Shame the eBay cylinders are no good. Never found that 2T cylinders with pressed in liners, are as good as originals with liners cast in? Mitaka DT175 pistons are pretty good, and Grampian have decades of experience with all things Yamaha.

Blimey you were very busy back then that's for sure.
Do you think they were offending "just to get in there" you were giving them such a fun time.
Bet they missed that when it was gone.

During the week it was kids that had been kicked out of school for bad behaviour and then kicked out of the special needs school they were then sent to.
We were tasked to give them an "education". About 200 of them a week.
Very basic certificate in motorcycle and car maintenance, car body repair and spraying and welding and fabrication.
The carrot was half a day learning and half a day riding. The certificate was worthless to employers, but it showed that the authorities were doing "something".

Also had groups attending from bail hostels and remand centres ect after the kids had gone home. No onee was allowed on site while the "kids" were attending.

Weekends were general public days where parents could hire a bike and instructor to have their kids taught to ride safely and responsibly.

Also had a large fleet of on road bikes where we put people through basic training right through to their A2 ( unlimited) motorcycle tests.

Being a not for profit, all profits from the public side was put into the charity side where local youths could attend on an evening and be taught to ride and maintain bikes in a legal, safe and supervised environment.

Yamaha and Honda provided new bikes at cost and all spares at trade - 20% VAT. No VAT paid because we were a not for profit.

Being operations manager / workshop manager/ senior technician/ stand in on and off road motorcycle instructor/ health and safety manager and general person to go find to sort violent crap out, it nearly killed me and put me off motorcycles for more than 10 years.
Incredibly stressful environment during the day, and often writing reports at home on an evening often until 10pm just keep my head above water. 
Not enough hours in the day and what hours they were often taken up with pointless meetings with social services and local education departments.  Usually after I wielded my axe and kicked butter would not melt in his mouth Young Johhny Briggs and his vermin mates off the course for setting off a powder fire extinguisher in the canteen at lunchtime or trying to set fire to a bike.

Never again.

What education do they need to be able to sign a benefits form?

Not much. Bet a lot of them are dead now. Either from drug overdoses or gangland stabbings.

Once brought to sort out a lad who had been caught by a staff member visiting the toilets, he was caught taking out and sucking on the yellow disinfectant blocks from the urinals.
When I finally stopped retching, I asked why he was doing it. " its chemicals man, give yer a buzz innit".

I kid you not.

I take my hat off to you Tinkicker… to be able to not kick some young peeps backside all the way back to its parents, is a test of tolerance…
Then all the wrenching so it can be repeated…
Bravo!
Sneezles61

Tinkicker you are a bigger man than me. Couldn’t imagine how stressful it was

Most stressful was when one of our young apprentices unpacked a box of parts one weekend and a very expensive D.I.D gold X ring chain for one of the road bikes was missing. I phoned up the supplier and gave them hell.
They were adamant that the chain was in the box. Apprentice adamant it wasn't.

I had known him as an attendee from the young riders Club on an evening, then he became a weekend volunteer and from there was offered a place on our apprenticeship scheme. All our apprentices were ex volunteers.
i trusted him implicitly, a lovely lad.

Found one or two other things missing from stores during the next few days and could not reconcile them with a job card. How odd.

He was prattling on about a very old watch he had found when helping his Dad clear out his attic space a few days later. He put it on ebay and told me his description so I knew how to find it.
I looked that evening, so I could comment the next day and as you do; clicked on the other items for sale button.

Yup, chain with full list of model fitment and other parts were for sale.

We had a zero tolerance theft policy, even a paperclip could get you canned. Next morning I had to act normally with him while we were waiting for the police to arrive and arrest him.

Heartbreaking.  All the technicians in the maintenance department were gutted.

I wonder whether these people were born moronic, or if it's something they have needed to work to develop?

I some times wonder of a lack of “stern” direction?
As a youngster, I was told “dont touch the wood stove!”.. I promptly received alot of pain as my lesson to listen…
Sneezles61