Dan's online motorcycle repair course (1999-2020)
dansmc.com
dansmc.com
Also I'd like to add https://www.msgroup.org, another ancient website packed with excellent riding safety tips.
These two sites pretty much got me rebuilding, repairs, and riding motorcycles. Still goldmines today.
Stay safe out there.
A more comprehensive site, but specifically for airheads, which I subsequently got, is bmwmotorcycletech.info
It’s also reminding me of one of my best friends who builds custom choppers.
He was just in a gnarly motor bike accident and is lucky to be alive.
Fused spine, deformed body, lost a finger.
Still walking somehow but can’t work and is worried he may never be able to again.
Just to say, motorcycles are a lot like skydiving. If you are around them enough either you or someone close to you gets in a serious accident.
Make sure to take time to get proper training, life / health insurance, plan your estate / will, etc. to make sure if something happens you have security in place.
And part of how I choose to live my own rodeo is sharing information that may keep people around longer and help them better articulate their values.
Plan for adventure.
Whether it's someone opening their door on me, someone pulling out in front of me (either because they haven't seen me or they don't realise how fast you can go on a bike), or someone passing me so close I'd be able to rap on their window, or a myriad of other reasons.
I'm fully lit up day and night, I have high vis socks, reflective shoes, reflective strips on my bibs and jersey, I have a rear radar, my front light at full beam is as bright as a car headlight on main beam, and I cycle about a metre out from the kerb. Not sure what else I can do.
Having all those same issues, plus travelling at a much greater speed? No thanks.
Not judging people who enjoy motorcycles, I've bombed down a country lane which I know well (has no turn offs, good surface) at 80 km/h on my bike so I can well understand the thrill being on a motorbike must give you. I would just never get on one myself.
I ride safely, I'm not swerving between cars at traffic lights or squeezing through gaps.
In the UK, where I live, there are very few roads cyclists aren't allowed on, basically motorways (70 mph speed limit). Regardless I use a route-planning app called Komoot that uses cycle-specific data and heat maps to give you the safest route.
We have national laws that say drivers must treat bicycles as if they were a car and leave them space as such etc., not that it actually happens in practice.
Basically you connect it to your bike computer and it puts a little line along the side, cars appear as dots on the line and move along it as they get closer to you and your computer emits audible beeps when it detects a car. Has a different, more urgent beep when it detects a large vehicle like a lorry or a bus, or if a vehicle is travelling at a high speed relative to you.
Highly recommend it, haven't had any false negatives (obviously I still look over my shoulder, it's just nice to know a car's coming from a distance away and if they're going very fast).
> Several college students, majoring in web design, have kindly offered to "Update" the site to a more modern look. The offers are generous and sincerely meant to help, so I always go and look at the more modern examples they give of their work. Slow loading, lots of Adobe Flash. Strange, to say the least, site navigation. Like this " ≡ " symbol called, believe it or not, a Hamburger Button.
> You just can't make this stuff up.
> I code everything I put up in NotePad. I test in Pale Moon, Firefox, Internet Explorer and sometimes Opera and Chrome. I look at some of these "Modern" web sites filled with ads up and down the sides and across the top... Yuck! I understand the desire to get Revenue from your site and all, but really, things have gotten out of hand.
http://dansmc.com/best_viewed_with.htm
> You know, all this could help with the yearly Flu and other diseases. I particularly like the Social Distancing. Keeps all these creepy, irritating people at six feet away. What's not to like? Not to mention leaving no finger prints and no drones or cameras taking your picture, tracking who you are, and where you go. That could be handy if you happen to walk on dry sand or want a haircut or play tennis. Again, what's not to like? Nitrile gloves are reusable too. Wash your hands, a bit of hand sanitizer, pull them off and you are good to go to reuse them for the next trip to town.
I was doing some work on linux metrics and was also reviewing (http://sebastien.godard.pagesperso-orange.fr/tutorial.html), another cute retro page. It's rare to see two interesting 90s-style pages in one day.
Of note, both display lots of valuable content in an easy-to-access way, load faster than anything Web 3.0, and no js. I feel like we lost some lessons along the way to here.
Ford - “It's unpleasantly like being drunk." Arthur- "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" Ford - "You ask a glass of water.”
I feel like I can’t tackle this until I have a set of adapters or levers or some such hack to deal with our obvious gender handicap.
This is going to be my winter 2020-21 project. Thanks.
ETA: heh .. http://www.dansmc.com/china_bikes.htm .. I remember when I arrived here to the states many years ago and all I knew was enfield and fury from India. Asian bikes were called ‘rice bikes’ ..and at least in the east coast, there was a certain derisiveness towards anything that wasn’t a Harley. Indian bikes were neither here nor there but were rice bikes anyways.
Eta2: I agree with the sentiment. it’s the same with cameras. I remember a cheap Chinese TLR called Seagull. Used the same medium frame film and was just a cheaper cheaper version of Rollei or Hasselblad. You get what you pay for.
I'd love something like ifixit for other fields and I can't possibly be alone. I want answers that aren't hidden in a 30 minute 480p video of a mumbling dad.
Here's an example of what I mean, since I just finished it: https://nicolasbouliane.com/blog/v-strom-650-heated-grips
Knowledge is power, and it's dirt-cheap to mass produce. I wish more people casually documented how they repair things.
I think adding a gendered twist to it would be great too. We shouldn't deprive an entire gender from the satisfaction of fixing things with their own hands. It's too good an experience to pass on.
I seriously hope you get started on that.
We shouldnt have to use brawn when physics should do.
There's nothing inherent about this space requiring manly strength, it just takes up a lot of slack when everything else is lacking - from tools to knowledge.
The trained professionals don't rely on brawn to perform repairs properly.
If it feels like it should be easier then there is probably a tool for it. We love making tools.
It's just some of the best for heavy lifting are a bit out of reach for enthusiasts, like a proper two post lift.
Honestly two post lifts are more just a space and time saver for quick service shops and kind of suck. Back when I worked at a muffler+brake shop it was the two post lifts that did the most damage to vehicles due to poorly located pads or doors hitting the posts, and put the mechanics at the most risk. And when you use them to lift something lopsided like a FWD vehicle off its K member for major service, it becomes so imbalanced the damn car is liable to fall off. Not a fan at all. But they conferred good density to fit more bays in the shop. It's a shit compromise from a mechanic's perspective.
Climbing up and down the ladder is a hassle but once you're down there it's convenient and much safer.
If there's no permanent dedicated space, you can get a lot done with robust safety using simple ramps made from stacked wide planks of wood.
The first hot-rod shop I worked at in my youth had a simple four post lift and a big iron A-frame on wheels used like a gantry crane. We'd lift entire bodies off chassis or K members with it, and roll them out of the way into a corner so we could access the powertrain. It was a big shop space, usually with 5-6 cars in the air at a time, but most of the cars were on static stands. The A-frame would just move around the place as needed, it was just big enough to straddle the largest anticipated vehicle. But we weren't in a constant hurry like your typical muffler/brake shop full of butchers.
In point of fact I have recently had a mechanic lament to me that he was no longer strong enough to work on suspensions anymore. Professionally, time == money, and where something like a come-along pulling a torque wrench can work, it's not viable in the real world of a busy shop. At home, your own car, hobby, fine; but AFAIK that cost him his job.
I've been privileged to have spent a lot of time with people who kept construction and farm machinery operating as part of their living; and sheer brawn is absolutely so large a benefit in those tasks, as to almost be a requirement.
Many many years ago..when I was young and stupid, I decided that I was going to hike the Appalachian trail..end to end. And then I figured that I was smarter and that I will do it in parts. And then I gave myself yet another break to do the trail stops in any random order.
That began my crash course in acceptance towards gender differences. Starting with backpacks to shoes to equipment to tents..to climbing technique and speed..everything was different! Because of our waist-hip ratios, breasts and lower center of gravity.
Recently when I was struggling with some tractor stuff, a lot of it came back ..and I could go to harbour freight and found the equivalent for hoisting machines. It wasn’t ideal but if I hadn’t been familiar with climbing equipment, I wouldn’t have known how to use most of it. If you know how to hoist your own body weight, you can project it to do it to any 100-500 lb machine. Same principles.
On a slightly different note, I have seen women who were into fly fishing have a special set of hidden skills that they probably aren’t even aware of...I am not a fishing person myself and so I can’t put my finger on it. They are just different! Right from their way of surveying a surrounding area to problem solving to attitude. Is it sharpened by their hobby or did they pick that hobby due to their aptitude?
I am torn because I am a big believer of adopting hobbies..and many of them..as a way to unearth hidden skills and talents. But a lot of what’s picked up as hobbies translates to real life survival skills. So a blanket ‘everyone should learn __fill in the blank__ as a survival hack’ is not always possible.
I grew up mopping floors, fixing things, bending over a lot, and hanging from high branches etc because I am from a different time and place. The first time I saw a kid pulling a weed at the farm, I knew he was going to throw his back. It’s the same thing at the gym. Most adults don’t know how to lift their own body weight without hurting themselves. It must come naturally. Balancing onself on a motorcycle or kickstarting it(do bikers do that anymore?)..making sure we don’t fall flat on our face or trip over are such fundamental things that are essentially physics principles.
Most machines designed should have been intuitively based on the mechanics of the human body or bio inspired by animals around us. If they are not, the learning curve is steep. I feel like this why there are gender/generational differences when it comes to why some people are mechanically inclined and others are not..
Which brings me to my personal bias. Italian design/engineering vs German design/engineering. I prefer the latter. Italian designs make me think that a stubborn male with no friends who lives in a basement made it. German designs make me feel like a group of people brainstormed to come up with it. German designs are more intuitive.
Of course, we will all end up with Japanese designs because it doesn’t matter who made it..it was made FOR everyone.
A recent example is the gear box with the tractor spader I got shipped from Italy recently. I just couldn’t find it! And after I did, I couldn’t get to it. Hours wasted because figuring it out is a free game by itself that the Italians threw in for shits and giggles.
I would like to hear from mechanics and motor cyclists who have known the innards of cars and bikes re Italian vs German engines and designs. Philosophy/attitude.
(Altho I have never worked on them, but I paid an ungodly amount of money to get some of my 10 y/o mini’s insides replaced/repaired..post cooper’s sale to BMW...it’s just unacceptable! Some of the stuff just gets eaten away or corroded? How is this possible..it’s like a detective novel inside to figure out what’s what)
Any mechanic worth anything would use a longer torque wrench or reach for the trusty pipe in such a situation.
This reminds me of some of the shitty amateur shops I've had the displeasure of working in where toxic masculinity runs the place and people would be embarrassed to need increased leverage on something they should be able to do with brawn. That's a different problem altogether, and unfortunately it's very common among automotive workers.
These things break down in spectacular ways. If anyone is interested: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761993507160910/
At some point, I want to create an online course for women who farm for tractors and tools repair and maintenance.
I believe more and more that our machines and tools in the future would be robots and electrical. And data hogs. Connected machines. At which point, we are most certainly going to be restricted from repairing them.
I am sorry to go off on a tangent as the GP is about motorcycles. I have made this about farm machinery. I don’t suppose right to repair is an issue with personal road vehicles?
Alternatively, you can simply have a comments section where people can share results, improvements and additional details. This works well for recipe websites.
> I don’t suppose right to repair is an issue with personal road vehicles?
It is! Cars also require more and more proprietary tech, and it's getting harder to repair them yourself without specialised tools. Car manufacturers are also inching towards DLC and even subscription-based hardware features for cars.
https://www.businessinsider.com/bmw-subscription-model-for-f...
The pages below are the perfect example of that for the BMW F650 series of bikes.
These technical guides (I think) are mainly made up of forum (http://f650.com/forum/forum) comments that were pasted in to properly organized documents. This together with the Haynes guides (https://haynes.com/en-us/motorcycle-manuals/bmw) are an invaluable resource.
"The Metrics" is another term for I have heard for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_...
(actually, cool site, TY for the link)
I have done a few brake jobs on cars that parked on the street in SF, but that gets to be a pain in the butt. There are garages you can rent down in the South Bay which gives you access to a lift and a ton of tools (pneumatic tools too!), but I think most of them went under.
Bizarre take, it's one sentence at the top of his page of motorcycle knowledge. The average HN comment wanks on with more far useless fluff in an attempt to look smart.
Is it really that hard to accept other people holding different views? And does it really warrant a comment about how it makes you feel uncomfortable despite all the work that has been freely provided for your benefit?
I'm a stout atheist and grew up fixing a dozen or so bikes mainly learning from this site and online manuals. I owe Dan an invaluable amount and couldn't care less about his beliefs.
Try being a bit more inclusive in life, you might learn something.
I like HN for interesting technical info like Dan has here. But I'm not here for religion.
http://www.dansmc.com/bible1.htm
I don't really mind, it adds a personal touch to his website and he seems like a fantastic guy. To play devil's advocate, it might be that in secular cultures its a little unusual to mix things like this. Like if youtube cooking guides had a 2 minute segment on muslim religion. Not horrible, just not the norm everywhere.
(it would never have occurred to me to write an "atheist motorcycle guide" until now: "bike won't start, what could be the reasons? 1. Spark plugs are fouled 2. Battery's empty 3. God is dead")
for context, to me (lifetime atheist) it looks roughly equivalent to someone sticking some hippie nonsense in a blog post. not particularly relevant to the content but a bit of personal minutiae.
do you have a history with religion or situations where you felt pressured to conform to religious norms perhaps? or something else entirely?
Nowadays we're all carefully curating an image, crafting our messages, and optimizing our content to fit our audience. This guy is not interested in any of that. He has something to say so he says it. He doesn't seem to care much how it's perceived, he's not trying to make money off of it, he doesn't care how it looks or if it has good SEO (at least as far as I can tell...). He's just being himself, with all his quirks and oddities.
I think that's why it's so popular on HN right now. It reminds us of the way the web used to be.
"There are different types of Phillips head screwdrivers around but only one type fits JIS screws"
Philips becoming synonymous with cruciform in some circles really lead to the destruction of many perfectly good screws...
I think he's using the right words for his audience. People who already knew that there were multiple types of cruciform bits wouldn't need the article. For the people (Americans) who don't, they know them as phillips bits. Literally everyone in America calls them phillips bits, even most who are in the trades:
> Don't be surprised, when you ask for a JIS screwdriver, if the "Expert" parts person has no idea what you are talking about.
https://blogs.loc.gov/families/2020/09/what-does-american-in...
Nowadays its mostly white webpages with similar looking buttons and elements. I guess uniformity makes it easy for users to use web-apps. But I still miss the creativity of retro websites.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoIkhe-bQcoDvIb1vDJmU...
The closest thingb like this for cars would be ChrisFix on YouTube.