I don't claim to be a mechanical genius but I have enjoyed puttering around with my bikes over the years and I usually purchase a shop/service manual for each of them. When I bought my TW200, I found a "Cyclepedia Service Manual" for it that really helped make a lot of things clear and I found myself wishing such a guide existed for the Trail 125. I already have the official Helm publication and, yes, it's useful but I was hoping for more so I called up the publication office for Cyclepedia and asked if they were going to publish a manual for our bikes. Talked to a really nice guy named "Greg" (IIRC) who explained how they generate these guides by acquiring a specific bike, totally disassembling it part by part, photographing each step and having a tech writer narrate the entire process. Then the mechanic re-assembles the bike using the narrative as a guide to make sure everything is accurate and clear. He said they would like to produce such a manual for the Trail 125 but have not yet acquired one and didn't know when that would happen -- hopefully in the near future. Just thought you might be interested.
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Another Shop Manual?
- Thread starter Tman
- Start date
dmonkey
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2021
- Messages
- 1,052
Haynes (and formerly Clymer) manuals are also done that way, a complete disassembly and assembly of the motorcycle with great photos and illustrations. I often prefer that style of manual as well because they provide better detail where manufacturer shop manuals can often be ambiguous if you're not already familiar with a procedure or how something should be oriented.
In the case of Haynes they usually wait until a motorcycle has either been on the market for a few years or gone through a generation of design before they publish such a manual. At that point the motorcycle is accessible to them, there are often many on the market, and many are out of warranty and being worked on by their owners or 3rd party shops. I learned this from emailing and calling them about manuals for newer motorcycles from manufacturers that don't offer print service manuals at all. Some manufacturers now only have digital service manuals that even their dealerships use on computers and shop tablets to work on the motorcycles, and they tend to wait a few years before making the digital version available for sale to owners or 3rd party shops, if at all. That's one of many reasons I'm am an advocate for Right to Repair legislation. Good on Honda for at least putting a service manual in print these days.
In the case of Haynes they usually wait until a motorcycle has either been on the market for a few years or gone through a generation of design before they publish such a manual. At that point the motorcycle is accessible to them, there are often many on the market, and many are out of warranty and being worked on by their owners or 3rd party shops. I learned this from emailing and calling them about manuals for newer motorcycles from manufacturers that don't offer print service manuals at all. Some manufacturers now only have digital service manuals that even their dealerships use on computers and shop tablets to work on the motorcycles, and they tend to wait a few years before making the digital version available for sale to owners or 3rd party shops, if at all. That's one of many reasons I'm am an advocate for Right to Repair legislation. Good on Honda for at least putting a service manual in print these days.