"Oh, so you're a mechanic too, not just a carburetor rebuilder?" I have had a few people say this to me over the years, and it highlights something I am still coming to grips with—that people view these two things as isolated, as not necessarily connected.

What a strange thing! How can a carburetor rebuilder not also be a mechanic? In my days of working for other shop owners, carburetor rebuilding was a constant activity. There was no distinction between being a mechanic and rebuilding carburetors. One of my carb rebuilding competitors once told me he didn't know what a thread pitch gauge was. I'm sorry but you should not be taking money for rehabilitating carburetors if you don't have a background in mechanics. That to me is a given. How can you? You don't have mechanical skills such as thread repair; separating stuck parts; the basics of leverage, heat and pressure; proper disassembly and assembly principles; preferred order of assembly; the proper care of fasteners; the use of special tools; understanding fits and clearances; the proper handling of o-rings and seals; a knowledge of metal repair and refinishing? You don't have experience finding and interpreting factory data; you don't have almost a lifetime of experience tuning and adjusting engines; you are a stranger to troubleshooting? And most importantly, you don't know the bikes you're rebuilding carburetors for, their idiosyncrasies, their weak points, how well they and their carburetors match—or don't; the issues on these bikes that are often thought to be caused by the carburetors but aren't? That for me just doesn't compute. I have a hard time understanding it. If you're not a proficient mechanic then you're not a proficient carburetor rebuilder. I have not left one field and embraced another.

Why would a customer think it logical to send his carbs to someone who is not a part of the powersports repair industry—who isn't a mechanic? Carburetors don't have wheels. They are just one part of a whole mechanical package, and not even the most important part. The motorcycle affects the carbs and the carbs affect the motorcycle. Divorcing the two from each other is incomprehensible. But I guess it now makes sense that my carburetor customers often ignore the mechanical advice I give them. It does not occur to them that their bike is more than a carburetor any more than that their carburetors are being rebuilt by a career mechanic. This is a serious disconnect. I still wonder how they can do this. It's totally bizarre. Is the carburetor rebuilding community that isolated from the industry? I think it must be. Are the many rebuilders who have risen up in the past ten to twenty years simply former photocopy repairmen, dog groomers and tire store techs? I’m not knocking those occupations. But this is a strange thing.