Zebee Johnstone wrote:

>
> So better sigh, count the grey hairs, and change the whine to "50-60
> years, in country towns"
>

My regular bike mechanic has been working on all sorts of bikes for
almost 50 years (he's 65 now) and he's in a country town in a country
motorbike shop.

He started working on them post WWII but was trained by a guy who had a
motorbike shop in Bendigo pre WWII.

Better make that 75 years plus... [1]


G-S

[1] Hey johno, when did you and Fred Flintstone buy your first Harley
Rocker?

George W Frost wrote:
>
> Ands by fully qualified, I mean Trade School taught,
> there was no official training course for motorcycle mechanics.
>
> There may have been motorcycle shops and motorcycle repair shops, but they
> didn't have full Trade School training
>

There were most certainly formal qualifications for mechanics that far
back, although many of them were trained 'in house' as it were not all were.

There were 'technical colleges' doing that sort of training well prior
to 1960.


G-S

"George W Frost" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:63emn.12488$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> I'm with Moike - don't play with this **** unless you know exactly
>> what you are doing.
>>
>>
>> --
>> GWD
>
> George, I have to disagree with you there,
> In times gone by, and I am only going back 30 - 40 years, there was no
> such thing as a motorcycle mechanic, an owner had to do any repairs
> himself or take it to a motor car garage and get the mechanic there to fix
> the problem, or attempt to fix it.

I'm going back fifty years and now you tell me I did it wrong by taking my
trusty steed to a motorcycle mechanic - nice type of friend you are !

> No-one knew knew exactly what they were doing, they learned along the way.
> Most repairs were done by the owner at home and that was where you learned
> about how the bloody thing worked, or didn't want to work.

and you also learned that the motorcycle manufacturers used more parts than
they really needed - and I still have a couple of small buckets of
superfluous bits and pieces

> You madew a lot opf misteaks, but in all, you got your bike going one way
> or another.

the only steaks I saw back in them there daze came from the emu I met near
Cobargo - but that's another story


> You will save a lot of money that way and also learn about how bikes work
> and run.

or you can save up a lot of spare parts while endeavouring to discover why
your bike won't work or run


> Also, given that, there are some riders out there who wouldn't have a clue
> how to fix anything

OI !!! I resemble that remark ...


--
--
a friendly growl and a hug from a former slave of a CX 500

_--| \ __ __ __ _ __
/ \ /__/ / /__/ /__ /_\ /__/
\.-- *_/ /__/ _/ /__/ /__ / \ / \
v

by the pool at 34 58' 45.27" S 138 36' 47.89" E elev 281 ft


barry j taylor < (E-Mail Removed)>

************************************************
"Never be boastful, someone
may pass who knew you as a
child" karma bear
************************************************



>

"George W Frost" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:HMhmn.12517$(E-Mail Removed)...
> That was luxury to ride in an outfit with hydraulic disk brakes
> I learned on a pre-unit Triumph with drum brakes and the luxury of the
> day, was to have twin leading shoes.

I'll bet that made it hard to put your foot in your mouth

just saying

nothing personal

bjt

JohnO wrote:

> [1] Anyone heard from FWOAR of late?
>
Not from him, but of him.

He is, apparently, in the wilds of Broken Hill, and he has become a
Daddy, a few months ago.

regards,
CrazyCam

Lars Chance wrote:

<snip>

> Pfft! Lever, piston, pipe, piston(s), pads, disk(s). What could be
> simpler?
> Has anyone you know ever suffered a genuine (problem-causing)
> brake-failure? (Apart from maybe a snapped cable on a drum)

<waves>

Yup! Turbo Kwaka, picked it up from Parrys after a one-into-one after
market muffler had been fitted, as it turns out, badly.

I picked up the bike, in ****ing it down rain, and headed off towards
Beresfield, from Thornleigh.

Everything felt fine, in the heavy rain, but, when I got past Freeman's
Water hole turn off, the rain eased off, and the bike started getting
slower and slower.

Now, at that point, they were still working on the Freeway there, and I
was on my way to work.

I had to use more and more throttle, and boost, to get the bloody thing
to go at all!

So I stopped to have a look......... rear disc was glowing red hot!

Hmmm, can't afford not to get to work, so press on regardless, until the
caliper's seals gave up due to the heat, dumped all the fluid onto the
disc, which immediately set up a smoke screen, and suddenly the bike was
going REALLY fast!

The fools had fitted the new muffler, with it interfering with the rear
brake pedal, causing it to be slightly on. Didn't matter in cooling
and lubricating rain, but in the dry......

Also, on the Z50, on Victoria Road, when I had worked up the engine a
bit, but the brakes were still standard coffee cup sized drums, I found
that one stop for a traffic light turning red was doable, but, if, in
the next couple of minutes, you got a second light going red, just after
you've worked up to a frenzy of 60 kph....... forget it, you ain't going
to stop. (Brought back memories of Cooper S brakes on a race circuit!)

regards,
CrazyCam

On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:34:20 +1030, JohnO wrote:
>
> Hi Zebs, This url about Pitmans....
> http://www.yamahapitmans.com.au/about
>
> Snip more...
>
> JohnO
>
> Beer?

Yes. We bought our first motorcycle (RD200) from them in 1972, 37 years
ago, and they looked like they'd been in business for yonks.

--
Regards

Andrew

Lars Chance wrote:
> GWD wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:04:26 GMT, Lars Chance wrote:
>>
>>> GWD wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:54:21 GMT, Lars Chance wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Moike wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Mar 10, 11:42 pm, Lars Chance <lars.cha...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> Just spray the crap out of everything with Silicone spray Bill.
>>>>>>>> A few
>>>>>>>> stops and it'll burn off the bits it's not s'posed to be on.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've always been a tad cautious about half-measures and shortcuts
>>>>>> when it comes to brakes.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Pfft! Lever, piston, pipe, piston(s), pads, disk(s). What could be
>>>>> simpler?
>>>>> Has anyone you know ever suffered a genuine (problem-causing)
>>>>> brake-failure? (Apart from maybe a snapped cable on a drum)
>>>>
>>>> Yes
>>>> It's a sickening feeling - similar to accidentally opening the
>>>> throttle wide as hell.
>>>> I'm with Moike - don't play with this **** unless you know exactly
>>>> what you are doing.
>>>>
>>> Plize exploin.
>>
>>
>> Erm... brake failure is no fun at any speed..?
>>
> Neither are old wives' tales
>

Old wives tails can be fun at any speed - just depends on the mood of
the operator

CrazyCam wrote:
> Lars Chance wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> Pfft! Lever, piston, pipe, piston(s), pads, disk(s). What could be
>> simpler?
>> Has anyone you know ever suffered a genuine (problem-causing)
>> brake-failure? (Apart from maybe a snapped cable on a drum)
>
>
> <waves>
>
> Yup! Turbo Kwaka, picked it up from Parrys after a one-into-one after
> market muffler had been fitted, as it turns out, badly.
>
> I picked up the bike, in ****ing it down rain, and headed off towards
> Beresfield, from Thornleigh.
>
> Everything felt fine, in the heavy rain, but, when I got past Freeman's
> Water hole turn off, the rain eased off, and the bike started getting
> slower and slower.
>
> Now, at that point, they were still working on the Freeway there, and I
> was on my way to work.
>
> I had to use more and more throttle, and boost, to get the bloody thing
> to go at all!
>
> So I stopped to have a look......... rear disc was glowing red hot!
>
> Hmmm, can't afford not to get to work, so press on regardless, until the
> caliper's seals gave up due to the heat, dumped all the fluid onto the
> disc, which immediately set up a smoke screen, and suddenly the bike was
> going REALLY fast!
>
> The fools had fitted the new muffler, with it interfering with the rear
> brake pedal, causing it to be slightly on. Didn't matter in cooling
> and lubricating rain, but in the dry......
>
> Also, on the Z50, on Victoria Road, when I had worked up the engine a
> bit, but the brakes were still standard coffee cup sized drums, I found
> that one stop for a traffic light turning red was doable, but, if, in
> the next couple of minutes, you got a second light going red, just after
> you've worked up to a frenzy of 60 kph....... forget it, you ain't going
> to stop. (Brought back memories of Cooper S brakes on a race circuit!)
>
> regards,
> CrazyCam

XF Falcon brakes going down a mountain!!

My fun time with brakes on a bike was having the rear brake sticking so
that I tried to avoid using it - for a few weeks until the roundtuit
arrived.

When I had to, or forgot not to, use it it would drag just enough to
heat up...and grab more & more.

So whenever I used the back brake I had to get off the bike and give the
caliper a bit of a kicking to release it.

"JohnO" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> One of the regulars in here (FWOAR) [1] was barrelling flat chat down
> the main straight at Eastern Creek on his Kawa when the disk rotor
> (cast iron) shattered as he applied the brakes.
>
> I am sure that was a bit of a problem for him - No idea as to his
> speed at the time but I am sure it would have been reasonably quick!
>
I think it was actually Queensland Raceway but yes, fuggin' scary!!
>
> [1] Anyone heard from FWOAR of late?
>
Last I heard he was living up the road from you at Broken Hill.
--
Clem