Best place to learn 'cycle repair?

Actually, Len, knowing this lady who's the GM (the owners daughter) she very well may have done exactly what you mention here.. lol.. she seems pretty tough.. but rest assured, next time I'm down there I will personally mention it to her and I am quite certain there won't be any messes left on my bike. If there is, my next call or letter is to Harley direct -- with the info that: a) screw your service departments -- I'll invest in a factory service manual and; b) your dealer's suck! lol

Thanks.

 

Unless another shop is too far away, I'd never take my bike back there again. Not for the fact that they did crappy work, but just for the fact that the next time your bike goes in and they see your name the bike may be clean but the service may be sub-par. Kinda like the cook spitting on your food at a restarant when a customer complains.
You just never know, so why take the chance.

 

I just realized I had to make one correction to my broad statements that pretty much all "stealerships" stink. There is one exception. It's a good story, so please bear with me..

In June of '08, I took my Nomad 1600 up to the Northeast via the Auto Train. I rode from VA to CT and linked up with my Bro. He rides a late 90's Suzuki SV650. We went up to Laconia, NH motorcycle week, Mount Washington, NH and into southern Maine. I was gone nearly two weeks and put a couple thou miles on the 'Nad. That's the bike I traded on my Ultra Classic.

Anyway, while in Maine, my bro's bike cranked real slow at a gas stop. Curious, he was, my bro the engineer -- as he had just replaced the battery a few months earlier and always kept it on a trickle charger.

Second stop at a scenic location and again, the bike barely cranked over. So something is up. We crossed over into the Portsmouth, NH area and my Zumo GPS found a Kawa-Honda dealer which was simply the closest. So Bro forked out the dough for a new battery. But just for kicks, he asked them to check the charging voltage -- and wa-la, the problem: no charge at all. So, either the stator is fried or the regulator/rectifier (R/R).

The new batt got us back over the bridge and to our hotel on the coast. We were staying in Ogunquit, ME if anyone knows that area. I had my laptop with me so bro jumps online and sees a Suzuki dealer in Sanford, ME. That's about maybe 20-30 mins away. This is a Thursday afternoon about 5 pm-ish.

So bro talks with the Service Manager about the bike and he says to bring it in first thing in the morn -- in fact, he'll bump other appointments because we're from out of state and this is kinda a priority obviously.

Next morn, the fresh battery started his SV and and as promised, SM took it right in. Good news was, it was NOT the stator, just the R/R. Bad news: none in stock. The SM took about 45 mins calling virtually every dealer within a several hour radius of his place and nobody had one. Getting one overnighted on a Saturday was gonna be pricy -- probably as much as the part - assuming he could find one.

So, the parts guy has an idea. He cross references what other Suzuki bikes currently use the same R/R. There are some, but none on the floor. They were even willing to UNCRATE a bike and steal one if needed but they didn't have any crated donors either.

So, the parts guy has one final option.. his GF's bike at his house is like a Boulevard S50 or something like that which DOES use the correct R/R. He offers to go home on his lunch break, yank off the part and sell it to my bro at normal dealer cost. The bike was brand new so he's actually getting a new part. Then they'll order a replacement. He calls his GF and she says no prob... he says "it's good carma to help someone out in need."

But that's not all. Bro has to get some cash to pay the guy (and he gave him some extra too) so he has to get to the ATM. The only way to do that would be ride bitch on my Nomad -- a prospect he wasn't happy about.

So the SALES guy overheard the dilemma and offered him a "test ride" (wink wink) on a Spider three-wheeler. So that's what we did. I GPS'd the closest Bank of America, bro scored the cash via the Spider and by the time we returned, the bike was already fixed.

Now, that is a dealer, my friends.

The name of which is Robertson's Power Sports, Sanford, Maine.
Robertson's Power Sports

So, I stand corrected. There IS at least one dealer I know of that friggin' rules in our book. If you're ever in Southern Maine, drop by.

Thanks for indulging me.

 

Wow, what a great story. The moral of which is:

"Don't go anywhere without a handheld Zumo GPS!"

Well, it all starts at the top. Perhaps some floors got wiped with heads at that dealership in the past, and so now everyone goes out of their way to act like real, helpful human beings. Good for them!


I'll bet if Suzuki see this account, though, they'll yank their floorplan and rescind their contract...........