Motorcycle Service Technicians

A Day in the Life

As a motorcycle service technician, you can work either for an automotive repair shop or for a motorcycle dealership. You begin your day by arriving at a repair shop or garage. Before you begin work on motorcycles, you check to be sure that you have all the tools and diagnostic equipment that you need at hand. You'll be on your hands and knees often as a motorcycle service technician, so you might want to set up a work station with a soft pad or kneeling board.

Your first client arrives at the shop shortly after you get to work. He is having difficulty shifting into gear on his bike and asks you to run diagnostic tests. Your first step is to make a basic visual inspection of the motorcycle to identify any simple mechanical issues that may be causing the customer's problem. After completing this visual inspection, you hook the bike up to special diagnostic equipment and run a series of tests. Using your training, you read the outcome of the tests and determine that the clutch on the bike must be replaced.

You note the problem and diagnostic results on the customer's bill of work. Before you call the customer to let him know what the problem is, you consult with your boss and draw up an estimate for parts and labor. You also review your schedule and the schedules of other technicians in order to determine how quickly you can complete the work. After you have gathered this basic information, you call the customer and get his go-ahead to replace the clutch. You order the necessary parts and place the bike in a safe location.

Throughout the day, you handle many similar issues. You also do basic tune-up and maintenance tasks for customers. Shortly before your shift ends, you clean up your work area and store your tools in a secure location. You jot down notes on each bill of work to indicate where you are in the repair process. If necessary, you call customers with updates about their motorcycles.