Do it Yourself - Learning to Work on Your Own Motorcycle

• Table of Contents
• 1. Starting Slow
• 2. Working Your Way Up

You love your motorcycle and take it out whenever you get the chance. You also do everything you can to take the best care of it possible, getting regular maintenance done to make sure that it stays in the best running condition possible. In the course of doing this, you have probably noticed that it can cost you a lot of money to have maintenance and repairs done at your local motorcycle shop or mechanic. Instead of spending a lot of money to have your bike serviced by a mechanic all of the time you can take the time to learn to work on your motorcycle yourself.

1. Starting Slow

If you have always felt a bit intimidated by working on your motorcycle, know that you are far from alone. A lot of veteran riders leave the mechanics of the bike to the experts and have no problem with it. However, if you have an interest in really learning about the mechanics and how to do repairs yourself to save yourself some money, you can take steps to learn. The best place to start is by getting the manual for the particular bike that you own. You will be able to learn all of the ins and outs of the parts and system for your bike so you can become more familiar with them. You can then start out slow in learning how to some of the basic maintenance things like changing the oil, adjusting the chain tension or working on the brakes. You can steadily learn to do some of the routine things so you can do them all on your own.

2. Working Your Way Up

You may want to put off doing any actual work on the motor of the bike until you have learned more about the mechanics and feel comfortable with doing the work yourself. If you have a friend that regularly works on bikes, ask if you can work with them the next time they are doing something so you can watch and learn. You may also want to consider taking courses in motorcycle repair so that you can familiarize yourself more with the systems, technology, tools and methods. There are training classes available at a variety of vocational schools and you can also get courses online where you can watch instructional videos to learn all about the repair.

Once you start learning and doing some of the basics on your own you may find that you want to do more and more to maintain your bike yourself. You can get all of the tools that you need to do repairs and find the parts you need from local suppliers or suppliers online so that you can do nearly anything on your own. This can be a great way for you to learn a new skill, save yourself some money and get a great sense of confidence and achievement when you learn how to work on your own motorcycle.