HPW Cycle Service - Niagara Falls, NY

[Jinkeez]

Of all the places to find someone to work on my bike, I found this guy on the Buffalo Craigslist over the winter! He's proven himself to be a very competent mechanic, and a good, stand-up guy on the occasions that he's worked on my GS650G. So far, I've had him do the following:

- Upon first acquiring bike, I had him check and change all the fluids, fix a wiring issue that was preventing the left turn signal from blinking (bad ground), and pull off the front fairing and mount a headlight.

- Install new base & cylinder head gasket (I discovered a leak at the head gasket at the start of the season), at which point he also took the opportunity to clean & balance the carbs for $50

- This week, I asked him to get me a set of Pirelli Sport Demons, which he'll be installing for me Friday or Saturday--I don't get paid till Friday, but he went ahead and floated the coast of the tires for me so I could have them for the weekend.

I have absolutely no complaints about his work and heartily recommend him to anyone else who needs some work done that they don't think they can handle themselves. He seems to work primarily on sportbikes and stuff, but can handle a GS no problem

www.hpwcycleservice.com

[RJz1100E]

That's good to hear. I'm taking my bike there for exhaust system, jetting etc. as soon as I've got the extra coin to pay the bill. I've already spoken with Tom via email about doing the work. He does seem like a pretty good guy.
Rj

[Jinkeez]

That's good to hear. I'm taking my bike there for exhaust system, jetting etc. as soon as I've got the extra coin to pay the bill. I've already spoken with Tom via email about doing the work. He does seem like a pretty good guy.
Rj

I got a look at your bike when I had mine in today... Wow, you've taken great care of it--the thing looks brand new!!

[RJz1100E]

Thanks, but actually the credit for that has to go to the guy I bought the bike from, the original owner took good care of it for 25 years. I've only had her for about 2 months.

[RJz1100E]

HPW Cycle Service BUTCHERED MY CARBS!!!

Upon further review...DON"T GO THERE!!!

My bike ran half assed all last summer after I got it back from HPW Cycle Service. I thought it was okay at first but I was probably just feeling the effects of the new pipe and rejet, after which the bike quickly developed some issues which a friend of mine and myself were pretty positive were fuel/air delivery related. Oh it ran. It just was'nt running right and I just paid 335.00 to have it done right at a shop. Or so I thought. I ran it like that for the rest of the season and I planned on getting to the bottom of it during the winter.
First off let me inform everyone that these carbs were never modified by the PO. The bike was bone stock when I got it except for the coils and wires. I should have known to go somewhere else when HPW told me that a valve adjustment prior to rejet/tune and syncing the carbs is not neccesary.

I just had my carbs rebuilt and rejetted to stage 3 by Bill (chef1366) and this is what he found.
1. Float levels were way off.
2. A strange hole drilled around the edge of the float bowl on #4 where there is'nt supposed to be a hole.
3. One of the slides was butchered up due to careless drilling.

See pic below of extra hole drilled in #4

[RJz1100E]

Bump. Because I'm still pis*ed off.

[chef1366]

The hole threaded or drilled into the #4 carb I have never seen before (almost looks like it's from a sheet metal screw). Since the gasket covered the hole I thought it might be ok.
The float heigth averaged around 20mm. I set them to 22.4 with a digital caliper.
The slides were drilled out previously and the the hole was not straight and was ovaled (bad) at the diaphragm end. I thought about packing the drilled slides with JB Weld and redrill but didn't. Since the hole was good at the bottom of the slide I felt that it would only let that much air through the slide.

Rich sent me his carbs in good faith and I was dissapointed that someone had done this to his carbs. All the carbs are clean through and through and new o-rings installed so they might be ok. I told Rich that if they didn't run right get a used bank from Fleabay and I'll do them right.

[chef1366]

I just looked at the Dynojet directions and the guy drilled the hole on the wrong side of the carb to remove the cap to the idle mixture screws.
I bet that was an OH SH!T moment. It's a shame he had to cover it up and not make it right.

[RJz1100E]

Oops!

Good catch Bill! As per a phone conversation with the chefster, I'm going to fill in the hole with JB weld and if neccesary smooth over any roughness in the bore with a very fine Cratex point mounted in a Dremel tool.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to publically thank Bill for the fine work he did on my carbs and for the guidance he has given me on the subject of carbs/pods/jetting/adjustments, etc so far. Your a good dude Bill. Thank-you!

RJ

[chef1366]

Good catch Bill! As per a phone conversation with the chefster, I'm going to fill in the hole with JB weld and if neccesary smooth over any roughness in the bore with a very fine Cratex point mounted in a Dremel tool.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to publically thank Bill for the fine work he did on my carbs and for the guidance he has given me on the subject of carbs/pods/jetting/adjustments, etc so far. Your a good dude Bill. Thank-you!

RJ

[Jinkeez]

Bummer, I feel bad that this all happened to you, RJ, since I recommended the shop in the first place. Sorry.

If it's any consolation, I got an email a few months ago announcing that he was closing up shop, so I guess it's a moot point. :shock:

[RJz1100E]

Jink, we're cool, you had absolutely no fault in this. I had already spoken with Tom several times and had the bike scheduled to go in to his shop before this thread was started. Your recommendation had nothing to do with me taking my bike to his shop so not a problem there at all bud.
I'm going to chalk this one up to experience, and learn to do most of the work myself. I have the Suzuki manual for my bike, and with a little advice from the members here, it's completely do-able. This place is great! The way I see it, I'm way overdue for becoming a site supporter. The check will be in the mail very soon.