So I went on a little ride on Saturday. I took the girlfriend for a spin down to Starved Rock State Park in Ottawa IL. About 60 miles into the run I hear a clicking noise, and figured it was an exhaust leak. I was planning on stopping at the stealer for a t-shirt and a soft drink, so I thought that I'd have them tighten it up for me. When I got off the bike, I saw that the stud was broken off at the same height as the exhause flange on the rear pipe. This leaves about 1/2" of stud sticking out of the head. Now I'm thinking that they'll either double nut it, or install a nut and spot weld it to get the stud out, and install new stud, and away I go. I talk to the service writer, and she starts talking about drilling the stud out, and how they are going to have to remove the head, and how I will have to leave the bike when I am 150 miles from home. YEAH RIGHT. I never have the dealer do any work on my bike, and this is the reason for it. They try to jack me like I am an idiot every time I need something. Well, it turns out that my buddy and I replaced the stud and had it rolling in 2 hours, and $3.50 for the stud. If we had a lift, I'd say 1.25 hours.

Just a warning to anyone out there that may be in this area.. They are theives, and will lie to your face to jack up labor time. What happened to the dealers that would help you out if you were in a bind???

 

[sm=smiley19.gif]HD Dealerships are no diferent than car dealerships anymore my brother. The love is gone. The corporation has assymilated them. They are all sucking from the MOCO titty and the milk although sour it keeps them alive...

 

Hey parakiller, the word "some" should be used while descricing dealers. You haven't frequented every dealer so you cannot claim HD Dealerships. The MOCO has not assymilated dealers, they are independently owned. I have the tooling to replace those studs without removing the heads. I have completed this repair several times. Don't let your personal experineces taint all of us.

 

ok...SOME.

 

Every shop should have the tools needed to do this repair. I'm sure that this shop had them as well, but they were lying to me to drive up the labor bill. This is like removing the handlebars to change the grips.

 

Read your post again the service writer - she - maybe she was just a service writer and had no fruther knowledge other than what she had read.

Perhaps you should have asked for someone who knows what they are doing. That always helps out when you have a problem. Don't let one persons ignorance taint view and become the entire basis for your opinion of the whole Motor Company.

 

You should've asked the question I always ask whenever the opportunity presents itself:

"Is there a man here I can talk to?"

It never fails to **** the women off. [:@]

 

i feel your pains. i've had my share of idiots at the local dealer. sometimes they are brain dead and other times, you're asking yourself where did these nice guys come from. and i agree, different dealers have different people. my sales dept is a bunch of idiots but the service guys areok. but i've been to other dealers where the service guys are bricks and the sales dept is outta this world nice. but you win some and lose some. just remember how they treated you when somebody says they're thinking about going there, you can tell them your first hand experience.

later,

wanna

 

I sympathize with your dearer experience. They are obviously profit centers and under sever stress to improve the bottom line at the expense of a “very loyal” cadre of riders. Therefore I do almost all of my own work. Recently put the Ultra in some simple work, they left the oil out of the tranny, mis-adjusted the clutch (Slipping) and left the front axle strap hanging.

Competent people a better attitude could do wonders for their repeat business. Do your own work and check anything they do.

 

My opinion of the motor company is untarnished. I wouldn't ride anything but a Harley.

She was just a service writer, but spoke to a service manager before talking to me. I did tell her that I thought it could easily be fixed with the head in place, but that fell on deaf ears.