Yes, if they can pick their nose and scratch their azz at the same time lol.

 

Real way to do What? HD qualifications?

 

DAMN MY LAST 2 VISITS WERE BY THE BREATHING TECHS

 

Hey Gunny, if you ever decide to move to Florida, I'll help you find a place in my neighborhood.

Semper Fi

 

I just spent the past week in Orlando, upgrading my skill-set....

Too wierd for me..... Kinda like a Redneck version of Kalifornia.....

I am a 'Burgher....

Born, raised and I will probably die here.....

Only way I would even THINK of moving to the Orlando area would be as an Instructor at MMI....

 

I don't like the Orlando area either, I live in a rural area where it's slow and quiet. Nothing I can do about the "redneck" thing though, there's just too many of them. I'm originally from Michigan, and even though I've lived in Fl. most of the past 38 years I never could adapt to that redneck mentality.

And thanks for posting up the info about HD tech's. I'll be asking questions next time I take my new bike in for service or warrantee work.

 

Wow, a lot of good info here. I was a Mercedes Tech, shop owner, and now MB production mgr over 36 technicians and assorted support staff. What Shovelhead Bob says is unfortunately true. Automotive has been addressing this problem of training/competancy for some time now with varying degrees of success. MB has recently revamped their whole training process and raised the difficulty factor several notches. Still, it gets down to the individual. I look at the three A's; attitude, aptitude, attention to detail. Unfortunately, in my personal experience with bike shops in general, there seems to be plenty of the first, but very little of the other two. I even worked part time for a friend who owned a Titan/UltraKustoms dealership. I had never 'officially' worked on bikes, but found myself running circles around his full time 'experienced' techs (all MMI grads with 3+ years). After spending all day grinding through the latest techno-tripe that MB can find to put on a car, I found the bike work to be relaxing and fun. This is not rocket science, it is just about good customer service and plain old 'giving a ****'-save the arrogance and just do the job right start to finish. I am not adverse to paying someone to work on my bike, but I won't tolerate shoddy workmanship and, to date, most every HD dealer service dept I have encountered has not failed to disappoint. Sometimes it's just the small things; greasy handprints, nicks, loose bolts; that get me because it calls into question the attention to detail paid to the rest of the job. In all fairness, I have the same issues in my own shop. Currently, a new MB sells for anywhere from 35k to 475k. The owners have certain expectations that accompany such lofty price tags. As such, I consider brands such as HD, Ducati, BMW, Aprilla, and so on to be the bike equivalent. These are high end machines that carry the same expectations. It's up to the dealer principal to set the standards, the service managers to implement, and the techs to carry out. Those that don't comply, fall by the wayside or, as an old Director used to tell me, 'It's my way or the highway' Things are better than they used to be, but we have still a long way to go. With any luck, folks like Sovelhead Bob will end up in management and enforce his sense of ethics on those below him. You go Partner!

 

My 15 year old son has just finished tearing down his 4-stroke 125 dirt bike (you have to do a complete enging teardown on metric dirt bikes to repair transmission), and has commented it was more fun than riding. He is really showing an interest in this and has a lot of confidence in his ability.

I'm thinking getting him trained for a HD tech would be cheaper than college, especially since his grades aren't that great.

Could I get a reccommendation as to a good starting point? (I assume AMI or PMI) and also, would he eventially need to spend time in Milwaukee? Is that something he could do and pay for on his own or does the HD - Milwaukee training have to be done through an approved dealer?

Thanks,

Ray

 

@Shovelhead Bob, nice to see a technician so proud. I have also been in the motorcycle biz all of my life, family business too. I happen to know Erik and Ernie, nice guys but very different from each other. Dont worry I wont repeat anything, LOL.

One thing I wanted to mention about technician training is that H-D is the only motorcycle manufacturer to offer comprehensive training for technicians. Their training isnt perfect by any means but compared to the few basic classes a year that the other vendors offer, they are light years ahead. It amazes me that a company as big as Honda has very little to offer a technician besides a basic update class every once and a while. They rely solely on MMI and AMI to train techs, and in my humble opinion neither does much more than teach the basics.

Nice thread here. Nice to see a topic like this brought up and discussed.