Who can you trust

[hondaking]

My next door neighbour Grand son came round to see me yesterday with his Scooter (twist and Go) He said he had had trouble with the throttle and took it to a bike repairer and what a scary story he told me. He took it in to have a new throttle cable fitted and they charged him £200 for the job. This lad is 17 and just started work so £200 was quite an amount to find. Well he collected his bike and on his way home he came up to a T junction and it would not shut down so he panicked and dropped the bike. Lucky he was not hurt. He took the bike back and asked them to get it sorted and once again he collected it. Once again the throttle stuck wide open and again her came off. He asked me to have a look at it and what I found was disturbing. The cable was not fitted correctly and was jamming the butterfly. It took me 10 mins to correct the fault and get it running correctly. This is why I have decided to set up a motor cycle workshop for young riders. It makes me so angry that people still rip off these lads and put there lives in danger. Iam now 57 years old and have been lucky with bike riding. The roads are bad enough without bad workmanship. 

[matthewmosse]

Sadly my introduction to biking was equaly disappointing on the main dealer front. Try a cb550 wheel taken in for a tyre fitting. No rim tape. Or same place with dads bmw where they bodged in a tube valve using washers and gaskett good rather than a proper ally wheel valve and tried to charge extra for it. Both resulted in rapid deflation of the tyre after under 500 miles. I did my own work after that until a mate opened a shop. He is good but the main dealer it was a case of pot luck if you got a decent mechanic or an incompetent chimp.

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

Happens all over one guy I know here got his XJR home and the rear caliper fell off when he put it one the mainstand he was lucky darnt think what could have happened.
Cheers
Bitsa

[Johnwebley]

that is criminal,for the safety of others,places like that should be reported to local trading standards,

 also maybe a solicitors letter to get a refund and payment for damage to the bike,

they give good workshops a bad name

[Paull]

Hi All,

I have a lads cbr125 in the workshop he came off and smashed it up at the front nothing serious plastics, headlight, subframe,

so a kind soul said they would fix it. The lad spent £370 quid on bits for him to do it and left him five mouth with no job done.

It was brought to me in desperation.

I gave him half the bits back that he don't need and told him to get a couple of odd bits.

It will be on the road by the end of the week.

Happy young lad and possibly a future biker.

Paul     

[matthewmosse]

Flip side of the coin, I know a chap who is a mechanic for a living, the number of lads who bring in a broke down, worn out old pile of junk to him, ask for a cheap rebuild using worn, pattern or second hand bits then piss and moan the thing isn't reliable when hes told them, that pattern bits are often crap, that spending £300 on the engine will not fix the worn out carb or rear shockers etc. The other day he had a lad bring in a bike that he had recently rebuilt the engine on, the lad was advised carb was tired at the time, so one cold day the bike took a lot of choke to run, so lad took the carb appart etc, next day engine seized, turns out the 2 stroke oil pump feed hadn't been re connected when putting the carb back, and the carb wasn't tightened back to the airbox manifold. Now the mechanic has to deal with a customer who wants to blame the quality of the rebuild.    Over the years I have helped out the odd lad with a broke down small bore bike. I hate to see people get ripped off with piss poor or dangerous mechanics.

[ka-ja]

Hi,
    And don't forget the idiot that wants you to build a good engine from three others that all have the same major faults despite the cost of an engine strip down!

[matthewmosse]

That was me with a kl250 last year, 6 engines, all with majorly scored camshaft journal bearings. A big ask but I got my rebuilt engine for £280 or so including a phosphur bronze insert to replace the knackerd bearing. The guy is a genius, with good contacts.

[ka-ja]

Hi,
    No offense intended, I sorted three into one for a mate some time ago, and he was upset when I answered his how much question by saying just get me a bottle of Scotch, I thought I had done him a favour!

[matthewmosse]

No offence taken. Tounge in cheek. I fairly reguarly used to assemble heinz 57 engines from scrappers. It is a rare mechanic who will do the job though, especially if the engines are already in bits, it is how I taught myself though.