I thought I'd share my story in hopes that it might save others from experiencing the same misfortune. The entire story is very long (several pages). I’ll give you the condensed version here.

On March 16th, I delivered my bike to Shane Wallace Motorcycles in Mooresville, NC for a performance upgrade project that at most should have taken about 2 months. My only requirement was that the bike be completed 2 months prior to my planned departure for Sturgis. Since I was planning to leave for Sturgis on August 2nd that meant a target completion date of approximately the first of June.

I finally got my bike back yesterday (September 3rd). Consequently, I ended up have to rent a bike to go to Sturgis which cost me $972. Additionally, the bike will not shift into neutral, the neutral light no longer works, and the speedometer does not work correctly. I don’t yet know how much it’s going to cost me to fix the things that Shane screwed up or didn’t do correctly. However, I have an appointment with the local HD dealer next week to see what they can do.

In my opinion, the reason my bike wasn’t ready for me to take to Sturgis was a direct result of Shane’s negligence and lack of knowledge. I could offer numerous examples to support that opinion. But, that’s the part that would take up several pages and I promised to try and keep it short. The bottom line is, stay away from this guy. I wouldn’t let Shane Wallace work on a tricycle for me. I made a huge mistake in trusting him. Don’t make the same mistake.

 

That sucks! Hope the issuse can be corrected without a huge cash outflow.

 

Not to be smart, but you did not notice the lack of knowledge or negligence during the six months they had your bike? What were you having done?

 

I'd like to know what kind of performance upgrade takes 2 months.

 

Me too. I have done or had done almost any upgrade performance or not to my bikes over the years and have never had one tae 2 months much less 6

 

I am sure there is a lot more to this story than we will ever know.

 

I give you credit for posting. Are there others that you are aware of that have had problems with that shop? I hate to say it but a good lawyer might be an idea to recover your hard earned money.

 

Just curious here ... I know you said it's a long story, but did you confront this guy in any way about the quality of the work, the time it took, or the problems? And if so what was the response? I ask because without any other details, it sounds like you kinda took this lying down, you're out the rent money for the Sturgis trip, and now you're gonna lose more to the dealer to fix it.

As Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story" please ...

 

To answer some of the questions:

I had a preview to Shane's negligence early in the project, but I thought it was an isolated instance so I let it pass. Basically, Diamond Heads shipped my parts to the wrong location twice. The first time was DH's fault (wrong shop). The second time was Shane's fault because he had neglected to update his shipping information when he moved to a new shop.

I did not become aware of the "lack of knowledge" part until late in the project. That part was related to a 6-speed gear set install. Shane returned one gear set to the manufacturer because it locked up in 5th and 6th gear. He attributed it to flaw in the manufacturing process for the gear set. Late in the project when he installed the second gear set and the exact same thing happened, he was ready to send the second gear set back when someone else suggested trying different lengths of shifter forks. This fixed the problem with the trans locking up. However, I discovered today that the trans doesn't downshift correctly. From 6th to 5th it's fine. However, from 5th down to 1st most times you have to hit the shift lever twice to get it to downshift. Sometimes, when shifting from 2nd to 1st, you have to hit the shift lever as many as four times. The problem here is that there was nothing wrong with the first gear set. Had Shane removed the second gear set and gotten a set from a different manufacturer, it would have cost me more money and likely would not have fixed the locking up problem. Based on this, I have to conclude that he simply didn't know what he was doing with regards to the trans install.

While Shane was waiting for the second gear set to arrive, he delivers the bike to the engine builder to have the heads, cylinders, pistons, and cams installed. This takes a while to complete and all the while Shane is pointing to the engine builder as the major delay in the project. While attempting to lay all the blame on the engine builder, Shane tells me that the engine builder has several engines that he is working on including mine and an engine for his dad. Shane tells me that his dad is freaking out because his engine isn't done. Shane claims that he told his dad that MY engine came first because I'm a customer and he isn't. I later found out that Shane and his dad went to the engine builder's shop and pressured him into finishing daddy's engine BEFORE completing mine. In fact, they threatened to pick daddy's engine up and send it to a builder in New Hampshire if he didn't go ahead and finish it. So, the engine builder stops working on my engine and completes the engine for Shane's dad. Personally, I believe this was negligent.

As an update, I discovered today that the neutral light DOES work. It comes on when you shift into 4th gear.

BTW, Shane does NOT warranty his work. He has a statement on his billing invoices that specifically says "There Are No Warrantees, And not responsible For failure of Parts, or Mechanics". Had Shane disclosed this up front, I would have taken the bike somewhere else.

Since some folks seem curious, here's a list of the upgrades for the project:

• Diamond-cut the cylinders and heads
• Head work to include bigger intake and exhaust valves, porting, polishing, compression releases, and new valve springs
• Bore cylinders and install 95 cu. in. / 10.2:1 compression pistons
• 45mm Mikuni Carb and intake manifold (which I provided)
• Hypercharger Pro-R Air Cleaner (which I provided)
• Gear Drive Cams (Wood Performance TW-6HG)
• High Performance Lifters
• New Pushrods and Pushrod covers
• Re-chrome rocker box covers
• Chroming the intake manifold
• 6-speed Gear Set (.86 Overdrive 6th Gear)
• 30 Tooth Primary Drive gear (as opposed to the stock 32 tooth gear)
• New drive belt (due to smaller primary gear)
• Crane Fireball HI-4TC Ignition
• High performance plug wires
• High performance ignition coil
• K&P Engineering Oil Filter
• External Oil Cooler

I knew that sending the cylinders and heads to Diamond Heads, getting them back and getting them machined would take some time. That's why I originally felt it would probably take about two months to complete the project.

As far as confronting Shane about this stuff, he said the "shifting to neutral" problem will fix itself as the clutch packs wear in. And, on the neutral light he said, "oh, I just couldn't get it to work". He basically blew me off. As far as the speedometer not working correctly and the trans downshift problem, I've texted him and he refuses to respond (but that's been the norm over the last two months).

I apoligize for this getting lengthy. However, as long as there is an interest, I'll continue to respond to questions.

 

My brother-inlaw has gone thru this crap a couple times with a couple shops.
took ayear to get his E-Glide built.Problem after problem.Finally got it back but the builder owes him money stlll.
The second time,he had the engine tore done for case polishing,diamond cut and cylinder/head powder coating.Got the bike bike back the day before Laughlin started and took it there.The bike had oil leaks,loose comp. and tranny issues.
Had someone tear the engine down only to discover that the tranny was assembled with old parts,sand in the cases and heads(in the threaded holes).
May be taking the builder to small claims court.