® Let 'em be

So many clueless pilgrims telling us on YouTube how to fix our motorcycles. The career mechanic and longtime trainer in me sighs and it's all I can do to not try to instruct the guy who has just bought a Gold Wing and is making decisions about its maintenance that are very ill advised. Or the one speaking very confidently about vintage Honda rebuilding, obviously very new to it himself. Purple Power and Pine-Sol, crowbars and Vise-Grips, adjustable wrenches and big hammers, slavish devotion to common practice while at the same time an abject lack of curiosity about best practice, and an astonishing ignorance of how things actually work. Just another kind of "look at how cute my cat is" video, really. And it would actually be entertaining if it weren't for the fact that someone out there believes this stuff. Probably a lot of someones. Well, it's a free country, right? And I guess these ambitious YouTube experts have a right to show everyone "how to do it". To have their day in the sun. To express themselves. They're fulfilling personal needs. Same as all those YouTubers holding forth on the perfect pizza. Take a deep breath and realize the value is there, even if only on their side of the camera. Let 'em be. But man, it's painful to watch!


Last updated August 2026
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