Motorcycles and their riders seem to have a more intimate relationship, than most people have with their cars. I know more than one motorcyclist who quotes this from Firefly when explaining their relationship with their bike.

So yeah. Most motorcyclists do some of their own maintenance work.

Ya know why? Car washes. There's no carwash for a motorcycle.

So to keep it clean, you wash it by yourself, by hand.

That's how you notice that first little nick in the paint on the front fender, where some rock got kicked up and dinged it. So you go down to the shop and get a little touch-up paint to fix it.

After touching up that bit of paint, you put the little tiny jar of touch-up paint on the shelf next to the new special "motorcycle only" magic washing juice you bought at the shop, because it was right there at the counter.

Riding one day, you notice your front brake would be easier to grab if it was a little lower. So you pull out a socket wrench at home, loosen the nut, rotate the lever down a half inch or so, and tighten it back up. There! That feels better, and puts less strain on your wrist.

And then one night while riding, you flip on the high beams, but they don't work unless you flip the switch two or three times. So when you get home, you take out a Phillips head screwdriver and open up the little box on the handlebar and fix the loose wire inside.

Now you have about 4,000 miles on the bike, and you know you should have gotten an oil change a thousand miles ago, but... well, you were busy, and the shop charges $140 for it... so you open up YouTube and see how to do it yourself.

You go buy the $40 oil filter wrench, and a big new socket to get the drain plug out, and cover yourself and your driveway with old oil. But you did it! (And you wash the bike again to get the oily handprints off the exhaust pipe.)

And guess what? You are "doing your own maintenance".

Personally, if it has anything to do with tires or brakes, I take it to the shop. I want a pro to blame, if something goes wrong with my brakes! :-) But yeah... all the other stuff? You do it because you and your bike have a relationship. And it gets better with maintenance.

Generally, the same places that will teach you how to repair a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower in six weeks of correspondence will also teach you to repair a motorcycle. Motorcycles are about a generation behind cars in technology; fuel injection became a thing in the past five-ten years or so. And we're talking EFI, not "in the combustion chamber magic" like most auto manufacturers are doing now.

There's also a fine tradition of non-manufacturer parts, much like the auto industry backintheday. Everybody runs Keihin carbs or Bosch fuel injection. Fuel injectors are all Bosch or Autolite or whatever and even if they aren't there's a lot of interchangeability. When my needle valve crapped out on my Kawasaki KLR the cheapest (Keihin) part was for a Harley 883 sportster.

All that is the mechanical bits. The brains are no different. I have an app on my phone that, through bluetooth, will allow me to tweak the fuel curves on my ECU. Same app will tweak most anything modern from Triumph, KTM, Aprilia, Benelli, Ducati, Moto Guzzi, Gilera, BMW, CCM, Husqvarna & Morini. I honestly have no idea if Hondas are the same but I imagine it's about as tricky to get into.

The article is absolutely right about the quality of servicepeople available. It's abysmal. And you pay an assload for it because the market is so small. Want your oil changed on your Honda Fit? $37. Want your oil changed on your Honda VFR? Well for one thing the car shop won't do it. For another the local Honda motorcycle shop wants $137. You can go to the corner BrandX guys but they're still going to want $87.

And motorcycles are far easier to change the oil on.