Maintenance Videos

Found this in the "Service, Online, Retail Shop Review" section of the site. Gave me an idea. If some one made a few video's of some of the basic maintenance of their bike, like checking valves, checking brakes for delamination, changing brake cables and tires, and so on,it could be sold online over the site. It wouldn't have to be high quality video, and the whole process wouldn't have to be recorded. A few examples of checking the valves would be all thats necessary.

Even better would be if all the wizards on the site did a compilation video collection. But that would be a little harder to divide up the earnings.

It would be a valuable learning tool to the newbies (like my self, i know i would buy one), and would create a small source of income for lets say.... parts for who ever does it.

Just an idea, I would do it if i had as much experience as some of you.

 

I've actually considered the idea, but haven't done so for a few reasons.

1) I've got a standard-def video camera (VHS, no less!), and I think I'd want to do HD regardless. Hence, I'd have to buy a camera... and I'm cheap.

2) Doing a video shoot at the same time I'm trying to do a printed writeup would drag out the process significantly. It's easy to edit a Word file and print it to PDF -- video, not so much.

3) Somehow I don't think you want to listen to Urkel explain to you how to do a carb sync.

4) Hadn't considered the idea of charging for it; rather, just stuff it online and let people download it. Problem: video files are significantly larger than PDFs.

5) If you're looking for how to use a colortune, I seem to remember that being online at Youtube already. (You know, that might be the solution for hosting and distributing the video files...)

 

Well for anyone who would be interested in doing it all they would need is a gorillapod ( http://joby.com/gorillapod ) to mount the camera on the bike to get a shot of what they are doing, and i guess a digital HD camera would help as well.

The only reason i said anything about charging for it was so that some one might think it worth their time to do it.

And i dont need to worry about how to use a colortune yet because my valves arn't is spec yet (curse the american / canadian border for holding my parts for too long). But soon I will be there. Hopefully before summer ha ha i got a long way before then up here in Canada.

And by the way, listening to Urkel explain how to to do a carb sync would make it all the more interesting in my opinion

 

I would pay top dollar for an Urkel-narrated carb sych video. With color commentary by Bobcat Goldthwaite and sideline reporting from Fran Drescher.

 

Not a bad idea. The money could also go towards the site, you could hire a web developer to make upgrades. Could also stock tools and make them available for rental for broke college students. Like a Carbtune that would be great to rent. I need to go buy an XJ shirt come to think of it...hmm time to sell something from around here.

You'd be surprised at what people will watch and even enjoy!

 

FYI: If you have a smart phone schmuck you have a video camera But editing on the other hand...

 

There are all kinds of apps avalible for smart phones that will allow video editing there Other Bob.

I also like the idea of renting the tools although renting them to Canada might be an issue with the customs crossing and it taking a month to reach here. And if you ask just about any mechanic, he wont want to lend you a wrench.

 

I honestly don't think anybody wants to sit through a "real-time" video of me doing ANY procedures, I take way too long and get interrupted too often. "Continuity" would be a problem during editing.

My photo-journals will continue to be done old-school. Sorry.

(Coming soon: Rear wheel bearing replacement with lots of pics.)

 

you don't need a video, you just need some confidence to get in there and do it, nothing on these is rocket science.
if you have a camera for a lap top and skype someone could walk you right through that stuff

 

Not saying that i personally needed any help, charlie's post just gave me the idea of making a video tutorial of some basic maintenance. And Fitz, it wouldn't have to be "real time" per-say. Just do 2 or 3 valve checks, then fast forward and show the bucket tool in action, maybe how to replace the donuts. it wouldn't have to be more then 5 minutes.

Again it was just an idea. Thought some one might like to take on the challenge. You will all be crying someday when im rich from my XJ videos (ya right ). And i did find a video of someone changing the shims of a XS1100 or something like that on youtube, but it wasn`t quite like my XJ. 12 shims, i wouldn`t want to do that!

 

My "continuity" would go all to heck. In one scene I'd be in my jammies and the next second be in jeans; and I have NO consistency about using rubber mechanic's gloves. And then there's those beer bottles.

I'll stick to "Photoshoppable" pics and thoughtfully edited text; the Fitz just ain't quite ready for "live TV." Nor am I to likely ever be.

Twelve valves wasn't a Yamaha; the "X" had TWENTY and you had to pull the cams. I'm not aware of any three-valves-per Yammies. Must have been a Hondawazuki.

 

Ive about fuddled my way through it. its not that hard after you get going.
heres what I told myself: If you just really really botch it and do it all wrong all you have to do is pop off the carbs and re bench sync. Aggrivating yes but you can erase all the mess up with a few turn of the screws and a businesss card (and maybe a flashlight)
on the other hand a video would be cool and I like the "support the site" idea,
those shirts come in black turtleneck?
Fitz--your pic how to"s are why my bike runs, stops, and shifts. bravo sir, keep up the good work (please)

 

You got it man; about to dig into my 650 for serious.

 

Ya X sounds closer to it and it had a ridiculous number of shims anyways.

 

See if we can get Hugo Weaving instead.

Cop: "I just pulled the carbs off the bike, and we'll get ready to break them down."

Agent Smith: "No, Lieutenant, your carbs are already dead."

On a similar note, you wouldn't be seeing my face, either -- I'd be wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, a la V for Vendetta.

My phone is quite dumb, and it records video. I wouldn't inflict it on anyone, though.

Gigli? C-Span? Rosie O'Donnell?

Not necessarily. I recently did the belts/front crank seal on my Toyota (had never even come close to attempting a similar task before) and while the picture-laden walkthrough was instrumental, there was a Youtube video on an earlier model year of the same car that I thought was very helpful.

I've been sitting on that project for a while myself. Tell you what -- you do the rear and I'll do the front. Fair?

On that note, a couple of people have noticed that the online repository for my writeups has gone bye-bye. I found a couple of suitable candidates -- FileDen and 4Shared. 4Shared gives me lots of storage space and plenty of bandwidth, but the download links have tons of ads on the page. Haven't tried FileDen yet, but I see they throttle download speeds on the Free accounts to 100Kb/s. Don't know if they show ads or not. If anyone's had experience with either of those two services, comments are welcome.

 

It's done, I just have to finish the photo-editing and writeup.

 

Great!! I'm planning to do that this winter on both the front and the rear