What can I do to be more mechanically minded and able?

[andrewsmith]

Echoing the main response.

for the basic stuff get a haynes as it covers everything and helps with the genaral not to hard maintenance no end.
Look on this forum as there is a lot of very mechanically minded ppl willing to advise.

Tools wise, draper torque wrench (10-80 nm) less than 30 notes and does majority of tasks.
Look for halfords advanced tools on special or on the cheap raid your parents old tools for some metric and some of the larger imperial ring spanners

You seem to be going around it the right way and try doing overhauls of brakes for example as it will be one of the things that require regular attention.

The sv manuals avaliable online are good, they actually explain how the carbs work/cooling system etc.

[yorkie_chris]

start at howstuffworks.com

[timwilky]

Easy, grow up.

Kids of today have been brought up in a world where authority has said no, don't touch, it will hurt, etc.

simples get on with it.

Don't go running to forums asking how. You will never learn


Just do it, if you get it right great, ask for advice about when it goes wrong. you wil never learn people showing you. Do it for yourself. learn from your mistakes.

My first step to motorcycle maintenance mastery started yesterday. Me and a neighbour took apart my petrol lawnmower and fixed it

Mistakes cost money

[yorkie_chris]

You learn by making mistakes. Man who never did owt wrong never did owt.

Originally Posted by Paul1984

Mistakes cost money

You can always buy a knackered 500cc and strip it.

You don't need to do costly mistakes but getting your hands dirty on anything oily is a must.

You don't learn nothing through knowledge...only experience.

[yorkie_chris]

If you not bleeding, you forgot something

The only way to learn is to get stuck in. I'm not afraid to tackle most jobs now, because everytime I've tackled something unknown before I finish the job thinking "why the hell did I ever pay a mechanic to do that?". It's not rocket science, if it were spanner monkeys would be paid the same as rocket scientists!

The only thing to add to the above is take your time! Never try to rush or force a job, have patience. If something isn't going right, don't get annoyed, but make a cup of coffee and sit and look at it while you think of another way of doing it without resorting to a blow torch and a hammer.

If you know you don't have the right tool, go out and buy it, yes they are expensive and add to the cost of any job, but they don't have a sell by date and you only buy them once so once you've got them it's cheaper every time you do it and tools are usually a lot cheaper than getting the job done at a garage. You'll have that tool forever, then your kids will inherit it and use it too!

Keep your workplace tidy, keep your tools in a "place for everything, everything in it's place" manner and take a tool out, use it and put it back. It seems like a slow way to work, but actually it only takes seconds and it'll save you hours searching for a lost tool when you next need it.