I think you hit the nail on the head there
@sonny . Motorcycling to me has always been as much about maintenance and knowing the bike inside and out as much as the riding experience. In all , a lifestyle !
I do realise that alot of people are only interested in the ride and have no time or interest in fettling and have the disposable funds to just chuck it to the dealers and let them take responsibility for the up keep and fair play to them .
Unfortunately , trustworthy people are becoming harder to find in this modern world and many dealers and workshops are more than happy to try and baffle you with Bull**** or blind you with science , and many of their so called technicians are nothing but fitters and have no more skills than a dedicated home mechanic , far less in fact IMHO .
Fitting sub standard parts and the cheapest fluids seems the norm these days in an effort to maximise profits and poor workmanship in a repair shop and the failures resulting from this always seems to come back as the customers fault in some way or another ?
There are some great garages and technicians out there , just getting harder to find it seems . Maybe a whole thread can be devoted to good and bad repair shops world wide ?
Ultimately tho , the better one knows the mechanics and workings of their bike , the less problems one will ultimately have with it and the less chance they would have of being ripped off by unscrupulous techs !
One of the reasons this forum is so great ! I bet collectively it has saved us captains thousands of pounds or dollars and I for one am grateful for that !