Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but paid users have great benefits. Paid member benefits:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
Do you raise every piece of food that your family consumes?
Do you sew every piece of clothing?
Make every single piece of furniture?
Maybe you do, but I doubt it. You definitely could, but chances are you pay someone for all those things that you could do if you had the desire to.
There are situations where people just don't have the time, the workspace, or even the mechanical ability to do some of the things you are talking about. It may even take them so long to do those things that it cuts into other things that they need to do.
I do most of the "small" work on my vehicles for financial reasons. When my kids started driving, it became too expensive to have everything done by a technician. My cars had mostly been under warranty, but their first cars were used and long past the warranty period. I was fortunate that I could take enough time to figure things out but not everyone has the time, or the inclination to do those things. That doesn't frustrate me at all, it's their business.
I will say that after doing far too many hours or work on my daughter's first car, an Audi A4, I would never choose to work on one of those again if I could avoid it. I'd only buy another one with a full warranty!!!!
What I’m getting at is some of us enjoy doing it and make time to do it. I’ll split cases and everything. I don’t do suspension though. Others aren’t into the mechanical side of it and paying to have it done isn’t a thing for them and that’s okay too.
The Shop
Me, being into Vintage, you have to spend some time coddling, offer up some garlic and bat's wings or search for four leaf clovers to make it through practice. Dealers can not make money chasing obscure and unique older parts. They are in business to make money and they must to stay in business.
There is a plan for either method you prefer. Just show up at the track and enjoy the day of riding. In fact, a lot of you need to learn to push old, 250 lb+ (Rider or bike) and just humor the fellow trying to load it!
GRR guess thats against the rules
Something my son doesn't seem to want know about, he'd rather watch his phone and call anything that doesn't work " piece of sh!t"
He’s gunna kill us.
It sounds like you have the skill to grow your own food, and you could sew your own clothes together if you wanted to. But you choose to have others who likely have more skill, better tools, time, and inclination to do these things for you and you pay them money.
Your frustration with people who don’t repair their own bikes is like an avid gardener who spends a huge amount of time growing nearly all of their own food being frustrated with you for not doing the same.
People give you lots of reasons for frustrations in life. This just doesn’t seem like anything worth getting worked up over.
I grew up with a ‘semi absent’ dad. He worked all day long on a small farm & then he went to university at night to get a degree in computers. Once he finished his degree, he worked all day on the farm & all night at his computer business & was very rarely around,
As a family we had zero experience with bikes. My dad bought my brother & i a kx80 to ride around our fields on. He just sat me on it & told me to put it in first & go for it. I got about have way round the field & it blew up because i never changed gear! 😂 after it was rebuilt & we learnt the basics, we told my dad we wanted to race it.
I remember he was so pissed when he got to the races & realised it was an all day thing & he wasnt getting his farm work done! He thought he would have been home in a few hours. To cut a long story short, my mum knew my dad was never around, so from what I remember she pressed dad into taking us to the races most weeks. He usually just sat in the car working on his laptop & often missed our races.
What does this have to do with fix it urself? Our bikes were bottom of my dads priority list. So any maintenance was done around 11pm on a Friday night or at the racetrack on Saturday morning. If he realised sumthing was broken often it was to late to fix it. Most times he was in such a hurry to get the work done he would botch it up. So my impression of maintenance equaled stress, hassle ‘ problems.
I remember riding down to the starting line for a race when my dad came running along behind me. He stopped me & said he remembered he needed to tighten my gear shifter on my ktm 125. With one huge twist he rung the bolt clean off & the gear stick just dropped off. & that was me done for another day.
My dad had no interest in doing repairs so he sent our bikes off to have even very basic work done. Because i didnt get to watch anyone do proper work i had no one to learn from.
Fast forward & im now 36, i do all the basics myself, tyre changes, filters, oil, sprockets etc. I trued two rims just this week too. I even do normal car maintenance (oils, fiilters, pads etc) But i need to watch someone do something twice or a very good youtube video then i would be confident to do it myself. I would love to be able to do the top end in my fourstrokes but i dont think my local dealer would be too happy to let me stand & watch him do rebuilds as it would cost him money. I have considered enroling in some kind of mechanics course so i can learn.
Ps, my dad & me are tight. We often now laugh at his lack of mechanic skills back in the day!
I do agree that YouTube and photos on forums have made access easier than ever, but some people also are “shamed” when they might ask basic questions like “how do you tell if the bearing is seated” or “how do you know by feel,” things that some of us in prior generations had to learn by watching someone in person do the work. I bought a $250 XR650L with a nuked motor, two quick trips to a machinist, one big parts order, and for about $1600 I was set and away, bike has had zero issues. But I’ve had time to accumulate tools, the patience (or sometimes, the mistakes caused by lack thereof) and just a relief from family and work.
This pandemic has been an amazing example of how if you can't manage on your own, you're going to struggle. As stores closed, vendors warehouse staff stayed home. If you relied on those individuals for everything, it probably hurt. I, and others like myself, thrived. My wife and I both stayed employed full-time, plus got money from the government. I had no problem if shipping companies were slow or distributors had limited supplies, because I relied on my own abilities to fix issues as needed. It is absurd that someone can argue a point to me that its okay to totally rely on someone else, from somewhere else, to fix all your messes and come to your rescue 100% of the time with the simple explanation of "It's okay, I have the money and would rather pay them to do it." If you don't care to, I get it. But avoiding simple maintenance or repairs because you are too lazy to learn, is asinine.
Pit Row
I have a hvac buddy that once told me "When that thing breaks, sit on a bucket and study that wiring diagram, you'll find the problem"
I hear you loud and clear on time vs money. I can make money, I can't make time.
https://www.wired.com/story/john-deere-farmers-right-to-repair/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics_right_to_repair
https://gizmodo.com/right-to-repair-is-less-complicated-and-more-import…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Vehicle_Owners%27_Right_to_Repair_A…
Between the wife and I we have 14 bikes, 3 bicycles, 3 vehicles, 2 RVs, 1 UTV, 1 tractor and 3 buildings on our property. Yeah yeah sometimes its fun to go bolt some parts on or fix a bike up (took me two years to get the 2006 R1 I bought for $3,500 bucks back into 'fighting shape'... and that was fun and all but....) but when you have that much shit to work on even 'simple stuff' adds up.
Today I have to go outside and do two oil changes (car + truck), rotate 8 wheels, and replace one set of brake pads.
I have a full time job that requires A LOT of my attention, a wife I like hanging out with, a dog that is fun to walk, and uh.. bikes I LIKE RIDING. Fixing shit takes away from all that.
I pick and choose my 'fix it' battles. Some stuff I finally get around to, and I can handle, but other jobs that I know will cause mucho swearing and frustration, I'd rather pay someone else.
Sounds like you start at 1pm and it “takes all day.”
You can take the drain bolt out of both vehicles in less than 5 minutes.
You can rotate the tires for the one vehicle while they drain.
(20ish minutes)
Take off the oil filters and replace. 10 minutes.
Put drain bolts back in (5 minutes)
Pour oil into vehicles (10 minutes)
Rotate tires and change brake pads in other vehicle.
(1 hour)
How is this taking you all day? Are you playing on your phone while you do it? Stop dragging it out and procrastinating and just get the job done.
Post a reply to: What happened to people fixing things.