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Dads, Lads and See-through Motorcycles

My old man is a Doctor (retired now) and never shared any mechanical fascination with me. He treated the family car and the lawnmower with the same sense of utility to get a job done. They didn’t have to be pretty or the hottest thing on the market; in fact, he has never cared about such things. His passion was his work, and he was really good at that. It occurred to me once as he toured me through his hospital that he really is a mechanical guy – but completely through biology as he explained how lungs worked, heart attacks happen and what the liver does. Mind you, this was while he showed me pickled examples in massive jars of formaldehyde, thoroughly dulling any desire to be a Doctor myself. Besides, Dad was a Urologist, jokingly referred to as the family plumber. Due to his busy schedule and the need to impart a sense of responsibility and ownership of chores, I became the delegated lawn-boy. I was thrilled.

Honestly, I was. The energy that coursed through me when I first successfully pull-started the Toro, and understanding the proper use of the choke control, plus the snarling, nasty, barely muffled exhaust and rattle of the engine that (before they we mandatory) had no safety switch and featured a particularly graphic illustration of why not to shove your hand down a clogged clipping chute, had me more than chuffed about my newfound mechanical mastery. Not being the type to encourage his boy into the scary dangerous world of mini-bikes, Dad let pushing “the bull” became my sole connection to machines. I replaced the air filter, removed the blade to get it sharpened and changed the spark plug. That early wrenchin’ slightly reduced my fear of messing with a machine.

My Uncle, who years later decided to build his own conversion van, further squashed the fear of things mechanical. Unscrewing panels, adding wiring, ratcheting down seats and enjoying the chemical haze of aerosol spray adhesives greatly reduced my anxiety towards vehicles. It was cool to bleed brakes and relish the sight of a new belt properly installed. With the same passion as Dr. Dad, my Engineer Uncle explained electricity, how to change the oil (something I never remembered doing on the Toro) and what a wheel alignment was. I was already into bikes by then – scurrying around Dallas on a Suzuki GN250. But he taught me to not take that locomotion for granted, how it pushed me down the road, and how to take care of it.

All this rushed back to me at the Dallas International Motorcycle Show as I watched a father explain to his boy why the 2010 Yamaha YZ450F is such a neat bike with its “reversed head” and EFI. Probably built for a press intro – Yamaha thoughtfully provided the cut-away display model that is intended to tickle the mind of the hard-core enthusiast and fire off his mental braaaaauuup!, thus triggering the pre-programmed purchase response. The bike was displayed alongside an unmolested production bike making it all very real. As dad explained the piston and valve movement, showed how the butterfly was connected to the throttle and how the clutch functioned, I was truly inspired.

So I ask that you to take the time to show your kid, or any kid for that matter, how your motorcycle works. How to find the right size Phillips screwdriver, how to read a manual, how to avoid dropping tools into invisible places, where the filters live and what they do, how to check air pressure, how to change a flat, what breaker switches do, and of course – how to mow the lawn.

I have to thank my Uncle for letting me use his toolbox to adjust the chain on that harmless GN. And I have to thank my Dad for letting me cut the grass with an evil rattling beast that had the potential to harm me. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like my dirt bike….

Last 5 posts by Robert Pandya

• Boredom Remedy
• Fired Up
• I Get It
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