Silent Bob's Cycle Shack is open for business!

Here's a little taste of what's to come. My first project. A 2004 Buell Blast. I've got all my tools with a few exceptions but not enough to stop the ball from rolling. I plan on completely stripping the bike, measuring it all to check it out and putting it back together with fresh stuff as needed. I'm not going all out customizing it just trying to get it back to original, good working order, tip top shape and maybe a few custom things here and there but I'm not going wild with it. I'll save that for one I'm gonna try to make some money on.

Course 5 (week 2)

Yea I know I just did Course 6. No I didn't fail anything. The school has our group of 60 students broken up into blocks of 2 courses at a time. Half of us go to, for example, Course 5 and half to Course 6. Then we flip.

Course 5 is a maintenence course. Mostly its focused on carbs and not the kind you eat either. We're learning how to sync them, rebuild them, vacuum test them and hook em up to an EGA (Exhaust Gas Analyzer) and adjust them accordingly. They're also throwing a few tire changes, safety inspections and some tune up stuff at us too. The 2 stroke tune up section is kind of a joke to be honest with you though seeing as we haven't touched a 2 stroke motor to date. All our learning on that has been book learning.

I got a 90 on the first test. It wasn't exactly fair that they gave us the test the minute we walked back in the door from Thanksgiving break. Nothing like a total of 30 hours of driving, family headaches and general holiday stuff to get you ready for a test. I'm surprised I only got one question wrong.

I worked the EGA machine yesterday, did 2 safety inspections, did two valve adjustments and some paperwork. It was the first day of labwork. We have 3 more days of practice labs for the stuff gets graded. We sort of got the shaft on this as compared to a lot of other classes in that school was closed 2 days last week and we don't get the chance to make that time up or anything and we still have to finish the same amount of work. It definatly puts the pressure on but right now we don't need pressure. We need to be able to learn how to do the work RIGHT, then get our speed up. So far I've gotten everything pretty good but I feel so rushed and the information isn't sinking in like it does when I can take my time and soak it all up. Which brings me to my next point........

THE PROJECT! I should have just about all my equipment by the end of the week so this weekend will bring pictures of the bike as it sits right now before I do ANYTHING to it aside from having the battery on a trickle charger for the last 2 weeks. It should be good and charged up and ready to get going on these electrical systems tests. I think I'll be succesful in my goal to become a full on recluse once this gets started. The only way you'll see me is at the parts store or if you happen to drive by the garage and say hi.

Course 6 DONE!

We finished up tonight and I'm happy to report you're reading the blog of the "Student of the Course"! I finished out with a 99.10 grade. I didn't get it by much though. The guy right below me had a 98.98 grade. Yea, you read it right. I got it by only .12 and needless to say he was NOT happy about it. Evidently he gets it quite often and was not happy about the new guy getting it. I personally couldn't care less if I get it or not. I'm not in the school to get top student awards. I'm there to get the best education that I can get and if I should happen to get the highest score then its a nice added bonus but I don't feel that I'm better than anyone else in there. I just got the better score that particular day.

On the final exam I scored a 96. I missed one question and I'm still kicking myself for getting it wrong. It was such a stupid mistake on a question about flat rate billing percentages that I'm not even going to dwell on it. I got a 100 on every single project we worked on and on a few of them I just barely got it.

While I don't feel I'm an expert by any means I do feel I have enough of a grasp of the basics to tear my own project motor apart and rebuild it. I plan on doing so as soon as I get back from Thanksgiving break. I've already started getting my information together from the service manual and getting my parts list squared away so I can order the stuff that I'm sure I'll need. I know there's gonna be stuff that I won't know about till I tear into it but it's to be expected.

The next class on the path is Course 5. Yes I know I just finished Course 6 but they schedule us out in blocks of two courses. Half the group goes to one and half the group goes to the other and then we switch. Course 5, I'm told, is maintenance work. I'm looking forward to this class. Probably more so than any other so far. It's the class that will realistically teach me the skills I need to save myself the most money on labor for my own bike.

Until the next update sometime next week.......peace!

Course 6 (week 2)

It's been a busy last few weeks for me, which would explain the lack of updates.

Course 6 has been fun so far. The course is all about engine diagnostics. We've had two tests and I've scored a 90 and a 100. We were given a rack with boards on it and on these boards were damaged engine parts. We had to figure out what the parts were, I say were because in a few cases there wasn't much left of the parts, then we had to figure out the damage to said part and what caused that damage. I've also taken apart an entire Evo motor top end and put it back together and started to completely take apart an entire Honda motor, and I mean ALL of it, and rebuild it. We have to then take this motor and put it in a frame, start it and not have it leak, smoke or blow up. Sounds easy enough doesn't it? Try it sometime if you haven't done it before. Next week I'll have the motor in the frame myself and hopefully it'll run without problem. I would have had it done already but I did all my other projects first so I wouldn't have to worry about rushing through this one. We'll also have to take two motorcycles that they have put together with broken parts and diagnose the problems based off noise.

Now for the reason behind the lack of updates.

I've decided that it's time to start a project of my own. I found a guy selling a Buell Blast and figured it'd be a good cheap practice bike to work on. If I don't put any of this stuff I'm learning to use it'll all dissapear quicker than money from a bank account. I'll be posting pictures from every step of the project. I've got a service manual for it coming and I'll start posting more about this, with the "before" pictures when it gets here.

Course 4 - DONE!

We ended Course 4 tonight and it was a long night.

I'll start with the final exam since that's my low point of the course. It was 50 questions which was the biggest test we've had to date and we've covered more in depth material than any other course to date. Let me tell you they pulled stuff out of places I didn't think were in the book. I scored an 84 on the test and just about every question I got wrong, except one, was from subject matter we never put to use. There's no way we could do a project on every type of setup out there and it seems, so far, that if I'm not getting some hands on time with a topic then it's not really getting into my memory. I know right where to find the answer but unfortunatly you don't have that option during an exam.

For all my projects, the scores on the books are 100's across the board. My first two exams were both a 100 and piled up with my perfect attendance and other minor stuff they grade I've managed to pull a 98.7 GPA for this course.

The next course I'm going to will be Course 6. We do them in blocks of 2, Course 2 & 3 for example, and half of the original 60 go to one and the other half go to the other. Course 6 is supposed to be where we have to build a motor completely, fill it up with oil and gas, crank it up and it's gotta run and run right. It's go time!

Well, I'm off for now. The fun is coming quick so get ready for some updates next week.

Course 4 - Week 3 (part 2)

Tonight was the second test for the electrical class. I got myself another 100 in the books. We had a little last minute cram session right before class and it's a good thing I jumped in because a few of the points we hit on I think I would have missed on the test. It's quite a bit of information to try and remember and I'm really scared of the final. I don't think I'll be able to remember it all and as much as I'd like to get a 100 on that too, if I don't, I won't start ripping my hair out. It's definatly preferable to remember the information but its more important to know where to get the information when you need it and then put it to use.

Other than the exam we worked on making a final block diagram of an ignition system. It's a little tricky because it's different from any other type of bike we've worked on in our practices and final labs.

We're having a slight revolution in our class. Evidently quite a few of the people aren't exactly happy with the way the instructor is teaching. They aren't quite grasping the material and are really struggling with it. From what I gather they seem to think it's the way he's teaching it. The guy we have is sort of a substitute since our original instructor got sick and then a few days later started his vacation. He, our current instructor, normally teaches the advanced electronics class and I think the problem they're running into is that he's used to teaching students that already have the fundamentals down and we don't. I've noticed he likes to respond to a question with a question. It can be frustrating at that exact point in time but it does make you think. The only problem I see with that method though is that you have to understand the base material to be able to figure out your own problem, if that makes sense, and a lot of these guys don't.

I'm trying not to lose my cool with him but I have a few times and I've told him that I'm sorry for doing but that I was just frustrated and I've also told him that I realize that it's easier having the answers handed to you but it's more rewarding to figure it out.

Course 4 - Week 3

Here we go. The final push in the electronics class. We've covered charging, ignition and starting systems now and we've had all our demonstrations. This week we have to knock out all the rest of the lab practice projects, the final projects, one more quiz and the final exam. It's gonna be a busy week for some of the people in there. Not so much for me.

I've finished all the practices for the charging, starting and 2 of the practices for the charging systems. I've also finished the final projects for the ignition and starting systems. I forgot to mention that we have to do the charging, starting and ignition project on a Kawasaki, Suzuki and a Honda for a total of 9 practices and 9 finals. So far I've gotten 100's on all my projects and a 100 on the one test we've had. I'm doing good so far but the last test and the final are the real ball breakers. That being said I'm not counting my chickens on this class yet. I've got some serious studying to do for this one. During the projects I can look through my book but not during the test.

I'll give everyone an update Wednesday night after our last quiz and again Friday night after the final exam.