David Taylor

English 314

Sec. 17

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig brings up many interesting ideas about life and the way a person views the things that happen to them in their life. I think that Pirsig makes many good points about life in his book. The one principal that I strongly agree with is how Pirsig talks about learning how to do things yourself and taking pride in the things that you do.

Pirsig writes about the advantages of learning how to do things yourself not only to save money, but so you know that things are done carefully and correctly. I believe that these are very good points that he brings up when he writes about the maintenance of his motorcycle. I also think that by doing these things yourself you have more pride in whatever it is that you have done than if you had hired someone else to do the work for you.

Pirsig presents the reason why he feels this way about doing things yourself in a story about the problems that he had with his motorcycle having a “seizure”. This was where the motorcycle would lock up at high speeds because the engine would over heat and the pistons would expand and become too big for the engine cylinder. After this happened he then took the motorcycle into a shop because he did not think that it was important enough to justify learning how to fix the problem and buy the tools that were needed. At the shop the mechanics fixed what they thought the problem was, and told Pirsig to break the engine in before he opened the engine up at high speed. After he broke the engine in for one thousand miles he opened it up and as soon as he hit seventy-five miles per hour the engine had the same problem as before. He then took the motorcycle back to the shop to have them fix it and they accused him of not properly breaking the engine in properly before opening it up on the highway. He finally convinced the mechanics that he had broken in the engine for one thousand miles before opening up the engine, so the mechanics fixed the engine and tested the motorcycle and had the engine seize up on them when they were testing it. When Pirsig finally got his motorcycle back two months later after the third overhaul the engine was not properly secured and it would not start because the spark plugs were not connected. Pirsig was fed up with the mechanics by this time and told them to just give him the parts that he needed and he would fix it himself.

When Pirsig got the motorcycle home and started to work on it he found that the problem was a pin was broken and prevented oil from reaching the engine at high speeds which caused it to over heat. This problem was not found by the mechanics, and it was also caused by a mechanic who improperly assembled the side plate cover at previous maintenance shop. The experience helped Pirsig realize that he should learn how to do this type of maintenance himself, so if he ever had any other problems with his motorcycle he could fix them himself and know that they were fixed correctly. I agree with Pirsig’s thoughts on this subject because if you know how to do something yourself you can fix it correctly and not end up paying to have if fixed multiple times before it is fixed correctly.

I believe that doing things yourself is much more fulfilling and you appreciate them more when you put in your own time and energy rather than hiring someone to do the things for you. I believe this because of first hand experience when my father, brother, and I tore down our old single-car garage and added on a two-car garage and workshop. During this process we did everything ourselves except the masonry work which we hired a contractor to do because we did not have the experience to do that ourselves. We started out by tearing off the roof of the existing structure and then taking down the walls. After we had completed the demolition work the contractor came in and set the forms and poured the foundation and cement that was be added to the existing driveway. When the contractor was finished the three of us framed the walls and set them in place. After that we hung the trusses and gables. When we were finished with that we had to put sheeting on the roof and walls. Once that was completed we laid tar paper and shingles on the roof. We then had to hang window and doors so that we could put siding up on the walls. After we had completed to exterior work we had to run wiring through the whole garage and put up insulation and sheetrock.

Doing all off that work ourselves really made us appreciate all of the work that a contractor puts in to building an addition on to a house. The three of us not only enjoyed doing the work, I think it helped us become closer since we had to work together and help each other out to finish the project. During this time working together we took a lot of pride in what we were doing and made sure everything was done correctly and up to code, which would be hard to know with a contractor unless you were to go out and check their work everyday and make sure that they were not taking any shortcuts to save themselves money.

This is not only an experience that I have had myself. In high school I worked at a lumber yard taking deliveries to contractors and customers. One of the customers that I got to know well was a man who was building his own house with the help of his family and friends. When he was finished we told me that he was very glad that he had decided to do the work himself because he was very proud of it and appreciated the work that went into building the house much more than if he had hired a contractor to build it for him. He also thought that through the work with his family and friends he got to know the people in his life better and that working together was a priceless experience for him and his family.

Pirsig then goes on to explain what he thinks part of the reason as to why he had these problems with the mechanics were. He thinks that part of this problem was caused by people not identifying with their jobs and taking pride in what they do. He assumed that these mechanics would not go out and take pride in saying that they are a mechanic after their eight hours at work. They just go to work put in their eight hours and then they go home and do not think about their work at all as soon as they are done with it for the day.

While I do not know for a fact that these mechanics have this problem, I believe that this is true for many people in our society today. A lot of people go to their jobs and do not care about what they do or the quality of their work. They only do enough to keep their jobs, but they do not think that they should work harder than someone else who is making the same amount of money because then it would not be fair. This kind of thinking is part of the problem with the quality of products produced by a lot of companies because employees are complacent and do not care about the products that they are producing or maintaining. If people take pride in what they do for a living instead of just putting in eight hours the quality of work is much higher for those who take pride in what they do.

I believe through my experiences that Pirsig is correct in writing that doing things yourself is more fulfilling than having someone else do the work for you. This does not only apply to my experience of building an addition to our house or Pirsig’s example of performing maintenance on his motorcycle. It also applies to almost everything that you do in your life whether it is something small or large. The positives you get from doing things yourself is not only the enjoyment and fulfillment you get, but it will also help by saving you money and the peace of mind knowing that the work was done correctly. I think that the best part about doing things yourself is the joy that you get when you finish and can show your work to your family and friends. The feeling that you get when you finish the work yourself is great and it feels even better when you know that your family is very appreciative of what you have done.