According to the main forum Haldanes are no longer in business. I gather they were not even selling Suzukis.....
I was going to post this on the main forum but thought better of it.... I bought Jap import 2001 900ssie from Haldanes a few years back, it had 17 000 k on the clock and was mint looking, was my first ever buy of a bike dealer and I hoped to establish a relationship with them. I like to tinker and noticed a couple of parts had 1998 on them, then I did a VIN search which is pretty easy and found the bike was 1998, I hit Chris up about it and he said the 2001 was the first year of registration and he offed to buy the bike back for what I paid for it. I liked the bike but it took some of the shine away. I decided to do a full service on it after 5000 kms of ownership, was I surprised to see that the plugs were rusty, the belts were tired and with sloppy tension, and that I was the first ever to take off the valve covers ( they had yellow paint on the bolts) The belts I got of Haldanes despite them being dearer than the net..... I later took the rear wheel in for a new tyre and they did not have the exact size in stock so fitted the next one up... 175 to 180...can't recall.....guess what....it did not fit under the hugger.....another trip back and they got the right size in. Never went there again.
I had a similar experience getting a rear tyre for a Ducati 750 sport (16" wheels), they told me the sprockets were stuffed, but when I looked at them, they really weren't that bad, naievely, I said I'll replace them in the winter & the cheif mechanic went off his nut, saying it was dangerous & he had never seen worse sprockets in his 30 years as a mechanic. (he looked about 40 years old at the most) I didn't bother to tell him the bike had just had a service about a month ago & also had a new WOF.
Forgot to mention,...several weeks after this incident, I noticed the spring clip & side plate was missing off the master link on the chain... To be fair to them the parts guy was really good to deal with.
The perils of shifting location, I always thought that was a stupid place to have a bike shop....only went to the new shop twice. But the Mt Eden Rd site was great, I always had good service there....but never bought a bike there, or took one in for servicing. It was great when Bob was the tyre man, bought several tyres off them, but only had one fitting done, no problems. When I wanted some rings for my XS1 they said no....then he said ''Hang on, I think I know where some are.'' They had been on the shelf for so long there was some surface rust so got them at a discount.
Their parts department was consistanly crap for over ten years in my experience. Can't say I've ever used their service department or sales, and only used the parts because there is a fair bit of interchangability between Ducati and Guzzi regarding the electrics and they were better to deal with than AMPS which is really saying something
I only ever used them for the XS parts about a year ago, two or three times and that went smoothly. I guess the service you get depends on an individual that does it rather than the overall company at least that's my experience with most places. Admitedly, there are places I NEVER get a good service from... Supercheap comes to mind ... typically a store staffed by teenagers DISinterested in cars just waiting for the time to pass...
... DISinterested in cars just waiting for the time to pass... And the problem is ???????????
I'm off to supercheap to get some sparkplugs..... should I start of with " wahtz da haps, sup, got some plugz 4 da bike?" Previously " Good Aftenoon Sir I wish to purchase some sparking plugs for my motorycle conveyance"
Dont bother getting spark plugs from supercheap, they will charge you the earth, see this guy http://www.motoone.co.nz/ some of the best prices around.
Personally I have never had any problem with Supercheap. And so long as they keep hiring those delightful female persons, who cares if they don't know technical stuff, the topic's unlikely to arise.
