Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Things are differnt on bikes mostly when it comes to engine and transmission setup. Most everything else is pretty much the same on factory bikes.

The best thing for you to do is to get a bike and then buy a graphics-intensive workshop manual for it. The Haynes manuals are very good for this. They give you a picture of what they are talking about. This is how I initially got started working on cars (BMW's and Mercedes) and Motorcycles (Ducatis.) Once I had basic knowledge from puttering around on my own and then as an assistant mechanic in a private garage, the courses for certification were a snap.

What I'm sayin is, the best way to learn it is hands-on experience, which you won't have until you get a bike. If you REALLY want to learn, you can probably grab a junked bike from a junkyard for $100 or so and tear it apart w/ a manual.

I plan to get a bike ASAP but I'm a college student and money isn't exactly free flowing for me.


And as such I don't have a garage to store any project bikes in (I'll be parking/storing the bike on campus) so I can't really do the junkyard bit unfortunately.

Go to any pre school and ask the kids to draw some diagrams for you, they know where all the bits are.

Agree with the suggestion to go buy a manual of a specific bike you buy (whenver that is). I learned how to work on cars and bikes because I couldn't afford to have someone fix either my first car or first bike (poor high school graduate in those days).

I went to the library and took out a chiltons' for the car and a clymer for the bike. Went step by step and learned by doing.