why you don't camp near creeks when it is raining

Had a mobile injector truck come around and do a clean and calabration on
the K100RT injectors (cost about $120 with all new seals) worked a treat.

Boxer

 

Thanks, wish I had known about it at the time...will keep this in mind for
when I retire the 'bird.
Grump.

 

Too often, problems that can be easily and cheaply fixed are exaggerated
by a dealer who wouldn't know shit from clay.

Always ask around the net forums about problems on a specific bike.
Experiences of those who've gone before you can be invaluable. Second
opinions are also advisable.

I had a defective 5th gear on the Hogly, the dealer's head
spanner-monkey wanted to replace the entire guts of the box. I bought a
new (and redesigned) 5th gear and a nice Sykes-Pickavant puller set and
did the job myself for a lot less than what the dealer wanted and got a
nice set of tools into the bargain.

One service with the local Triumph dealer was enough to convince me to
do all my own work from then on. Having a bike returned to me after a
two day service that should have taken one, with a noisy valve after
having shims adjusted, a tune for a different model and exhaust uploaded
into the ECU, indicator wires hanging down out of the fairing and an
inability to idle, problems that took a further two days to rectify,
finally broke the proverbial camel's back. (I only found out about the
wrong tune after purchasing a Tuneboy cable and software.)

The next Trump mech, a bloke I'd previously trusted, destroyed the water
pump while cleaning out the cooling system and destroyed the finish on
the frame while he was at it.

Even my first bike, my old Honda 750-4, went to two mechs, neither of
which picked up that the threads on the points adjustment plate were
stripped and one that couldn't work out that the reason the rear wheel
stopped turning when I tightened the axle nut was that one of the
bearings had seized.

Suffice to say, never trust the dealer's opinion.

 

C'mon Clem, the mega depreciation is really only the case with the
Supersports and litre sports bikes, because they're as much about
fashion and the latest whizbangery as they are about the bike
themselves. You aren't going to try and argue that a GPX 250 drops
thousands(1) when you wheel it out of the show room are you ?
Depreciation on them is quite restrained, better than some models of
Ducati or BMW for example (as a percentage).

JL
(although if you're GB you hang onto it and keep trying to sell it for
the price you paid for it - presumably so you can argue to the missus
that you can't seem to sell it for some reason "just must not be a
market for them" so you have to hang onto it)

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:22:24 +1000

<snip tails of poor dealer servicing>

The difficulty with people who do anything for a living is that good
ones are hard to find.

And when you do find them, they are usually overworked

I have found that on the whole the best mechanics are the ones who
aren't at the flashy dealerships! (One exception to that - the Honda
dealer in Lismore had good mechanics and good service generally. I
haven't had enough work done by Aitkens to know if they are good or
bad.)

THe ones who sell servicing only and have been in business for a while
tend to be the best bet. But you have to treat them right - don't
whine about cost, don't whine about the time it takes. If there's a
problem tell them quickly and give them the chance to fix it.

There's always exceptions - Forcycle were pretty bad towards the end
for example. But on the whole the small shop where reputation matters
is the place to go.

Every shop makes mistakes, but good ones make few. Good customers
get good help too...

Zebee

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:55:18 -0700

And the Euro sportbikes suffer it too...

My Pantah appreciated in the years I owned it because Ducati weren't
making any more of them and they had a certain cachet.

Once the red bikes started being cranked out of the factory then plain
jane Ducatis didn't hold all that much value. Ditto their sportbikes,
while there were only a few hundred Bevel SSs in the country, every
sod and his dog has a 748. With Ducati putting out a new model every
year or so, the old ones aren't cool any more.

OK, they aren't dirt cheap, but they aren't that expensive compared to
new either....

Zebee

 

Gawd that just reminded me of something I hadn't thought of over a quarter
of a century!
I rode my '72 Kwakka H1 (mach111) 500 from Brisbane to Sydney to watch the
'79 (I think) Castrol 6 Hour (which in the pre World Championship GP days
was the biggest bike racing even in Australia.[1] [2]
Everything was fine for the trip down except the bike lost a baffle and
split the seam on one muffler (it had three) so I got a bit deafened, and I
wasn't using a visor (just sunglasses) so I had to traverse the Putty Rd
through sunset while blinking and squinting through all the dust the trucks
I was following were chucking up!
On the trip back the bike got slower and slower and was using petrol at an
enourmous rate and I literally ran out of money at Tenterfield.
I was desperate to get back to work the next day (I was an apprentice) so I
went to the local bike shop and tried to sell the bike for the bus-fare
home.
The bike-shop owner was keen (I was asking less than half what it was worth)
but his mechanic "who is an expert on Kwakka triples" took it for a ride
around the block and reported that the gearbox was fucked.
I was dumbfounded and argued but the dealer wouldn't touch it so I left it
behind and hitch-hiked home (a nightmare journey that took another 24 hours
and saw me transported from the Great-Dividing Range to the coast and back
again and involved we nearly getting squashed by a semi as I slept in a
drain!)

It was only after I finally got home (and my mind was relieved of that
primary concern) that I realised that the "gearbox fucked" diagnosis was
simply that this "expert" didn't know that mach111s had an all-up (as
opposed to 1-down 4-up) gearbox!
He was looking for first at the bottom but that's where neutral lives! [3]
Aargh!
--
Clem

[1] There have been Australian Motorcycle Grand Prixs for yonks and yonks
but it's only been part of the World Championship since 1989.
[2] The Bathurst Easter weekend (including the Australian GP) was also very
big but I reckon the 6 Hour was more credentialed. YMMV.
[3] It actually makes a lot of sense when you got used to it.... Although
the H1s had a very high first gear so it led to a fair few instances of "I'm
in second... **** I was already in first" as I'd hit neutral and overshoot
corners on the wrong side of the road!