Well just got my bike back from KFG/GP Suspension in Auburn WA on 7/28/2012. What can I say other that I am grateful that George Hespe AKA EscapeFirst was there for me. KFG did a less than satisfactory job. Maybe it was because Barry and most of the shop was at Laguna Seca- do not know and do not care. The bracket for rear shock Penske reservoir kept hitting my boot. Turns out the bracket was installed wrong- should have been installed on the opposite side of the frame hanger from the muffler bracket instead of sandwiched in between. The hose for the reservoir was routed incorrectly too. That whole thing is a redo this afternoon, just hope that my muffler did not get tweeked because the one side had to be pushed further out to sandwich the bracket. Will find out later.
As to the set-up, it was a joke. The tech admitted that this was all pretty new to him. I do not blame him. Instead the owners have to take responsibility here. There was nothing but the compression set even remotely close in the rear, the front was better but still wrong. The rear penske shock was bottomed out for ride height. George saw it within 10 seconds of me arriving at his house. I had told the tech twice that the bike felt ass end low and he merely measure sag and
took out preload.
Then mentioned that Barry, the co-owner, would have to look at the rest. Bike felt very weird yesterday- ass end low, poor initiation into turns. Wow, I was upset with my hard earned money spent. However, again thanks to George, turns out that I needed about 9mm (toward the upper end of the shocks adjustment range) of ride height adjustment. KFG had 0mm of ride height and had not tightened the lock nut. All in all, George spend about 30 minutes and got my suspension close. I feel like KFG Suspension owes George some money. Maybe about $40 of the $80/hr labor rate. I did spring (pun intended) for lunch for Mr. Hespe.
Maybe I just caught the shop on a bad weekend? However, I paid top dollar and got a C- job. Yes, it is all fixable (unless my muffler is tweeked in which case it is D- job). I just expected more. BTW, my bike was there for a week, and I told them that I needed in on Saturday at 10am. As you can guess, did not really get worked on until Saturday am and did not get it until 2pm. All the time, I said, late is fine, but I want a quality job done. BTW, they seem to have done a good job on the tapered bearings in the steering head- this was the hardest thing where I thought there would be issues. Just goes to show you. Now up to the garage to fix the bracket install.
