Do you do your own maintenance? What bike?

[Data]

I do my own maintenance as I have the tools, time (fully retired) and inclination. I follow the book on everything as per Piaggios recommendations. I use only the best oils and coolant as recommended. In an ideal world it would be nice if you could take your bike to a dealer and rely on them to do a good job. I would point out that mostly you can, but still you do get the odd dealer who has a bad tech or techs. That happened to me. After the way the local dealer treated my GTS Vespa I vowed it wouldn't ever be going back there again. However, I don't service many other bikes or cars these days after doing that for half a lifetime. Capitanos' argument makes sense for him though. There is some truth in what Rocketman says too. Retirement...yeah, it's great!

[Pandrop]

I do most of my own work, for two reasons, 1. I've always loved tinkering and 2. Im a Yorkshireman so getting money out of my wallet is a long and painful process under normal circumstances...but handing it over to someone who doesnt care about my machine and only does half a job rubs me up the wrong way so I do as much as I can myself apart from engine internals and major electrical stuff.

Ive always had something in my garage with two wheels for over 40 years from trials bikes, to racing track bikes, muscle bikes, vintage bikes, scooters and mopeds and I love all them for different reasons, I dont care if they are small and steady 2-strokes or big and fast 4-strokes, im not a bike snob and love anything with two wheels and an engine bolted somewhere in between them and learn something new every time I pick up a project to work on.

Re: tools I usually buy second hand as anything that is affordable these days is not usually great quality so I buy old Scandinavian/German or British/American tools which are very high quality but have had a life and they are still going strong now.

Re: oils and filters , its one area that I never skimp on and only use proper kit for an engine's internals. Like Dave Weller im mechanically sympathetic to my bikes and always remember my grandad who was a Railway Engineer ( helped build the Mallard and Flying Scotsman ) telling me that if you treat any well-built machine like a woman i.e gently, and change the oil and filters regularly she will last much longer than an abused machine.

I would concur with Blackmoon about knowing your own limits and that a good mechanic is worth his/her weight in gold .. getting one recommended by someone who rates them highly is always a good start.

I agree with Capitano's point re: Value for money having an expert work on certain mechanical parts, however I dont have any friends that I would want to have sex and coffee with.... especially at the same time as it tends to spill out of the cup ( I would imagine)

[Deleted User 4154]

Interesting thread! My Dad was an engineer. He worked primarily in nuclear power stations and - latterly - submarines, and as I grew up I watched him repair and maintain all sorts of cars. He'd been a biker, but saw it as his mission to keep me well away from them, and so I ended up with a car (Renault 5!) after my 6th form moped, a Puch MS50.

Dad not only taught me how to maintain the car, but also to fix it's sorry, rusty French ass, and the ability to not depend on garages led me to buy all sort of stuff that I wouldn't sensibly have been able to do otherwise. When I went to Unversity and went against his wishes entirely by buying a Z400 with a Squire sidecar, he still helped me keep the rotter on the road.

Time passed, and I got my bike licence. I got an entirely sensible AN400, which was discarded within weeks when I found the thing I'd once seen a picture of and fallen in love with - a completely knackered 1986 Honda Fusion. In a thousand pieces. I fixed it, and rode thousands of miles aboard it. Another one turned up - a complete wrecked UK-market bike for £35 - and this too was bought and fixed. My self-reliance was compounded by the fact that garages would agree to do little more than MOT them, and it got to the point where I can honestly say that I know every clip, screw, nut, bolt and fastener on these wonderful old Hondas.

Like most people, as time passes, your financial position improves, and mine did but I carried on doing my own work. Partly cos I enjoyed it, partly 'cos I trusted no f****r at that stage. The situation has adjusted, as you might imagine, helped immeasurably by the discovery of that biker Holy Grail, the Trusted Garage. I still spanner away, primarily because I enjoy it but also because I can make a profit flipping bikes I've bought cheaply - enjoying the experience of ownership for a few months - and then moving them on. Conversely, if a hideous failure occurs and it's something I can't be arsed with, then I ring the Trusted Garage. I've not ridden a Helix for a couple of years, if only because the fleet policy I used to have became ludicrously expensive. I even have a modern (2009!) bike nowadays, something I never saw happening in my wildest dreams. What I will say, though, is that my favourite stress buster in these difficult times is to pull put one of my projects, spread the spanners out all over the driveway and enjoy an afternoon of mechanic-ing.

So I guess my position lies somewhere between the total DIY aesthetic and Ged's 'Enjoy the ride and pay some one else to fix it'. I'm not going to preach to you as to which you should adopt, but what I will say is that the more you know about how your ride ticks, the better it'll be in the long run. Pob lwc!

[Data]

Jaz, I still find doing my own maintenance fun and good to do. I know where you are coming from. My dad too was an engineer and that's what got me into being a technician myself. When I was younger I used to wet myself with excitement when new factory courses on new bikes came up. These days I wet myself due to old age...lol!

[Dave Weller]

My Dad was a 'Rolls Royce' trained mechanic who worked at the Savoy Hotel garage, which sounds impressive, but in fact he did a one week training course at the factory and the notebook I found only related to very simple servicing.
I would use the equipment up the hotel to fix cheap cars and drive around some very high status cars.
Shell petrol had use of some areas where they would buy and store (dismantle) prototype electric vehicles of the 50s and 60s.

[kishan]

nope i rather have it done right by someone who is trained and has the knowledge so i dont do my own maintainance

[Exup170]

Interesting reading the different opinions on this topic , I guess there’s no right or wrong . For me I’d say I’m a good diy mechanic but I no my limitations, so I do what I can cope with and take it to a trusted garage when I can’t !! I’m too old to learn to much new stuff - the old grey matter is leaving me slowly

[wightegi]

I try to do all my own work ,then I know it is done right .On my Xevo changed the belt fitted sliders in place of the rollers new rear shocks, steering bearings ,they were rusty and dry,Front disc and caliper most bulbs to LED plus an LED high level brake light on the rack, I found a genuine Piaggio tilting rack and top box for the bike .We have a local garage that will change bike tyres and balance them the owner has a Honda Cub and a blackbird powered mini pickup