{"id":69535,"date":"2017-07-11T10:56:28","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T16:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-motorcycle-mechanic-seeks-to-pass-on-the-wrench\/"},"modified":"2017-07-11T16:56:28","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T16:56:28","slug":"mancos-motorcycle-mechanic-seeks-to-pass-on-the-wrench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-motorcycle-mechanic-seeks-to-pass-on-the-wrench\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos motorcycle mechanic seeks to pass on the wrench"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Harry
Harry Hill with a 1959 R26 single-cylinder BMW motorcycle that he\u2019s repairing in his shop, Basin Motorcycle Works, 41 S. Main St., in Mancos.<\/span>Stephanie Alderton\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos resident Harry Hill likes to work with his hands.<\/p>\n

For him, that has meant different things over the years. He\u2019s worked as a furniture builder, a massage therapist and a sculptor, among other jobs, but for almost 12 years he\u2019s been one of the few BMW motorcycle mechanics in the Four Corners area. Now, at 70, he\u2019s ready to move on to the next chapter of his life, which means finding someone to take over his shop, Basin Motorcycle Works.<\/p>\n

Hill studied auto mechanics in college, but he didn\u2019t know much about repairing motorcycles until he bought his first BMW bike in 1969. He got his first job as a motorcycle mechanic about a year later. He worked at shops in California and Oregon throughout the 1970s, but eventually switched to woodworking and embarked on a varied career that took him all over the United States. It was partly on the advice of a psychic that he visited Durango while house hunting in 1998, and he said he knew within the first few days that this would be his new home. But although he loved Southwest Colorado, he soon discovered there weren\u2019t many options for BMW owners in the region who wanted their bikes repaired without taking a long road trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was working on my own bike, I became aware that the closest BMW dealers were 200 miles away,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I thought, \u2018Somebody\u2019s got to do it. I might as well do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He opened up shop in Durango in January 2006, and moved it to Mancos in 2009, where it\u2019s been ever since. At first, he had a lot to learn about the craft, he said, since motorcycles had changed drastically since he first owned one. But thanks to the internet and the advice of \u201cfriends who know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Hill said he eventually got caught up with the new bike designs.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, his knowledge of old and new BMWs brings him enough happy customers to keep the shop busy for most of the year. He not only repairs and maintains motorcycles, but also restores old ones upon request. He\u2019s had other mechanics work for him in the past, but right now he has only one employee, Mancos retiree Wally Gillman.<\/p>\n

Hill said he\u2019s thought about retiring before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept dragging my feet on it, because there\u2019s a part of me that really enjoys doing it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then there\u2019s a part of me that is 70 years old and has some encroaching health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of those health issues, he said his wife, Kathleen, would like him to stop working around solvents and gasoline fumes. He also wants to travel more and work on wood sculpture, which he said is his true passion.<\/p>\n

Hill sent an email to his customers on July 6 announcing that he was starting to advertise for someone to take over the shop. Even though he doesn\u2019t want to operate it anymore, he said he also doesn\u2019t want it to vanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people in the Four Corners area who own BMWs and wouldn\u2019t own BMWs if this wasn\u2019t here,\u201d he said. \u201cThese people have treated me really well, and I treat them really well, and I would like to see that continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s looking for a younger person with plenty of knowledge about BMW bikes \u201cwho wants to live in paradise.\u201d He hopes to find a new owner for the shop before winter.<\/p>\n

Being a motorcycle mechanic, Hill said, has forced him to learn how to remain calm even when he feels swamped with customers and tasks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned to not take life so seriously \u2026 to not see life as a constant battle,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the business has been an excellent opportunity for me to learn that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he plans to continue learning about life, in a hands-on way, for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

plans to leave Basin Motorcycle Works<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,21,13,83,1936,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos","tag-motorcycling","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69535"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}