'How to' workshops in the UK
 

Now for fear of exposing an utter lack of knowledge I was late in ife into bikes and have never tinkered with them (cars are a different thing) I was wondering does anyone run a maintenance class for things like how to swap a chain, tube changing even simple things llike how to properly get the chain tension right..

Where in the UK?

I think a few classes still survive in London, but anywhere much smaller they seem to have been overwhelmed by the disposable culture.

I would suggest buying the cheapest 125 you can get with a years MOT and playing based on YouTube and questions on here. I learned on an MZ but as these are now" classics" :( any WunHungLo or whatever someone wants shot of will do.

Andy

That's certainly been the way things have gone round my way in rural Oxfordshire. Years ago the local school (about 200m away) had motorcycle maintenance evening classes (I taught tyre changing there for a while) alongside the usual suspects like languages, flower arranging, dance etc but the bike classes went in the 90's and now my nearest beginners French class is about 30 miles away.

The local agricultural college had many "heavyweight" evening classes - I learnt to weld there - but "cuts" closed it down and it's been a housing estate for the last 10yrs.

Where are you based ?

I, or someone local to you could help you to complete those tasks yourself. Non of that is too complicated at all but there are a few knacks that each of us have learnt by watching someone else.

I don't know of any down here in the Southwest but Andy's idea of buying something cheap, even a non-runner would do and practicing on that with the aid of youtube and a Haynes manual sounds like a good one.

Motorbike Maintenance courses in London & related London courses | Hotcourses.

Any good?