I've never been to a mechanic, or bought anything new... like a bike or car...

I've had some crazy stuff I've had to learn and teach myself to fix things over the years, luckily my passion for tools and mechanics has got me through it so far... I'm going to school to be mechanical engineering technologist... I'd feel like a bit of a tool myself if I had a mechanical/electrical issue I couldn't solve, who knows maybe one day ill go to one.

I too have a paranoia of other ppl touching my stuff.

 

Didn't oil the chain?????? as in the final drive chain that goes to the back tire? If so I hate to tell you but that is not under any maintenance list for a dealer to do.

 

I dont trust anyone else to work on my stuff. Being from a mechanic family I've never had to take my stuff to someone else except car/truck alignments. If I need tires for one of my vehicles, I use our lift and take ALL the wheels off and just take the wheels in haha. I personally work for a Kawasaki dealership. Family owned since 86. We get more people than not that come in complaining about other dealerships working on their stuff and messing it up. We sell strictly kawi but work on all the other brands like honda, yami and suzuki. Pretty sad when you have to take yer non kawi to a kawi dealership. I know from experience in this biz, the bigger dealerships just want yer money and could care less about you coming back. You come through their door and they kick you in the butt on the way out. We are such a small dealership compared to the rest. We barely get by every yr.

 

Just my two cents here and BleednGreen pretty much implied my point: There is tremendous value in finding a competent AND "independant" mechanic; they're worth their weight in gold. These are the guys whose families at home stay fed and clothed solely on the reputation of their craftsmanship. We all know to RUUUUUUUN from the typical dealerships and BleednGreen is obviously one of those one-in-a-million service dealerships. I can personally attest to the competency of the two "indy" mechanics I look to when I feel over my head or beyond my level patience when dealing with my Harleys and KLX. So here's one for the little guys!!!!

 

bike has seen the stealership twice, once for fork seals at 400 miles, and the first valve check. the only place in town i liked closed down, and the dealer sucks. its probably the fact i havent taken it there has made the bike last this long.

 

Yea I made the mistake of taking it there. I have never done a valve check and don't have any friends that know how so I decided to take it to the dealer. So I think in another 8 months or so I will take a crack at it. How bad can I screw it up? At very least I know how to fill the correct about of oil. I do work as an electronics tech so I'm very detailed oriented so I don't think it will be much of a problem.

I talked to the owner today and asked for one of their other techs to check it out. Nope they only have one guy and he would NEVER over fill the oil in a bike. Well I'll give them the opportunity to correct this. I'll post the outcome later this week.

 

I had Skagit Power Sports install a BB 351 kit on my 09. good job

I also have a Banshee 420 longrod that they worked on[crank seal]. also good

Ther are some things I don't want to do any more. Shawn worked on my bikes and I have known him since he was three or so.

I don't like other people working on my bikes. Rember that you are paying $70.00 bucks an hour to have someone making $15.00 work on your bike so
check em out.

SPP #360-757-7999

Brian Billings, engine work/bore and such.
BBRP #360-734-3929

If you get up this way give me a PM and I will show you where the good Fish & Chips are.

 

Thanks! Means alot, especially havin someone commend you for your work. Its a great sight having the customer continuing to come back for work and recommend you to others. But of course you get those customers that just arnt happy with anything. You bend over backwards for them and they still complain. If you dont like it, dont come back! haha Go ahead, work on it yerself, then you will be bringing it back for us to fix yer mess up. haha. One good example that just happened today is we just took in on trade an 08 KLR650 (nice bike by the way with 12k on it if anyones interested) he bought a new KLX250sf (the blue one which is damn sexy!) Well the damn keys that came with it dont work! Kawi gave us the wrong keys for crying out loud. Tried lots of other keys to see if we happened to switch them. Nothing. So we got to take it down to the local lock smith and have some temporary keys made so the customer can have his bike till the new lock/key kit comes in from kawi. Gonna be a pain cause they use stupid reverse torx bits that break off when they are tight so people cant switch ignitions as easy. Not looking forward to doing this. Luckily the customer was cool about it. Not all dealerships are bad but seems to be harder and harder to find ones you can trust your machines to.

 

I also have a local indy shop that is good for stuff I won't do anymore, you can tell he's good as it takes about a month to get stuff in as their service is no secret. When I bought my new Harley back in 07 I special ordered it and gave a 2K deposit and was told to come back in 6 weeks. Well 6 weeks later I went there and they had never heard of me, they had no bike and didn't intend to get me one unless I could prove I was in there 6 weeks prior, luckly I had the paper work but right then I knew I had problems. That wasn't the only issue just the first of many.

 

I must be in the minority here, because my dealer ROCKS!!! I bought both bikes from them, and they are top notch with service and warranty issues. I trust them totally, in fact I spent 10 grand there for work even before I bought the bikes. I guess they just see dollar signs when I walk in...LOL