I think doing things yourself when you can is the right approach. But in the real world, it’s basically taboo.
However, if you have someone knowledgeable nearby who can help and guide you, I believe it’s something you can do.
Some people are too scared to touch anything, and riders who just want to ride are a different story, but honestly most people want to try tightening and loosening things themselves.
That’s probably why they come in.
Since humans created these machines and designed them to be assembled and disassembled, there’s no reason you can’t do it!
Of course there will be some variation depending on who does the work, but if you get your hands on it yourself like that, it should become much more enjoyable.
“Why?”
Take suspension, for example. Anything way off is out of the question, but the acceptable range is actually pretty wide!
And riding style is different, body weight is different, and the rider doesn’t understand what feels good and what doesn’t—it’s really a waste.
The shop has limits on how many times they can adjust it too. So you should do it yourself. If you change the viscosity of the front fork oil
and it works out, that’s great, but if it doesn’t, you have to replace it again. If you ask the shop to do it, you’ll pay labor charges again, so
you’ll end up just riding with a compromise.
I think the same goes for the carburetor.
As long as it’s not way off, it’ll run okay! But the best setup is all about personal preference. There are people who don’t like the feeling I think is perfect—even if it revs smoothly from zero and the idle is stable.
The reason is that if you really want to dial it in, you have to keep tweaking it over and over, even if the current state is already great, until it gets worse.
If you could borrow jets that individuals would normally have to buy and change them, you could really have fun dialing things in
and perfecting them.
It’s still just an idea, but I’d like to set up a maintenance space. Of course I’d want to do it by appointment—work schedules are a factor too.
