Confession

[kerrfunk]

Two confessions, actually.

One, if you follow some of the other threads, you know of my carb woes, and of my decision to have a shop take care of them for me. No shame there; my bike is now running well and I couldn'ta done it myself.

But when I went to pick it up I walked up to the counter and said I was there to pick up my 82 Honda, last name Funk. The counter guy called back to the shop "Hey, bring that 82 Hond - er - Suzuki out!"

Oopsy

[marvinsc]

Your bike may Never forgive You for that one. Count Yourself very Lucky if You have a shop that actually knows what they are doing on an Old bike, they are few and far between. I have seen many more Horror stories here than Happy endings related to Motorcycle shops and Gses.

[seuadr]

definitally. most shops are suck. the only shop around here that will even work on my suzuki puts you at the bottom of the waiting list if:

a bike they sold comes in
an atv comes in
a jetski comes in
a snowmobile comes in
all of those off season

plus

newer bike comes in
more expensive bike comes in
it's a nice day and they don't feel like working

etc etc.

friend of mine got the run around from them for over a year on his nighthawk.. and all he was having done was a starter replaced and carbs cleaned.

when he got them back, it still was not working right.

[Buffalo Bill]

Old bikes may be for DIY's only

Honda, in Michigan City have been real good to me, but they do have a sign on the wall that says "We do not work on bikes more than 20 years old".
However, I brought them my carbs for cleaning, and they did a good, quick job. Twice, I've taken them wheels and new tires for mounting, same quick good service.
I have since decided to clean my own carbs, and found that it's basically easy, (I knew that, I'm just lazy).
Think a little bit about what you see at the dealer's.
A. When I go in there, I see allot of bikes for service, and only 3 mechanics, so I can figure that it would be a long wait.
B. Mechanic work is dirty, smelly, frustrating and thankless. Plus they're trapped between their manager and the client. Who wants that job?
C. Tiny profit margin for repair work. I think there's like, 1-2 bike dealer/repair shops per county near me.
D. Old bikes have so many worn out parts, a malfunction may source through 2-3 systems.
E. You probably took the bike to them because, you couldn't deal with it.
Sorry about you guys who need help, but here's a useless bromide for you, "The Lord helps those who help themselves."
I'm defending mechanics because, every where I look I see them getting a raw deal.

[spyug]

Working on old bikes is definitely a labour of love and do to it for a living you really must be smitten. Having said that, it can be very lucrative if you are good, fair and honest. My pro wrench is like that and I'm so glad I found him.
He has a wealth of knowledge, freely shared, can think outside the box and knows how a part from one bike would work on another. He'll work with you to get the problem solved. Custom work is no problem and there are no special rates. Everyone is treated equal and its first come first served.
The only downside, to me at least, is that he is super successfull, his shop is always busy and turn around can be slow at times. His good deeds however make this all bearable and I'll be going to him until I quit riding.
I just hope he doesn't retire anytime soon

cheers all,
Spyug

[Buffalo Bill]

It sounds like there is a need to fill.

If it was a labor of love for me, I would look into opening up a bike repair shop here. Obviously there's a large need, and very few bike repair shops.

[jmanz6]

We have one near me that I took my bike to. They did a good job, they were slow but they are busy too. I would take it to them again. They only fixed what I told them to and called about anything else they found. They never once told me that the bike was junk and I should buy something else. One of the salesmen in the shop owns a '79 GS. They told me they might have trouble getting parts but would do the best they could. I took it to them with a broken head stud from the PO, leaking forks, dirty carbs, and low compression. They gave me back a great running bike. What else could I ask for? Yes, it was expensive but I wasn't interested in learning how to fix my bike just yet. I knew it would end up just like the other half-finished projects in my garage. I would reach a hiccup and get frustrated. They get paid to work thru it and finish the job. Now I can focus on riding the bike and not fixing it.

[kerrfunk]

I would take my bike to this place again (though I hope I don't need to!)

I met the owner / mechanic before I brought my bike in, and liked him. And then later when I picked it up, he was just all smiles. I got the impression it was that he had enjoyed having my GS -- he lamented that it was rainy out and he couldn't really take 'er out and give 'er a good test run. Now maybe he was all smiles cuz I was handing him five hundred clams, but I really think he just loves workin on bikes.

[bonanzadave]

I was handing him five hundred clams

Gulp I hope you got more than a carb cleaning.

[kerrfunk]

Gulp I hope you got more than a carb cleaning.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=133816

[slowride]

There is a silver lining in taking your bike to a shop and not getting what you pay for. A couple years back I took my 850 to a local shop and when I got it back it wasn't running as well as it did when I dropped it off. Of course, I still had to pay them. Well, I started to tinker with it and got it running a little better over the next couple years.

Well, last winter, I started to look for another shop to take it to for service when I came across this site. After hours of reading, I decided to take on the work myself with the help of the contributers here. I learned a lot and saved money in the process AND my bike is running better than it has in a long time. Had I had a good experience with that first place, I would not have tried to fix the bike on my own.

Years ago, when I bought the bike new (from Powell Ave. Suzuki in Erie, PA) I would take it to the mechanic there (who was excellent) for everything. I didn't mind paying for the work he did because it was ALWAYS done right but I would never have learned to do any of this myself if I was still in that situation.

Merry Christmas everyone,
Ed

[NATEO]

I am a service writer at a shop that works on EVERYTHING. from a 68 Honda CT90 to 08 CBRs and GSXRs. working on the older stuff is not risky for the shop, but it is for the customer. we have a disclaimer people sign that says there is an inherent risk with working on bikes that old because of breaking parts and the like. if we are working on a bike and something breaks, we call the customer and get authorization to fix it. no autho, no repair.

Even if I didnt work at this shop, I would highly recommend it to anyone in the phoenix valley.

if you want info, PM me.