Just a thought and most probably one that has come up previously.
I am struck by the money some people pay for quite basic work on there bikes
and also by the obvious thirst for the know how to enable these jobs to be carried out at home.
The same things come up again and again -chains,bleeding brakes, basic electrical fault finding,bearings etc. Then there are the more involved jobs , i dare say there are quite a few lb’ers who have never seen inside a bike engine.
However , There are some very knowledgeable people on lb ,
Could some of them be persuaded to organize a series of instructional workshops ?
Would anyone one donate the space/bike ?
would there be enough interest from wannabe diy’rs
What do you think ?, been done? didnt work? interested in either instructing or learning ? let your thoughts be known…
sounds bloody great to me. ive gone from know-nothing to know-quite-a-bit (but still not enough) in 4 years, all by watching and learning off of friends who are more knowledgeable than me. havn’t got the confidence yet to strip an engine but can do brakes, fit new chain and sprockets, new starter motor and clutch, new sump, valve clearances, and the service type stuff. saved me an absolute fortune over the 60,000 miles ive had the bike.
ive still got loads more to learn but more than willing to share what i know, and learn more. have bike, garage and tools in essex, near lakeside if any one is interested.
I’ve a few year’s experience working on cars - but next to nothing on bikes. I’ve concocted my own carb diaphragm out of a condom and rubber glove finger (import bike - OEM parts like gold dust!), replaced indicators/brake pads/clutch cable and topped up the battery; but because I’ve never had to work on something without a differential before I’m rather shaky on such basic things as lubing sprockets and tensioning the chain.
Self and bike (only a 4-stroke 125 single, I’m afraid!) would both be more than willing participants, if wanted.
This is a great idea and has been suggested in the past but has, until now, been a non starter due to nobody wanting to open their garage/home up to possibly unknown LB members, mainly for security reasons.:doze:
I know virtually nothing about how to do anything on my own bike beyond the basic checks. I’d be very interested in learning how to service the bike(s) and how they all work in exchange for folding stuff.
Depending upon dates and costs you have a keen student right here :w00t:
I’d like to learn some simple mechanics - brake fluid & pads, filters & oil replacement etc.
edit:
perhaps if people were worried about security, the numbers could be limited and the ‘trainees’ could pay some kind of refundable deposit?
Or perhaps trustworthiness should be based on forum post count;)
I am sure I have mentioned this before, but the method on Modern Vespa has proved very successful. Basically, people do work on their bikes and arrange for each step to be photographed, by themselves or someone else. This is then submitted to forum with a step by step write up, and the best ones are moved to a read-only technical area of the forum to form a reference library -
Funnily enough myself and Les from L J motorcycle repairs have been talking about this for ages. There’s so many riders on bikes that have been neglected or even dangerous. Not to mention the simple routine maintainence that you could do yourself and save on the costs.
Les would be willing to open up his fully equipped workshop perhaps one evening or a Saturday morning, if someone would like to co-ordinate this and perhaps draw up a list of particular tasks you’d like covered etc then Les will give it a go.
I could also go over suspension set up and bike handling if you like.
It’s a small workshop based in Twickenham so perhaps a group size of about six or seven would be appropriate.
I know sweet FA about how my bike works and it annoys the hell out of me- I’ve never been a mechanic but there aren’t a lot of things I haven’t taken apart to see how they work. I’d be well up for some supervised destruction/ reconstruction to teach me the basic skills and more than happy to pay someone (even if only in cups of tea) for their time!
If this does come together I’d be very interested in attending…
I want to get my name on this one straight away… I know basics, like change spark plugs and things biggest job I have undertaken was my brakes and that because I had no money to put it into a shop, and if I could not get to work I had even less money so bought a hanyes manual and did it myself pooped myself a bit as was breaks but was well please as I did, what I think was a great job…
I have just had a great idea let me know what you think.
Get the list of names, everyone throws in say £20, with this we by a banger, any parts needed everyone chips into, once up and running sell the bike and split the money between all, that way we may even make a little profit…
That sounds like a great idea; but I for one would be up for donating the post-overhaul bike to B and Les in return for the workshop space, if other people are agreeable? Twenty quid apiece seems pretty fair money for learning invaluable skills, I reckon!
