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At what point did you give up wrenching?

rodr said:
Having a garage is a big quality of life issue for me. I've built my career around not having to live in crowded urban areas.

Not that I especially like wrenching though. It's a balance between how much I trust the shop, what they charge, how much spare time I have and how ugly the job is.
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I've planned my life out by having a 2 car garage, while living in "crowded urban areas".
I bought my first home in 1975 because it was in North Oakland, and it had a massive garage, for a whopping 18,000. I kept thinking it was the biggest mistake of my life.
 
I have a 4&1/2 car garage. It's full of crap, so I don't necessarily recommend getting more garage space unless you are well organized and get rid of junk. :teeth

I still do little stuff on cars and bikes (brakes, and upgrades like shocks). And I fix other tools (garden tractor, chainsaw, etc), but I haven't done a big job in a decade. (Like a head/valve job, or cam bearing, etc.) There are better mechanics than me who can do things faster. There are also worse ones and they may force me to do a big job again. Ya' never know. :ride
 
clutchslip said:
I have a 4&1/2 car garage. It's full of crap, so I don't necessarily recommend getting more garage space unless you are well organized and get rid of junk. :teeth
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My garage is over 1000 square feet and I told my wife that as long as we could park two cars in there and both of my bikes, she could have the rest of the space for her "stuff". So I got her a dozen big shelf units and she's filled them all plus quite a bit of floor space. But all of the vehicles fit.



I'm not a hoarder, I just have a lot of stuff.
 
moto-rama said:
I've planned my life out by having a 2 car garage, while living in "crowded urban areas".
I bought my first home in 1975 because it was in North Oakland, and it had a massive garage, for a whopping 18,000. I kept thinking it was the biggest mistake of my life.
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Well, if bay area housing goes back to 1975 prices, I'll consider a place in North Oakland. :p

I think there's a significant age difference in results here. I wonder how many people under 40 have a garage. Doesn't seem like many.
 
Haven’t given it up just depends on what I feel like doing. The super Duke needs chain and sprockets plus exhaust gaskets on the rear cylinder so I will do all that myself. Valves are coming up,we’ll see if I feel like doing it or pay someone.:thumbup
 
I was more or less a factory technician for 15 years. When it came time to work on my bikes I just didn't feel like it. I live in an apartment so I rent a 10X10 storage unit. Thankfully the owners don't care if you do work there. Do my own oil, brakes, fluids and , until recently, tires. The big stuff I leave for the dealer. But, I bought a house up north on 1 acre with a 3 car garage size garage. Can't wait to get my new lift and air compressor and pneumatic tire machine. I'm going to return to doing almost all my own maintenance. A garage is a must because, if I run out of steam, or just feel it's Beer-thirty, I can just stop....

Mad
 
Maddevill said:
I was more or less a factory technician for 15 years. When it came time to work on my bikes I just didn't feel like it. I live in an apartment so I rent a 10X10 storage unit. Thankfully the owners don't care if you do work there. Do my own oil, brakes, fluids and , until recently, tires. The big stuff I leave for the dealer. But, I bought a house up north on 1 acre with a 3 car garage size garage. Can't wait to get my new lift and air compressor and pneumatic tire machine. I'm going to return to doing almost all my own maintenance. A garage is a must because, if I run out of steam, or just feel it's Beer-thirty, I can just stop....

Mad
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Yes... this is one of the biggest issues. Not being able to take breaks with a project is super difficult and off putting to me doing any work that is sizable or has *any* chance to go wrong. I've had so many basic things go wrong when a bolt stripped or some extra part needed replacing or I misjudged the tools I needed... Very frustrating in those moments.
 
I've learned to always ensure I have a 2 day span when there are unknowns on a project I'm tackling on a vehicle that I have to drive. You just never know when you'll need the extra day to get your daily driver back together again. (I have kids, so that makes the car necessary)
 
bradlys said:
I feel like I'm at that point where my time value is about to hit a breaking point. Spending multiple hours getting frustrated, physically hurt, and just "so done" with wrenching is really taking its toll.

To be honest, I think the biggest thing is that I'm forced to work outside on my patio or on the street with cars and kids going by because I don't have a garage. I feel like with a garage I wouldn't be bothered as much but without a garage - I'm hitting my limits. It means I can't do almost any wrenching on weekdays because there's no sunlight when I get home and my neighbors don't want to hear me hammering away at something (the woes of renting). I'm tired of trying to do stuff with little space, very little workbench space (if any), and either in the dark or in the rain or in burning sunlight.

Anyone else? Maybe I'm alone here in this endeavor. I feel like not having a garage is really taking its toll.

tl;dr - In the 1% for my age but can't afford a place with a garage. So, don't know if I should wrench anymore.
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1984.

Really don't have time to do it. Nor the inclination anymore. Maybe a healthy increase in income decided that for me.:cool
 
Not really answering op's question. Just rambling and bloviating, so .....

I gave up wrenching b/c I had a baby. But now still find time (beg, borrow, steal) to work on stuff like a long overdue going over of the old 900ss, which is dead simple and fun to work on.

For me, I always needed fo do this b/c I have gone on longer solo trips where you need to know how to fix it, and anticipate what will break.

Given that, I really fell out of love with the ktm adventure. That thinh sucked the life out of you everytime you wanted to.do something simple. Will gladly go back to a bmw gs if I need to carry a bunch of crap on something i can fix.
 
LectricBill said:
I pretty much gave up wrenching after I bought an electric motorcycle.
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That doesn't make much sense.
Is the implication there is no maintenance on any aspect of the motorcycle?
Hard to believe.
I realize your electron torque wrench is parked but there's more to a vehicle than the power plant.
 
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Sure, but the main thing is tires and brakes at that point. Most of the Zero's are rubber band powered so no chain maintenance even. Barely any wrenching required.
The Zero wants a re-calibration annually (or something like that) and there's no service manual so, it forces most owners to take it back to the dealer anyway.
 
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