Friday, February 2, 2007

Motorcyle Apprenticeships

You want to learn more about motorcycles.

You can pay the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute $20,000 to learn how, in theory, without getting actual shop experience.

You can take Community College classes which will give you a good overview, but won't make you an efficient, real world mechanic that knows all the little tricks on how to work on a variety of motorcycles.

You can go to a European country where they still offer apprenticeships, learn the language, spend 3 years there, get paid $200 a month, graduate and come back here (that's what I did).

If none of the above appeals to you and you are a self-starting individual and you can spare part-time of your week:

Find yourself a shop where you can do an apprenticeship. Since it takes a lot of time for a mechanic to go over technical details of why and how something needs to be done, offer to run errands and do the odds and ends for the shop in exchange. We have been doing that here at Werkstatt for a while with excellent results.

Some people have moved on to become paid mechanics, others use that knowledge to be able to do the work on their bikes themselves, and save a bunch of money, especially when they have an older bike that needs constant attention.

Or: keep reading this blog, and email me with topics you're interested in, and I will do my best to explain how things are done!

Happy trails in the mean time,

Jennifer

1 comment:

Moto Jezebel M/C Repair said...

Jennifer Bromme is a Bad-Ass teacher/awesome mechanic! Thanks Jen for making it possible for me to become a BMW certified motorcycle technician!....and a female tech at that!!!!

Jen Rocks!
-Kim
Moto Jezebel M/C Repair