Am I the only one who HATES working on his own bikes?

For a while I thought fixing mechanical stuff was the coolest thing ever, plus I barely had money for parts, forget labor. Took the engine out of my Spitfire at age 16, replaced a holed piston, turned the crank, I was having fun. But at some point I was just over it. Now I pay to have nearly everything done. But strangely I fix everyone else's stuff. I'm the guy in the family that everyone calls with a problem. I'm up to my elbows and bloody knuckles and thinking to myself that if this was my car or bike I would be paying a mechanic to do his job with all the tools that make it easy.

Well HATE is pretty strong wording but EXTREME DISLIKE is real close, LOL!

The only good part about working on any of my own projects is that I'm saving money by not having someone else do it, that money buys my beers and while working on my own sh!t I do have a tendency to have a FEW ;D

But as the old saying goes- A Man Does What A Man Needs To Do.

Try hanging the gasket on a wire and heating it evenly with a blow torch until it is just glowing orange all over then drop it into water, make sure it is fully immersed in one go otherwise it will temper unevenly – this process will anneal the copper and make it seal better.

Works with copper washers too but generally it is as cheap to replace them.

Yeah I like frosting cakes, but not if I have to eat them. It's all a matter of doing what you like, doing what you want, and doing what you have to do. Call any building contractor and ask his wife if their house is done yet ? Then put the phone down and take a nap. She will go on and on for about an hour.

No, but I sure don't love it like I used to.

There was a time I would take my 'zuki apart just for fun.

I could have the cams out and back in in 15 minutes (yes it was timed - the things we do for fun when there's time...)

I still enjoy it when it's something I want to do.

I don't like it at all when it's something that NEEDS to be done.

Like tearing down the primary for that poorly designed alternator.

Yep, hate is a strong word.

I hate driving the cage (didn't buy it for me, anyway)

I HATE having MY ride down.

Not hate, It's just not the same when problems happen all the time lol. A simple problem takes no effort, but when it's a big problem it takes me ages to get round to doing it. I'd rather fix my own problems though like you said, helps me learn for the next time!

Like the old saying goes, it takes a mechanic to drive a mechanics vehicle. A lot of truth in that, a person doesn't feel like doing the same work on your day off.

I agree, while I was working on bikes for a living I hated working on my own but still always did due to not really trusting the work of others! I also noticed you said your a builder and building is always more fun than repairing.

Ya gotta put it in perspective...... I'd much rather pull the primary of my Harley to replace the stator and crankshaft seal than to yank and rebuild the AOD behind my 351C.....(lotsa room to work on the Harley compared to the tight confines of a Fox-body Ford).