broken) carbs but never rebuilt them before. I honestly don't know what I'm going to find or if I'm going to break or lose bitty parts, but I know I'm going to tear those carbs apart by the book as carefully as I can, take pictures and ask folks which parts are bad, and put it together. If the bike still idles badly, I'll take 'em out and do it again. I'm not giving up, I'm going to do this job.

I didn't know there were so many wrenchin' ladies out there, glad to keep your company in cyberspace!

[Teek]

I learned how to work on my '72 Datsun pickup decades ago by necessity, being poor. It was also my baby, so I loved fussing with it! I could do a full tune up (dual points and condensers on the distributor!), adjust brakes, oil changes, rotate tires, batteries were cake of course, and under the dash stuff. It was an easy truck to work on too. Hardest thing I did was replace the water pump. I did the engine harness too, and pulled the radiator to weld on broken brackets and solder some pinholes. changed belts and hoses. I worked on all my trucks up to the last one, an '88 F-150, but by then it was a lot harder to get to stuff, I had to sit in the engine compartment or dive in head first from a fender. Just not as user friendly. New cars now, I could change the oil, but lordamighty, on most you can't even see the plugs when you open the hood!
I never learned the valve adjustment, wish I had because my bike is due for a valve check/adjustment. I'm waiting for the GSTwin West Coast kit to come my way. I have a mechanically inclined hubby who knows motos better than cars, and when we met I had a bigger and better set of tools, chest, and rollaway than he did! So we are doing all sorts of stuff on my bike, and he does the heavy lifting but I'm right there wrenching too and learning. I'm just about ready to tackle the carbs (one for him, one for me ) for a cleaning and rejetting to improve the low rpm response of this bike. If I mess it up I know a guy I can ship them to, and I'm reasonably sure he'd do a good job, but not as sure how long he'd take, it could be months! And I don't have a backup bike. Also don't have the funds to have a stealership do it, and probably mess it up, or not be as meticulous as I would be...

But WOW! All the ladies here wrenching on their own motos is a huge inspiration!

[kymford]

Good on you to all the chix who are working on thier own machines, that is so great to hear.

I have a good idea of whats what but i leave the actual motor/tuning etc to my husband. For a couple of reasons, he is good at what he does but the main reason is we p!ss each other off when working together , we end up fighting

My car, i did the interior myself, and some of the prep for paint, although, sanding sucks!

So all in all i am not afraid of tools and grease

We are teaching our young sons to get into it too, and they're loving it, which is great.

[whisper15]

I'm pretty much mechanically inclined, followed and watched my Dad and older Brother. My 2 sisters helped Mom. Didn't learn to cook till I left home HA HA I taught my sons how to take care of their vehicles and cook.
I hope to learn a lot about my V-Star 650 Silverado Custom. Took it for its 600 mile check up(had 800 on it) and they said they checked everything and changed the oil. Got it home and the screws were loose on the windshield. Yea Right they check everything I will do it myself next time. And they charge way toooo much.
This is a great site.

[Gabrielle]

No way I can afford 100$ an hour not to mention how many shops still try to take advantage of a woman, at least in my area. And that good ol 'I can get to it early part of next year just leave it' YA RIGHT. I read the Clymer but it most often leads you astray, it a good starting point. Then I come online and do a search now thats a huge help. then its off to the backyard. If its something like synchronizing the carbs I dont have the tool. Then I will pay a guy I trust here in town. I think the first time i called to ask what it would cost to replace the stator was $800+ incentive. Ended up costing me 40 buck oil and the gaskets.

[sunshine229]

I do my own oil changes (my hubby TMW Mike taught me!) and I lube my chain. I don't really do much else, although if Mike is going to do something with my bike I try to be there so I can learn.

In general I am not much of a hands-on girl.

Andrea

[SCgurl]

I grew up with a bunch of gearheads. I learned to rebuild a carburator on a '65 T-bird when I was 8 (thanks, Dad ). My grandfather restored old cars for a living. When he passed away, his garage was (and still is) full of Model T's, Model A's, at least one Bugatti, and a couple of bikes-I'm not entirely sure what they are though. I'm making a trip to go check on those at the end of August.

BTW, this was part of why I wanted to learn to ride. The bikes belonged to my dad. I really want to be able to breathe life back into them.

I still do most of the automotive maintenance on the cars, but BF makes the special tools when needed. He's pretty handy to have around too.