Course 3....almost done!

I didn't get a chance to post last weekend as it was my birthday and work decided it was gonna tack on a few hours as a present! Sorry about that.

Course 3 has been running fairly smoothly. I've reconditioned some valve seats, bored a cylinder and honed it, cooked a head and popped out the valve guides and replaced em, pushed out another set of valve guides with a press, taken apart 2 crank shafts and trued them and got to do a few bolt extractions which was cake walk work.

The cylinder boring and valve seat reconditioning was the hardest part but mostly, I think, due to the fact that these are "training aids" as the school likes to call them. I call them motorcycle parts that are FUBAR. I spent 2 hours just trying to get the cylinder back in round so I could begin trying to make a smooth cut on it. The valve seats..well lets just say...umm..let's not say. It took me all night to get one straightened out and done. I'm no professional at this stuff by any means and I'm sure a pro could have done them both in an hour or so but I suppose it was a good learning experience. The instructor told me at one point "this is good so you can recognize it out in the field". My reponse to that was "if I see this out in the field I'm gonna take their bike away from them".

I've enjoyed getting my hands dirty and we've certainly done that in this class. I know the fun is just getting started though. The next step for us is the Basic Electronics class or Course 4. I'm really looking forward to this one. I have gotten my feet wet in electronics before. Not so much on motorcycles but through home theaters and such. Electronics are electronics or so I think. I'm sure there will be some surprises awaiting me and I look for a challenge in it. I hope there's one there. I do know that there are more and more electronics popping up on bikes every model year and if you're good at diagnosing and fixing a problem with it you'll be in demand. One thing I'm not looking forward to is seeing someone do the ol "cut and splice with electrical tape" method of repairing something. I know i'll see someone do it and I might have to slap em in the back of the head because i've had to troubleshoot and repair some wires like that before and it's not fun. All that fun isn't till next week though.

Friday night is our final exam for Course 3. I have all my projects already turned in and have gotten perfect scores on them all. This instructor is really helpful with them and doesn't rule with an iron fist when it comes to scoring them. You really have to try to get a minor, points off if you remember, and you practically have to drop something on his foot or break something to get a major, a lot of points off. His attitude has been "I didn't hire you to bore cylinders...etc. You're here to learn and if you learn then you're doing what you're here to do. If not then you lose points" He goes off in weird directions in coversations some times but overall he's a good guy.

I'll try to get a post in by Sunday, if not Friday night and let you know what my final exam score is. Until then........

They're BACK!

After a little vacation, thanks to WJFK flipping formats, the boys are back on the air! I had a little conversation with them today near the end of the show. It was a good talk. I might be biased on that since I love the show and it's a kick to hear myself on the air let alone the fact that I just enjoy talking about pretty much anything motorcycle related.

You can stream the show LIVE at http://www.BigTalker1580.com every Saturday from 3pm to 5pm. That's right 2 HOURS! New and improved!!!!

If you can't catch it live podcasts will be up soon at their website. http://www.dawghouseradio.com

Let's listen up and hit those streams so the station and the advertisers will push the show back to FM and one day to prime time.

Week 13 & Course 2 Done----Week 14 Course 3 underway

Sorry I didn't update last weekend. I got a little caught up in some projects around the house so this post will be a big one.

Lets start where I left off. I was finishing up Course 2 (Suspension, Wheels, Tires) and we were getting ready for our final exam. I finished all my projects with perfect scores except for one. I had to remove a rear wheel, remove the tire from the rim and put it back, put the wheel back on the bike and adjust the belt. I screwed up and didn't pump the brake pressure back up when I was done. I didn't even think to do it while the bike was on the lift as I ALWAYS check the brakes when I get on a bike before I even start it and I just thought I would do it before what would have been the test ride but I should have done it while it was on the lift. The rules of project were to make the bike ready to hand off to the customer...I just got excited that it was the last project and I was heading towards a 100% for the entire course. Live and learn. I got a 100% on the final exam and finished out the course with a 99%. I gave it my best really and I'm happy with it. While I don't consider myself an expert on anything we covered yet, I do feel I have a good grasp of the basics and I'm ready to hit these topics again in the later courses where we'll cover them in more detail.

We started into Course 3 (Machine Shop & Precision Measuring) and have finished the first week. This instructor really has us on cruise control and doesn't seem to have any desire to let us get into high gear. It's a good thing too because boring and honing cylinders is a skill that takes much patience as I found out Friday night when I got a little jumpy and cut too much out on my first practice run. That's why they call it practice and that's why we are using junk cylinders that we can't hurt too bad. The measuring exercise was just a repeat of stuff we did in Course 1 to help nail the skills in a little harder. I didn't have a problem at all with that. I haven't been able to get into honing the cylinder quite yet as the equipment available for everyone to use is extremely limited for some odd reason in this course and we have to share quite a bit. It makes it hard to get a lot of time working on these projects but we seem to be making it work so far.

I find myself more and more hating Friday's just because it means I have two days of no learning on the weekends. I'm looking into buying a salvage motorcycle from one of the auction places around here so I can just tear it up on the weekends and play around with it. I don't have any illusions of fixing it up to ride though. I just want some more practice and I figure a wrecked bike is the way to go since I can't hurt it.

Oh..........and in case you were wondering, I got a 100 on the first exam in Course 3.

I'll try to update again around Wednesday. I'm also still running with 100% attendance too! Not one minute missed to date.

Week 12 (almost done with Course 2)

Since my last post we finshed up our practice projects and took another test. I got a 100 on the test (yay me!) and did ok on the rest of the projects. We took apart the front end of a Sportster, took apart the forks of an old 3-wheeler, did more tires, laced more wheels and did a brake job. The front end job was a little intimidating at first but we muscled through. We definatly need more practice on everything before touching a customer bike. You gotta be careful with scratches and where certain fluids drip. I know I'd be a little upset at scratches and brake fluid dripped on my bars.

This week we have started our graded projects. So far I've gotten perfect scores on my projects and I've only got 5 left to do. I think it's going well. I came close to losing some points a few times but the fact that I was watching someone else get graded right before me allowed me to see them screw up and I fixed mine before I called the teacher to check it. A few old wise men always told me "the easiest way to learn is to watch someone else screw up" and believe me, I'm taking full advantage of that.

Our final exam is friday night like always. The next class we do is either going to be electrical or engine work. I'd rather be in either of those than in the one I'm in now to be honest with you. I'd rather be back in the theory class. Oh well. Almost done!

Week 11

Well things have been busy for me the last week or so. I started a new job on the weekends and its worn me out a little. I haven't worked since December, back injury....long story, and its hard getting back in the swing of things.

Last week we started the Chassis, Suspension, Wheel/Tires class. Last week was just about all book work. We got a new instructor and I'm guessing he hasn't quite found the groove yet. I'm sure he knows his stuff but it's gonna take a little while for him to get good and transferring that knowledge to the students. I'm not one for patience with stuff like waiting for teachers to get good. I pay for it now and I want it now, the education that is. We covered, besides the book stuff, some lacing of spoke wheels, fork tear down and rebuild, tire changing and of course balancing. The lacing took me a little while to get a good grasp on. Mostly because of the truing part. It's not hard once you get it but seeing as the only wheels I've done have been dirt bike wheels it's not doing me much good as far as Harley's go. It's a step in the right direction but I need to practice on what i'm going to be working on. It'll happen more once we break out into the electives (Harley, Honda, etc..) and get our hands on the brand specific training.

This week we started our practice sheets where we get a chance to screw up and learn from it. We're doing the screwing up part pretty good but I suppose if we could do it without screwing up then we wouldn't need the school.

On Tuesday I pulled the swingarm off a dirt bike and checked some measurements on it and put it back on. I also got to take the bearings out of a wheel and put em back. The swingarm kind of scared me a little. It's a very important part of the bike and it intimidated me a little. After we got into it I mellowed out and had fun with it. The bearings part was easy but I'll have to do it a few more times to really know it without reading my cheat sheet. We got done with that stuff a little quick so we knocked out the wheel balancing project. The typical balancing machines were easy enough but we had to use this gravity balancing device. I have never seen one of these before now but it really wasn't that hard.

Tonight, Wednesday night, we jumped into changing tires. It shouldn't have been that hard, or so I thought. The ATV tires didn't give me too much trouble. Those damned tube tires and mag wheels gave me such a headache. Again it comes down to repetition and the more I do them the better I'll get at it.

It's nice getting a little dirty. It makes me feel like I'm doing something. Next week we get graded on what we're doing this week so I'll do all this stuff a few more times before then.

M.M.I. Week 9 (Done) & the start of Week 10

Course 1 (Precision Measurements) DONE!


We finished up Friday night with our final exam and finishing up our projects. I had to finish tearing down and measuring the top, bottom and primary of a Sportster and a Big Twin engine and set the cam timing on a few engines then rebuild them all. It was a little intimidating at first but I got it all done.


I got a 96 on the final exam. I missed one question on what the meaning of the caution label in a service manual is. I said it mean possible bodily injury or death but I according to the answer key it was just possible mechanical damage.

I made it through the entire class without getting one wrong answer on anything. Until the final that is and it's a stupid question like that one that gets me. Ugh!

My final score for the class was 99.86% or something close to that number. I won't get the final results paper till about Friday this week. I do know that I tied with one other student in the class for "Student of the Course". It's nice but the award isn't a make or break deal for me. I'm just happy that I feel comfortable with the subjects we covered. That's my top priority, being able to actually know, understand and put to use all this information.

Tonight is the start of week 10 - (Course 2)Chassis and Suspension. We're gonna be learning how to put together laced wheels and mount tires. We'll also be building front and rear ends and learnging to adjust and repair damaged ones. From talking with the other half of our class that went to Course 2 first, this course is really a "get your hands dirty" class and I can't wait.

MMI Week 8 (Done)

I got another 100 on the test Friday night. Again it wasn't that complicated a test so I'm not patting myself on the back for it but a 100 is a 100. What I am proud of myself for is getting perfect scores on all the tasks we've had so far. You have to do (example numbers here) 15 primary tasks and 10 secondary ones. These can range from answering 50 questions from a service manual or owners manual to tearing down a transmission, or engine or both and measuring all the insides. I'm working with another person, not by choice, and we've just about completed all the primary tasks and we've started the secondary ones. We have till 10pm Friday night next week to finish all of them. We were cruising through them all pretty good till last night when I went to get some computer parts systems tasks done while he started taking the transmission apart so we could finish measuring.....big mistake. I shouldn't have turned my back on him. I got over there and he had it apart but he let a couple other people start asking him questions and it messed him up with the measurements. It took us all night to get it straightened out. We should have finished that task, the computer tasks and made strong progress, if not finished one or two secondary tasks. So now next week we'll have to bust our butts to finish all the tasks. If we can continue to get all the projects perfect we'll finish the class with a 100.

It aggrivates him when I make us measure stuff two and three times then sometimes recheck it again if the numbers look even a little off. Too bad. I'm not gonna get in the habit of half assing the numbers. When you're talking about a transmission a little number fudge could very well get someones transmission locked up when they're doing 60mph and kill them. I'm not having that on my head. Let alone the ruined reputation for half assed work.

I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with tearing into stuff and putting it back together. All the mixed up terminology used around the school is driving me nuts though I must admit. Something as simple as a bolt could have 10 different names and screwing it in could be described in as many ways.

I'm sticking with my plan of going slow and doing it right as opposed to fast and fix it later. In my experience its easier to spend some time getting faster and doing it right first than to spend time fixing it when you did it faster first.