I didn't bother to read all the replies, but it comes down to one of two things: skill or money.

Money: I've got a friend who does very well. He drops his bike off and they give him a loaner (because he could write them a check if he crashes it). He doesn't have the tools or desire to do it himself. Buys a new bike every 2 years. The dealer bends over backwards for him and he'd just rather not bother. Could he do it himself, yes. But, he's got f-u money so he doesn't.

Skill: Join a sport bike forum for a few months. Some people just don't understand why they do something, let alone how to do it. So many self inflicted problems it's not even funny. The commonality is that they all thought they could do it. When you thread a course threaded screw into a plastic hole, do you turn it backwards until you feel it drop into the threads, or do you just insert and go? Do you know how to convert ft lbs to in lbs? Do you even know what a torque wrench is? Basic mechanical experience (ability is secondary) is absent in a lot of people. Frankly, a motorcycle is not the place to gain it.

So if you don't know how, you pay someone. If the expense doesn't bother you, you pay someone. What do you do if you don't have the money or experience? You start a "help me" thread on a forum.

 

Work on everything of mine from 2 wheels to 4..... Big or small mods or repairs..... Why? Like the old saying..... No one is gonna care for your ****, like you will.......

 

Even today 80% of all learning is through trial and error. There were no schools when the Minoan, Greek, Roman and Egyptian engineers and architects built structures and system that today's engineers with phds can't even figure out.

Tear into it. You will learn how. Lay it out in the shape and sequence that the fasteners were removed. Put back in reverse sequence. It is not skill it is the capacity to observe and analyze.

 

 

I am retired and still can't get away from wrenching.
All my buddies keep buying cars and have me working on them.

61 Vette this summer.



91 Mustang LX 5.0 Auto.


And currently this 1963 Corvette.

 

watch Kevin Baxter’s latest YouTube video on diagnostics, and that’s an early 2000’s bike 😳
’ watch on YouTube

 

I wrench on my own bike because I aint got ****in money to spend on dealership hours. 160$ an hour is enough motivation for me to learn to do it myself. I got a service manual and access to youtube and the various harley forums.
Learning aint hard.


I wear a headcam every time I install something on my bike so I can get an exact record of what I did and how and how it came apart if necessary.
It's been a really useful thing for not just my own records and memory but taking snapshots for other people and getting them images of things they want to know about.
IT's not perfect or flawless but it helps a lot with tracking what you were doing.

 

I can afford to pay for it, but I don't trust anybody else to work on my stuff.

I turned wrenches for a living for a long time, and now run 3 shops that repair other people's engines, etc.

I have all the tooling, and still enjoy wrenching. Every single time I pay someone to do repairs for me, something goes wrong, I would just rather do it myself.

 

I pay my local shop their rate, because I know THEY know what they are doing and it's below my hourly billing rate. (if I can do what I do well, and pay someone what they do well, we all win)