Sure looks like a Harley to me,maybe a disassembled Heritage.

 

I've always done my own wrenching. I bought my first bike, a Kawasaki Z1 900, in boxes and buckets for $150 back in the early 80's. Spent the next couple of months cleaning, polishing each piece as I assembled it in my living room. When I rolled it out and put gas i it, it fired up on the first kick. Nothing like the feeling of assembling your own bike and that first start-up and ride. Since then all of my bikes have started out as projects.

 

Oh boy

 

A lotta folks in here are saying just cuz you WANT to work on your bike, doesn't mean you SHOULD work on your bike! With this, I completely agree. I applaud the guys who may not have a lot of mechanical ability, but who want to do at least some of the maintenance and repairs on their bikes. However, when they try to do that without investing in the service manual, and they depend on YouTube and or forums to provide that information, that I can't abide...


There's gonna be quite an investment in tools and materials to do this work. I'd guess that most guys here that have those have built up their supply over many years, because they've worked on other things and/or vehicles. But for a guy freshly bought a bike, has no tools, it's gonna take several hundreds or thousands of dollars to get equipped. Does that make sense? Depends on the dude or dudette.


Lastly, there are simply a WHOLE lotta guys who absolutely have no business working on vehicles which not only could kill themselves, but more importantly, other people...and there are a number of those who have authored some recent threads that just make me shake my head. More and more, there seems to be members who make the suggestion that these guys seek out a mechanic to help them...so it's not just me that's noticed this!!!

 

You can get away without the manual but it does help...a LOT. I use the manual for **** like rebuilding my trans, because there's a lot of parts that need to go in a certain way. Other things you can just figure out.

The thing is this...you can try and you will **** **** up. It's just part of it. You will break parts, you will strip bolts, you will install **** the wrong way, all of these things will happen to you...WHEN YOU FIRST GET INTO IT. Don't get me wrong, mistakes are still made even by the experts but if you're so worried about ****ing something up that you won't try, then you'll never get it.

Yeah it's going to cost you some coin to replace the parts you broke if you do goof it, but that's part of the learning curve. You can't win a marathon without putting some tape on your nipples.

 

In the Seventies I did all my work myself on everything I possibly could it was much easier then. Things have changed over the years with technology and it's not quite so simple. I also suffer with severe arthritis in my hands and just can turn a wrench very long anymore plus I work 11 hrs 5 days a week that cuts into ride time bad enough. If I had the time and it didn't hurt so much I would probably do more.
Luckily we have a HD certified Indy here that is very fair on parts and labor and has always done me right. I just ordered a complete suspension setup (front and rear) and with what he saved me on parts the install only cost me about $75

 

Saved myself THOUSANDS over the years doing it myself, cars and bikes!

 

I do ALL of my own wrenching as well as most of my riding buddies bikes. I grew up on a farm so wrenching on your own stuff was part of the lifestyle. IMO wrenching is more of a mindset than ability (to a degree). If you have the will and desire to learn anything is possible. Prepping your mind for the job at hand is just as important as having the correct tools for the job. And if you have access to a wrencher from "Back in the Day" that you can learn from, that's even better. Only a seasoned wrencher knows that not every nut and fastener requires a torque wrench. "Feel" is something you learn over time.

 

Every word true...ya gotta rip the scab off sometime...you make mistakes, I make mistakes...I don't think Shannon Bates makes mistakes though! LOL...


Just razzin' ya boy, just razzin' ya!

 

I've made plenty of them and I've owned them all. When you're the only one wrenching on your bike there's no one else to point the finger at but yourself Lol.