i hate mechanics!

[Ranger]

There are variations on the quote, but it goes something like this:

"You want speed, quality or price? I can give you any two of the three."

.

I think price is with everything. "Good tattoos arent cheap, and cheap tattoos aren't good!"

If it took 1 week longer to get something done on my bike though at less than 1/2 the price and knowing it was done right so I don't have to return, well easy choice.

[bluewool]

Theres a guy local around my moms place that doesnt charge and hourly rate. He checks it out, then gives a quote and sticks to it. $15 to vac synch carbs

Downfall is, slow turn over rate since he's a one man shop but I guess you pay for the quality and service and not the speed.

That a deal I will never know.
I have a friend like that he's running out of his double garage(he's zoned commercial) He's not super cheap but he's skilled and diligent and has a waiting list for new clients.
In the city though, there's no place to take them.
One place, the owner knows his sh** but none of his techs do. The term "Ham Fisted" comes to mind.

The trades are really suffering in general though. I go through at least 15 apprentices to find a keeper.

[Graham]

It’s all a matter of finding a shop with standards that will stand behind their work. Like mine. But what a lot of people don’t understand is that a motorcycle is a toy and toys cost. You have to pay to play. It is not good business sense to sell a 5-hour job for 3, parts at cost or even to tell someone how to repair their motorcycle their self for free. I work on motorcycle for a living first and love second.

BTW; a mechanic will repair you motorcycle and save you money.
And a technician will change parts until he repairs your motorcycle.

[max parsons]

As soon as a customer tells us the problem isn't in the carby because he checked it we go their first.You'd be amazed how often they've managed to lose a part.If a customer tells us he hasn't touched the carb we go there first.You'd be amazed how often there is a part missing.

[Hoosier Daddy]

...
BTW; a mechanic will repair you motorcycle and save you money.
And a technician will change parts until he repairs your motorcycle.

Heh, heh... cute.
I've called myself both. My diploma says I have an "Associates Degree in Automotive and Diesel Technology", therefore the professional term used is "Technician". I have also used the term "Mechanic" to describe what I did for a living before getting into Industrial Maintenance.
Now I tell people "Maintenance Supervisor" and some think "Head Janitor" even though my crew repairs and maintains $1,000,000's in equipment at the Factory I am now at.

[haztoys]

You shouldn't judge all mechanics/technicians for the failures of some. All the dealers I have worked at over the years have a cutoff date for the units they will service, mainly because most folks don't care for their old bikes as good as the folks here in the forum, an old bike is worth much less to sell if a customer ditches his bike and bill, and in 20 or 30 years it's pretty well guaranteed that some idiot has been into a bike.

I've never in my life had an "I already cleaned it" carburetor pass when tore down for cleaning, but it can be difficult to do it correctly if you don't do alot of them. Not saying it isn't possible and not saying ya'll boys can't clean carbs (renobruce you make me jealous). As a mechanic you pretty well have to count on everything the customer has touched being screwed up as a football bat, because... well that's just how things work. I'd imagine that 40% of my work comes from backyard mechanics and "real" dumb*** official mechanics, with an additional 40% being carb cleans, and 20% attributed to everything else.

I will admit that about 80% of dealership employees shouldn't be allowed to clean chewing gum off the underside of tables, but there are a few that have an honest to goodness love for their job and take pride in what they do. Nowadays most business owners seem to care nothing for the motorcycles any more than any other widgit and are only in it for the money, and the customer suffers.

Tuning a motorcycle by ear and seat of the pants seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs, I honestly don't know why some "technicians" cant seem to learn, you can beat it into them and beat it into them and throw tire irons at them and they just keep on being stupid. Honestly the same guys that can't tune your carb, can't diagnose fuel injection issues either, stupid runs from one end of them to the other - and most mechanics that care enough to service your carburetors properly, take an interest to learning all the modern technologies they don't have experience with.

When I could I would sneak in older bikes for service, at management's dispair, I would lose money over the services and tire changes I could be doing, but the customers joy when they see their GL or GK or CB or KZ running at the service gate makes it worthwhile. I love it when people love their bikes.

Find a service department or independent mechanic you can trust, I know it's unfortunate that they can be hard to find (honestly it's a rare find), but if you find the right ones they will love your bike just as much as you, and have the experience to make it all that much better. Best of luck to ya folks. Sorry for your misfortune. Hope all gets better for ya.

Very true on all points .. Customers are liars ....Just shocking the BS I went through as a mechanic ...LOL...Thank God I'm know longer doing mechanic work for Joe Public....Love to make things run really hated Joe Publics expectation's...

One thing about old bikes and dealers not working on them ...In most cases it cost the same to work on a old bike as a new one and people just will not spend the money ...As a mechanic "I" feel that new bikes are easier to fix and tune then a old bike ....

David

Hazardous Toys inc

[Skateguy50]

Exactly, and anyone here that does their own work knows once you start something it is easy to find more issues along the way or for things to break along the way, snapped stud bolt perhaps?

It is not worth them taking on that risk and eating the costs when they could do the same job on a newer bike with less unknows. The more risk you take on the more reasonable the price.

For example my local dealer would not want to touch my engine but when I brought in just the head and had them hone it for me the price was reasonable cause they had no risk of unknowns. Same goes for tire changes, taking the rear wheel off my bike per the manual calls for pulling the exhaust (I never do that) but if they did and broke 1 or 2 studs they simply dont want to deal with either fixing it on their dime or explaining to you it was not their fault. However if you do that work and just roll the wheel it they can give you are reasonable price cause you took the risk.

[obsidianghost]

@Skateguy I agree with your post, risk management is key in business. Every business does this in one way or another.

I will say that 10 years ago when I was still new to working on bikes I would take my 67 Honda scrambler to my local Yamaha shop to have work done occasionally. The only reason they were willing to work on it was that they had a mechanic that was in his 70s. He had been a motorcycle mechanic his whole life and loved working on those old bikes. He just refused to retire . He was the only person other than myself that ever touched that bike in the years I had it. I wouldn't have trusted anyone else and I doubt that anyone else would have been willing to do the work.

[makenzie71]

I've seen countless threads here where some newbie "cleaned" his carbs, when in reality the only thing they did was a half way job. If I were a paid mechanic I wouldn't believe people saying they performed this work either. If the person was properly capable of cleaning their carbs they wouldn't be looking for a mechanic to wrench for them anyway.

I got my Kat setup from a mechanic who rebuilt the carburetors. All but one of the needles were on top of the keepers and just bouncing around up inside the slide.

I don't even believe mechanics when they say they did something.

[jhillier449]

Very interesting discussion here. My first bike and love of my life, is my 1980 GS1000G. Started off as a piece of junk, but a good motor. I have had moments where I wanted to burn the thing, all because of a lack of knowledge of what I was doing.

My point is, if you want these bikes to run well, ya gotta put the time into learning how these things work. It takes time and patience and help from the great people on this site. If you are looking just to ride, buy yourself a new bike, and prepare to pay when something goes wrong.

[RedBaron]

I got my Kat setup from a mechanic who rebuilt the carburetors. All but one of the needles were on top of the keepers and just bouncing around up inside the slide.

I don't even believe mechanics when they say they did something.

Ha very true. Lots of people will call themselves mechanics. I had a unit come in with a similar issue the other day after a kawi shop got hold of him. (Im doing the independent thing since the economy tanked)

Guy had his carb cleaned on a KLF300 Bayou at the Kawi dealer. Says it ran "alright" afterwards until his son borrowed it and rolled the unit over. Afterwards it would never restart. Dissassembly showed that previously the carb had been assembled in the way you stated and then jury rigged to run. When the unit flipped over the needle slid up the center of the spring and tilted, sticking it's tip in the slide lift hole. I had to laugh when I saw that. I love fixing other "Mechanic's" mistakes, you gotta wonder if some can even boil water.

Unfortunately theyre's alot of very bad mechanics in this world, I could talk about it all day. There are good ones too though, Ive only met a few though having worked in NC and Florida. There's alot more bad than good.

[850 Combat]

A person I know has been a Honda dealer mechanic from time to time. From what he has told me is that the main reason that they won't work on old bikes is that too often the owner gets too much invested in it and can't or won't pay for the work.

Plus, do you really want to pay $50.00 per hour for someone to scrape the old gasket and glue from your valve cover gasket?

[bluewool]

Plus, do you really want to pay $50.00 per hour for someone to scrape the old gasket and glue from your valve cover gasket?

around here $50/hr would be a bargain!! I cannot afford to have someone work on my bike, and I couldn't afford the bikes if I didn't work on my car. I'll take the jetta in for some things, so far only the timing belt, which was beyond the scope of my parkade shop area

[yotaman423]

Very interesting discussion here. My first bike and love of my life, is my 1980 GS1000G. Started off as a piece of junk, but a good motor. I have had moments where I wanted to burn the thing, all because of a lack of knowledge of what I was doing.

My point is, if you want these bikes to run well, ya gotta put the time into learning how these things work. It takes time and patience and help from the great people on this site. If you are looking just to ride, buy yourself a new bike, and prepare to pay when something goes wrong.

i agree! when i said i hated mechanics it was because i have a lack of knowledge about what i am doing with my bike. the mechanics i talked to gave me what i thought was no help. so this post was out of frustration of my lack of knowledge.

[gshub]

firstly i took my Gs1000s to our local suzuki dealer to set me carbs up,the workshop
foreman came out his words were "wot is that never seen one like that before did it come off Noahs Ark".

few months later took it to be put on Dyno at another dealer done couple runs come
out and says who ever set it done great job just about spot on with AFR ,90BHp 68lbs, torque, he says i can get better so he ****zz about with fuel mixture screws and bugger it totaly now got to pay the guy who set it up for to get it right again he isnt happy.

Ooooh bleep f**kin H*ll after how many hrs stripping carbs ,still cant Gs to run over 4500rpm, god knows wot he did to them look like going to too.
find another set of 28mm Gs1000 carb or what other options.
even though I had it bored to a 1085cc it has old type head so wot optoins do i have
34mm cvs or wont they fit,im I am well peeved off.
it was running lovley till he got his hands on it.