So these pages are going to be for people embarking on new projects; bikes that have not run in a while, or whose condition is unknown.
First, some words of encouragement....
Don't be afraid to fail. Even the best motorcycle mechanics scratch their heads and have to think about it sometimes, because as predictable as motorcycle diagnostics can be, there are always situations which are singular in some form or another. I look at the repair of a motorcycle like assembling a puzzle. Sometimes the puzzle has 4 pieces and any common idiot could solve it. Sometimes it has thousands of pieces, and it takes a lot of organized effort to get any kind of an image, and sometimes the image is all wrong like the dog's head is on the cat's body or whatever, or sometimes you totally fuck it up and it looks all Pablo Picasso on you, but yknow what's the great thing? You can take the puzzle apart again and start over. Same with ANY motorcycle.
These bikes were put together by mortal hands. Anything that was made can be unmade, repaired, and reassembled. They were specifically built to be worked on by guys like you and me. If you listen closely to the design of the motorcycle you can hear the engineers deliberately planning how to make repairs easier and more accessible for us: "OK on this bolt here we are going to give it a 14mm head, but the nut that has to be unscrewed at the same time we are going to give a 12mm head, because lots of guys only have one 14mm wrench in their tool kits..."
Never let this thought come into your head: "I'm afraid to start fixing it because I could mess something up or break it." I mess stuff up every single day. The vast majority of times you just take it back apart and reassemble correctly. Anything that is going to be potentially damaged should be replaced anyways, we are talking about fragile rubber seals here, replacement parts. I'm not going to tell you to do anything on these following pages which has the potential to hurt your bike, and if there is a pitfall I will highlight the shit out of it so you guys know what not to do before you do it.
One final note before we get started. Not everyone can do this, not everyone can fix up their own bike and get it running. That is why its such a big deal, such a bragging right to be able to say "hey, this weekend I fixed up a motorcycle, what did you do?" But the difference between guys/gals who can, and guys who cannot, has nothing to do with mechanical aptitude or strength or intelligence or anything like that. The difference is faith in yourself. It is having the confidence to say "hey, I'm cool. And I have two strong hands and a big ole brain. And I can do this." And starting here, that's basically all you need.
