Working on cars = working on bikes?

[TDIfurby]

Wondering how much a link there is? Now I have been into bikes for a while but working on them was limited to changing an inner tube and thats about it..... I am still a bit clueless on much of it.

However, in the mean time I have discovered cars and I have my own little toy / daily driver that a few of you might have seen on here (search "skoda fabia" - it might pop up)

Now I have done most things to this car. I bought a scrap engine the same just so I could take it to bits and see how everything worked inside, etc. Could never imagine doing that to a bike many years ago. So now I am attacking my Proflex 957 rebuild with relative confidence as it would appear setting up a bike is way easier than setting up 4 cam driven TDI injector units that inject at 20,000+ psi....

Anyone else found working on cars has helped with bikes in general? Even if its just having a bigger & better collection of tools.

 

[WD Pro]

Other way around for me - bikes were the stepping stones to cars

WD

 

[Splatter Paint]

Working on bicycles doesn't mean you can work on motorcycles though, I stuffed up a rivet link on a VERY expensive DID x-ring chain today. :x I've done bicycle chains for years, yes I've made a few mistakes but none as frustrating as this. Now I've got to wait for a new link to arrive in the post.

Maybe that's the thing, bicycle mechanics are simple and easy to rectify your mistakes. Car engines teach you to be more careful, you wouldn't want to say, leave out a gudgeon pin circlip would you?

SP

 

[GT-Steve]

very much the same as you, TDI.

I had mtb's when I was very early teens, so limited tools and knowledge. Most mods and repairs were either not carried out properly, bodged, given to a mate to bodge slightly better, or off to the local bike shop.

Then I discovered cars, tinkered on them, got round to rebuilding a complete engine, and from there I rediscovered mtb'ing with a shed-full of tools.

Now the only task I still avoid is wheel building.

 

[AR-CoolC]

I got it from my dad.

Fixed pretty much anything on my bikes, and if I couldn't dad could. All my bikes were second hand and needed tidying/fixing. I remember we even painted one the same colour we were painting the family Maxi

Then I ended up fixing cars (automotive glazing) for a living, not really doing much bike wise, that has only been refreshed in the last couple of years.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Interesting question.

I remember as a child sitting with my grampa and taking toasters to bits on the kitchen table, and working it all out, going to the store and getting the parts and fixing it. The whole shebang, start to finish.

Later we worked together on my toys that I tore down and wanted to get back together, and we made radios and remote control toys and sailing boats.

As I grew older it was the tractors and cars I was helping fixing, and the simple jobs I did myself. I never hesitated to work on my pushbikes, and much work was needed as I wrecked them taking them across the moors and up and down hills. The motorbikes I had were all old and needing fixed, my reward was the freedom to help myself to as much petrol and two stroke oil as I wanted, and as long as I remembered to put everything back where I found it I had free reign to use all the tools.

The one thing I learned that has always stayed with me was to sit back when you hit an impasse, roll a fag or have a cup of tea or whatever, and come back to it when you have forgotten you were stuck.

I have never been a smoker, so doing a bit of guitar playing or going for a ride or run did the trick.

Just about every machine and part thereof has an internal logic.

The most complex engines become simple with a little familiarity, daunting as they may seem at first.

I have had fits of swearing and feelings of doom when dealing with some sports bikes, such was the complexity and lack of space to work with my large hands, but once every job is achieved once it becomes routine.

Pushbikes are child's play in comparison, but none the less satisfying as you can go beyond fixing them and achieve an aesthetic resolution that enhances the simple beauty of the most perfect machines.

Of course is the answer.

Working on anything helps working on other things.

 

[jimo746]

"working on anything helps working on other things"

wise words those, it's true much of the skills and knowledge is transferable.

I started out working on MTB's, then grew into 2-stroke motorbikes, and finally cars. Cars are by far the most complex, but not so hard if you break things down into their component parts. Starting working on bikes gives you the confidence to move up a notch and work on cars etc...
I find bicycles very rewarding to work on, it's mostly very simple mechanics (I've not started faffing with modern suspension yet) but things move along quickly and you get to see the end result sooner.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Started with a Meccano set when I was a bairn, remember my Dad showing me how to fix things from an early age. This progressed to me helping him fix his car when I was in my early teens. Bikes, which we treated like MTB's, were next on the list as we, my brother and our 2 pals (brothers also) had crappy old bikes in the '60's, it was usually me fixing mine and showing them how to fix theirs.
Around 18/19 I got an old Mini, my Dad bought me a tool kit for my 18th birthday and I've fixed every car I've ever had myself. From building/tuning up a Cooper S engine to building a 2ltr Fiat Twincam for a kitcar I had. Only thing I don't/can't do is welding car bodies.
I also in my 30's raced a 100cc kart, so rebuilt and tuned my own engines. Even got complemented in a roundabout way by the guy who was the main tuner/supplier of kart parts and engines where I lived. I'd bought an old engine off him to race with that he had tuned but it was not as up to date as the modern ones used by the guys he supplied with tuned engines. I'd rebuilt it and tuned it too, at the first race meeting after doing this I saw him timing me, comparing me to the guys who had his tuned engines. He came up to me afterwards as he knew the engine was his old one and asked me what I'd done to it, knowing it hadn't been as fast as that when he had it. Felt quite chuffed at that.

All parts of bikes, road and MTB, that I've had I've found very easy to fix, they are relatively simple compared to an engine or gearbox.