It's hard to get maintenance...

[birkdale10]

I'm writing about my frustrations trying to get my bike worked on.

I've 'finished' my bucket list item. My brand new 2016 FJR1300ES has been in 49 states, north of the arctic circle, to the points of the 48 states: Eastmost, Southmost, SWmost, Northwestmost and Northmost. 52,000 spread over 4 long trips.

Now, I would like to get it checked out, and then sell it to a friend for a bargain price. In the DFW area I got in touch with 5 dealerships to do full maintenance. And the 'best' I can get is a date 2 weeks out. Maybe.

I can do a lot of maintenance myself. But I can't adjust valves.

I'm just ranting. I can take my car in at a moment's notice and get it worked on. I talked to one friendly service manager. He said he used to have 3 full time mechanics. Now he has 1 and a part timer. And he can't even schedule my bike for six (6!!) weeks. If he has six weeks of backlog...how can he not afford to have more mechanics?

 

[RossKean]

Valve CHECK is easy. If you are OK with routine maintenance, I'm sure you could do it. If valves need adjustment (probably not at your mileage), it is a bit trickier. Not difficult but you need to know more and be comfortable with the process.

Good luck. Difficult to find decent service at the best of times. Harder in the relatively early part of the season.

 

[Bugnatr]

It's spring and 600 other yahoos want their bike in first. Good shops are going to be busy.

BTW... have you ever been an employer? Qualified people are not around every corner.

 

[FJRay]

I run a small one butt shop in central Oregon and I'm 4-6 weeks out. I don't have help because more often than not I end up doing their work over for 0 dollars I also have two restorations to finish and a house and a couple acres to deal with along with being old and slow. This time of year everybody is booked around here. You just need to be patient

 

[Bounce]

I'm writing about my frustrations trying to get my bike worked on.
I've 'finished' my bucket list item. My brand new 2016 FJR1300ES has been in 49 states, north of the arctic circle, to the points of the 48 states: Eastmost, Southmost, SWmost, Northwestmost and Northmost. 52,000 spread over 4 long trips.

Now, I would like to get it checked out, and then sell it to a friend for a bargain price. In the DFW area I got in touch with 5 dealerships to do full maintenance. And the 'best' I can get is a date 2 weeks out. Maybe.

I can do a lot of maintenance myself. But I can't adjust valves.

I'm just ranting. I can take my car in at a moment's notice and get it worked on. I talked to one friendly service manager. He said he used to have 3 full time mechanics. Now he has 1 and a part timer. And he can't even schedule my bike for six (6!!) weeks. If he has six weeks of backlog...how can he not afford to have more mechanics?

Everyone is pulling their summer bikes out of mothballs. You're going to be stacked up pretty much everywhere because of timing. I'd check with Lone Star Yamaha because of their rep.

 

[dcarver]

I run a small one butt shop in central Oregon and I'm 4-6 weeks out. I don't have help because more often than not I end up doing their work over for 0 dollars I also have two restorations to finish and a house and a couple acres to deal with along with being old and slow. This time of year everybody is booked around here. You just need to be patient

I seen your. butt.

JSNS and

Hugs n' Kisses

 

[FJRay]

I run a small one butt shop in central Oregon and I'm 4-6 weeks out. I don't have help because more often than not I end up doing their work over for 0 dollars I also have two restorations to finish and a house and a couple acres to deal with along with being old and slow. This time of year everybody is booked around here. You just need to be patient

I seen your. butt.

JSNS and

Hugs n' Kisses

Sick puppy, I didn't say the butt was small just the shop and it really isn't small either.

 

[dcarver]

I do almost all my own servicing.. and the 2013 FJR has been on the lift for 4 weeks now. Damn lazy-assed tech would rather be riding...

 

[Bugnatr]

I do almost all my own servicing.. and the 2013 FJR has been on the lift for 4 weeks now cause I fucked it up Damn lazy-assed tech would rather be riding...

FIFY

 

[Abercrombie FJR]

I do almost all my own servicing.. and the 2013 FJR has been on the lift for 4 weeks now. Damn lazy-assed tech would rather be riding...

Sounds like my bathroom remodel project only I'm not riding.

 

[Kneedragger55]

Qualified and non-idiotic help is definitely hard to find. My dad ran a body shop for over 30 years. Old car restorations, fender benders, whatever. The only help he ever had was 1 guy he fired, myself, and my older and slower uncle (who worked for the free breakfast / lunch / have something to do). I always told my dad, I can do anything if you show me how. "I might as well do it my damn self if I have to show you everything". Hence he ran a 1 man shop and I was forced to help.

Curious as to what a "full service" entails and if the valve check is the most in-depth aspect? Granted it'd be much easier to drop it off and pick it up. In 3 - 6 weeks time, I imagine you could do pretty much all those things (whatever they are). And at least CHECK the valves. They prob don't need adjusting then its a win / win.

I just sold a Speed Triple that I checked that valves on. All were good. I gave the guy my maintenance sheet that showed oil change, air filter, and valve check at X mileage. It also had all the valve measurements. He looked at it like Egyptian Algebra. I said, good luck getting the dealer to show you what your valve measurements were, here you are right here.

 

[tcfjr]

Late last year, I needed someone to mount a set of tires on my '05 in the Austin, TX area, and the combination of long lead times at the local dealers and their generally crappy online reviews caused me to look into independent shops. I found a small shop a few miles away that got good reviews, and a brief chat with the owner gave me a comfortable feeling. The work done by the shop was first-rate.

Since then, I needed help diagnosing an issue getting the bike started. My guy had closed his shop - the city was redeveloping the road it was on, and there'd be no direct access for months - but had moved his equipment (lifts, commercial tire mounting rig, etc.) into his home workshop, which is less then a mile away from my place in Austin. I dropped the bike off with the understanding that he'd get to it in 2-3 weeks, and he was able to find and fix the issue. He called every few days by phone, so I always knew exactly what was going on, and what the current schedule was. I was travelling when he was done with the work, and he wanted to clear space in his workshop, so I paid him with Venmo and gave him the PIN to my garage door opener, and he rode it over and left it inside. Having a personal connection with the guy made all the difference, and the bike has worked great since then.

Dealers can be so hit-or-miss. If you get the right tech - someone who's at least worked on an FJR before - things can go well, but often you'll wind up with a tech who's 2 weeks out of a training course who doesn't really know what he's doing. (Back in 2005, I took my bike to Chapparal Motorsports in San Bernardino, CA - one of the biggest bike shops anywhere - for tires, an oil change and a rear-end fluid swap. The tech they assigned wound up completely screwing up my front ABS wiring, and the next time I had my rear-end drained the new tech told me it was full of the wrong kind of fluid.)

If you can do the work yourself, that's almost always best. If not, I've had good results using smaller, independent shops.

 

[Steel_Gin]

My father-in-law had a motorcycle dealership, now semi-retired he keeps the shop open for smaller jobs. I remember him saying many times when the dealership was running in full swing, finding good people is hard, keeping them is even harder. Right now he is running about 3-4 weeks out, when he's ready he will call a few days ahead for them to get the bike over to the shop. Dealerships are running about 4-5 weeks out and some want you to leave the bike there until they work on it, even for a tire change, which I find crazy.