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What motorcycles teach about maintenance

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Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#131

Post by doubled112 »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #117
doubled112 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew I was getting screwed but wow. $160 last time I got an oil change at the dealership. There is usually one bottle that meets spec in retail stores, and it is $80 alone. I kick myself for the VW diesel pretty consistently, but I still have some time left on the Dieselgate warranty extension. Canadian prices?

$160 is pretty common for a modern vehicle synth oil change. I wouldn’t call that highway robbery and especially not in Canada.

It is pretty common. The warranty has probably saved me thousands at this point and having them maintain the car is the easiest way to make sure it stays valid.

Pre-COVID I was doing full synthetic (Mobil-1) for $25 a bottle on sale plus a $15 filter in my other car. A good sale is $45 now.

Everything feels like highway robbery now.

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#132

Post by am44jnsf »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #13
1970-01-01 wrote: post #4

>One time, when a customer asked him to help revive a beloved 1983 Honda Magma V45 that hadn’t been driven for two years, Crawford responded harshly: “Assuming it’s got all the usual problems from sitting, you’re looking at a thousand dollars to get it back on the road. First, it is the Honda Magna . Second, this mechanic took him to the cleaners. The Magna isn't nearly as complex as a Goldwing. $1000 for cleaning th…

I am not even remotely an expert, but many motorcycles I've seen that spent couple of years in the storage, let alone ones as old as that, need a lot of gaskets, seals, tubing and what-nots worked on or replaced - or at least examined/tested/cleaned. Plus you want to give a conservative estimate. Also remember - if I am doing repairs for fun, I only count the parts cost. But if I go to professional mechanic, it's $10…

two years is really nothing. you'll have to charge the battery and change the fuel, put air in the tyres, but it'll probably ride

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#133

Post by taeric »

smileysteve wrote: post #127
taeric wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any reason to think that this is more common in shops than in home mechanic things? Because, "left over parts" is a stupid common thing that I have heard from all teardown and rebuild projects. To the point that I'm willing to wager it is more common for home repairs than it is for shop run repairs. Further, you can always split it. Hire them to do it, but then you inspect it when done. If you are good en…

Yes, I think it's more common in shops - especially discount shops. Anecdotally, with my first car, the first quick lube used the wrong wrench too tight on my oil pan bolt and basically stripped it; another friend got the incorrect filter one time. I may know less, but I'm not being watched for efficiency; I'm less likely to break out an impact gun (partly because it doesn't fit under the car as easily) and I can com…

I haven't worked with enough discount shops to really know how well they can work. Biggest complaint I have with most that I have dealt with, is that they don't have the tools/information necessary to work on the modern vehicles, either. Frustrating, as I don't think it is a negative of the shop, necessarily.

That all said, interesting to read your perspective and how different our "priors/expectations" are. Would love to see some collected data to know how well this plays out.

In the vein of "car guys," I'm also curious if it conveys information to see clearly restoration vehicles near local shops. Just this AM, I noticed a classic mustang next to the main shop we use. I know they have fun working on some older vehicles.

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#135

Post by polartx »

ben7799 wrote: post #66
taeric wrote: post #3

I find the root premise flawed. I have known many people that loved working on cars. The plethora of very old vehicles where I live kind of holds that up, as well. My truck is 23 years old, and I'm positive it isn't even close to the oldest around here. Even closer to the general idea, the radio show "Car Talk" was less about cars than the name would have implied. Would love to see it revived in spirit. That said, st…

Lots of jobs you can do on a motorcycle yourself in a garage are like 100x harder on a car so it's nowhere near as accessible. Stuff like needing a lift, or needing a hoist to lift heavy parts like the engine or transmission. And even almost new motorcycles have minimal computer/electronic issues where the manufacturer is hiding how to do things. Get the Service manual and it tells you basically everything except how…

I think you nailed it on the head. Whenever something brakes, we’re faced with basically 3 choices: fix it, pay someone to fix it, or abandon it. One of the most critical moments before a choice is made, is the problem solver mentally overcoming the problem and envisioning themselves fixing it. “How much will I have to learn?” “How much will I have to spend on tools I don’t have?”, etc.

Accessing the troublesome parts of a motorcycle is orders of magnitude easier than with a car. And few specialty tools (I can’t think of any right now) are generally required.

I owned a few motorcycles in my 20s, but sold them after my first child was born. A decade later, after a significantly challenging year, I decided to buy a motorcycle because, “I just want something to look forward to.” Beautiful days are more meaningful when the weather is granting you permission to go for a ride.

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#136

Post by mitchbob »

By Stewart Brand, editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, author of The Media Lab, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation, one of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, assistant to Douglas Engelbart on The Mother of All Demos, and subject of the recent film We Are as Gods. Glad to see he's still busy!

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#137

Post by talldatethrow »

I'm about as diy shade tree mechanic as it gets. Every car my extended family owns is over 200k miles, and we havent paid for a mechanic in over 25 years. I do it all, from general maintenance to swapping or rebuilding an automatic transmission.

A motorcycle actually taught me my main lesson of maintenance: sometimes it's just better to leave a well working system alone instead of servicing it for fun. I once did a task that was 2x behind schedule, and while doing so exposed a problem that almost caused it to fail hard the following weeks commute. If I had done that before a long trip, it would have been a serious problem.

I told this story to a prior air force mechanic and he laughed. He told me the military learned long ago that there is a limit to preemptive maintenance such that the likelyhood of problems from human error and just chance overshadows the benefit of the preemptive maintenance. I now no longer do any "might as well!" maintenance at all, and never do major maintenance before a trip without a good chunk of time prior devoted to road testing the vehicle again before the trip.

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#139

Post by eternityforest »

Animats wrote: post #103

One aspect of maintenance is understanding the mindset of the original designer. This is pleasant for very well designed machinery. Here's a long description of a Teletype restoration I did a decade ago.[1] Mostly this is about the mechanical processes, but sometimes I wrote about the thinking behind the design. Teletypes were originally rented, with maintenance included. So they were intended to be reliable and repa…

Mechanical design is just orders of magnitude harder than software or electronics. Those are 2D, and largely 1D, and in software there is no concept of tolerance, wear, or yield.

Re: What motorcycles teach about maintenance

#140

Post by biorach »

smileysteve wrote: post #129
biorach wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a car that had separate throttle butterflies + carbs for each cylinder What cars had these? I imagine it makes for an amazingly close interaction between driver and vehicle

Many cars for fuel efficiency or performance. In modern fuel injected cars, secondary intake and fuel injection systems get more complex with rpm; typically its about 3500 rpm or 50% throttle position cause a different fuel map, an intake runner flapper, and for the last 30 years, some automatic cam timing adjustment.

yeah, I'm familiar with the modern fuel injection engines - this conversation was about carburretor engines
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