All,

I was wondering a couple things?

1) Has anyone taken these correspondance self-paced courses on Motorcycle/ATV repair (like in the mags. I.E. Penn Foster)?

2) Can anyone recommend a particular training program? It would also be nice if any out there focus on repairing Polaris ATV's.

Thanks!

R'

 

Is a vocational course needed to maintain an ATV? I don't believe so there Rtickwad. A good service manual, proper tools, maybe advise from a website like this one, and fixing a ATV or Sled should be probable. I do all the work on my 4 Polaris SKS700 sleds, and did all the work on 3 Polaris Scrambler 400 4x4's when I had them, not too mention my 800 Sportsman X2 and Ranger 6x6. Oh yah, the 3 Yamaha dirt bikes do offer a bit more of a challenge. I will tell you though, I do send out when a cylinder needs a bore, or I have to press on a bearing, or something that I do not a tool for. But for the most part, rebuilding clutches, brakes, minor electrical, replacing A-Arms, carb work, rebuilding motors, swing arms, replacing parts, etc. can be done with a steady hand and a 6 pack of beer!!! That's a good reason for my nickname!!!

 

Vocational courses are offered in my area (Texas) and both my techs I'm training have graduated from cedar valley college,which offers the full spectrum on motorcycle and atv training. GRANTED you dont have to have a certificate,BUT if you are pursuing a career it definitely helps get you in the door!! A lot of shops in our area wont take someone without previous experience OR certified. Plus once you get in, hands on is the best teacher by far I will agree,PLUS on top of the education you might already have,Polaris techs have to be MSD certified also and update training comes around pretty often. Same applies for Honda,Kawasaki,etc as far as training and update schools to keep abreast of the new technology as I have a Kawasaki ,Suzuki,and Yamaha dealerships with in a 10 mile range and know most of the techs.BUT for the doityourselfers a GOOD manual and and a 6 pack sounds pretty good!! OPT

 

All good info. Yea my cuz wants to pursue the career path and for me its just a side interest thing. I figure I am working on them anyways why not take a course and learn more about 4 strokes, carbs etc. etc.

Hey OPT, could folks like us get specialized Polaris training? You mentioned the MST, or is it dealer exclusive? I agree that OJT is the best teacher, I wish we had a local school that would provide hands-on, haven't found one yet, NOT to say they aren't any, as to why I posted this thread...:-)

And yea the six pack makes it more FUN too!

Cheers,

R'

 

Polaris training requires being a Polaris dealership mechanic. Give me one more year and you can have my job!! I'm RETIRING!! OPT
MSD is master service dealership which is required for dealers to obtain and maintain for warranty labor costs to be reimbursed and special considerations and such. Plus it helps the customer if they have a warranty issue"thats iffy" when we go to bat for them and we do a lot of times!! This is one subject that some of the posters that call all dealerships "stealerships" dont have an idea about!! A vocation in this field can be rewarding,BUT it can destroy an AVOCATION ,that is a hobby which kinda destroyed mine! At one time I had 7 motorcycles at home in the garage! Now I'm down to 1 only!!

 

not all the dealers up here have any professional trained people including the polaris dealers and they are like me(some what) back yard mech. w/ some knowledge of what were doing( not even close as good as say people like OTP who do it professionalyand got training) but when you start working there over a period of time you get sent to classes that mfgs. put on for on going updated training. a very good friend of mine who is a certified yamaha mech never went to a pref. school but is one of the best mechs. in the state. i think you have got to have alot of basic knowledge and a desire to want to learn and want to do this full time. if i was younger and could do over again i wish i could have got a chance to go to a voc. school, but oh well. hence why i dont own a shop lol.

 

You got that right about dealerships and stealerships! I remember my days at the dealer and sometimes people didn't relalize what actually went on. i would go to bat for people too and sometimes your hands are tied and there was nothing you could do. Places like this forum can be real helpfull and save a guy money too. Like replacing fuel pumps using napa parts instead of buying a 450.00 tank. My old job would never have let me do that for someone(hands are tied)
I too use to love motorsports and such OPT. My buddies would ask me to go borrow a machine and go riding with them. I'd tell them "I work on the f*&^&% things all day, I don't want to see them after I get off" I didn't realize at the time it was the delership I had issues with, rather than the machines. Now I'm on my own, I have 5 total(4 Polaris, 1 Harley, 3 fishing poles!:-)

Congrats on retiring. Now you'll have more time to post!!! :-)

 

Back to the original thread. I went to auto tech for school/college. It taught me the basics. I then went to numerous MSD schools, updates, online courses, etc for Kaw, Polaris, John Deere, etc. It was a knack for me I think because for some reason I just understand it.(I don't know everything, but can usually figure it out if it's new to me) I've talked to guys in the field that have been to the course, and others that have not, that hold jobs in the field. Some seemed to be pretty smart with it, but others seemed to not really grasp it(even the ones that went to schools) Hell, I've talked to technical reps that didn't know much! If someone has a GOOD understanding of how things work, that, a set of tools, and a manual are all you probably will ever need. My 2 cents.
one other thing thing you can't learn in a book. Nothing beats experience! Years of doing this work makes you understand how they work and thats why you can take a single carb apart and go through it, or take a 20 year old set of 3 carbs(for six cylinder machines) and make them run better than they ever had.

 

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING EVERYONE HAS SAID! (Thanks, good info. and TRUE!)

For us though its like the chicken and egg scenerio. How do you walk in some place and
start in this field without any training or experience? And how would you get the experience
unless you work in these shops? As a hobby its a great place to start (us) but I think it would be extremely difficult to convince a service shop to hire one of us without one or the other stated above. -- IMHO

OPT et al,

How many dealerships are still doing their own service compared to NOW maybe outsourcing to cheaper service shops? (I hadn't seen that up here but I reckon its coming)

Cheers,

R'

 

what gets me is your (meaning we the public) paying top hourly rate for the repairs being done expecting that the service guy doing the work is 100% trained or certified or what ever and not a back yard mech.(yes like myself)that does the best we can but may take longer as we dont know the fastest and sometimes correct way to do it. point is, that time ='s money being spent and we dont want hard earned money being wasted on untrained people(even though they are great people i'm sureand descent mech's)when it will be anothe 1/2 hr in repair time. i've seen it more then once in my general area and not jusdt in a polaris dealer mind you as well. being trained by the mfg. is a good thing for sure and having the voc. training is even better. thier are people who are natural gear heads that look at soemthing and just fix it (damn i wish i was one lol) as quick or even quicker. oh well enough venting.