All the time on every bike forum we have those asking for technical help. I have people coming into my shop daily who have received this advice and have taken it upon themselves to try to repair their bikes. Some do a good job. Most end up costing themselves more money due to the stuff they damaged while trying to fix the initial issue.

Before you waste keystrokes asking for technical help, first ask yourself these questions

1. Do I understand how a motorcycle works?
2. Do I have an understanding of electricity and how it works?
3. Am I technically inclined?
4. If I were to go to a shop and see that I was the head mechanic, would I trust leaving my bike there?

I read the technical posts on this forum and am impressed by the knowledge some of the posters have. I also read them and wonder how people, who cannot figure out their battery and charging system (which is relatively simple) can really trust themselves to be attacking their machine with screwdrivers and wrenches.

I always worry too about the folks asking for help with brakes, tyres, and other safety items. If you have to ask DON'T TOUCH!

I am going to ask for honest answers (I know it's the internet, and we are all geniuses and masters of our world because nobody will know for sure). What results have you had trying to do machine repairs based on forum advice?

 

The polling system doesn't work fyi.
But to answer your question. Most of the posts lead me to the right direction. I think most of it isn't really specific help. More or less confidence inclined. When I first got my bike, I had no idea what was going on. Even though I have had experience working on cars for years. A bike was a new realm. With a few pointers in each direction, I am now confident that the way everything works is closely similar to everything in any combustion engine with a few exceptions.

The forum does help but once again you get mislead sometimes because what one person posts that tends to be false is read by multiple people and then later on when resurfaced it becomes truth because multiple people will back up a "fact" that they read from someone else.. leading to problems later down the line.

 

+1 lead me in the right direction with more confidence.

 

LOL...
some people just shouldn't work on bikes, etc.
you can give the most detailed information to a monkey, but in the end, it's still a monkey.

 

What he said

LOL, I couldn't resist.