State Of The Industry

[sidecar bob]

I've been having a look in on the Cycletreads thread & although I don't pay anyone to work on my bikes, I thought I'd relate a tale demonstrating the absolute either complete ineptitude, or dishonesty of a bike shop, which cost someone dearly. Fortunately I was the benefactor in this.
I won't name the shop, but to say, it is Auckland based.
As I have mentioned on here occasionally, I've been fanging around on a 250 maxi scooter in the city. It's the only way to get about in a hurry, economically & with a load for next to nothing.
Seeing as this has been panning out quite well for me, I have had an eye out for a Yamaha Tmax 500 to take it to the Next level & by Jove it really has. But enough about the surprising acceleration & big bike handling of the mighty Max. Here's how I came to own a great bike at a great price.
The Max had been at A bike shop for poor running, a WOF & new front tyre.
Invoice reads, fit new spark plugs, old ones fouled, attempt to replace air filter (clogged), no filter available in NZ, fit new front tyre & perform WOF inspection.
I purchased the bike immediately it came out of the bike shop as pretty much having a serious engine problem, causing fouled plugs, rings & such I guess they assumed.
Upon getting it home, the first thing I did was drain the oil & remove the filter.
From a bike that holds 2.8 litres of oil, I drained over 4 litres of filthy old oil.
Fitted new filter & filled with correct level of oil.
Next step was to take a look at the carbs, just visually, I had no intention of stripping them down at this point.
Undid one screw retaining a plastic panel, & there were the carbs. One had lost the auto choke retaining screw & plate & the choke mechanism had fallen half out of the carb, causing a permanently choke on situation on the R/h carb, helping to foul the plugs also.
Fortunately the missing parts were sitting on the mat that protects the carbs from road grime.
3 minutes & a Phillips screwdriver & the problem was solved. Warmed it up for a while & wound the air screws out a bit to obtain smooth idle.
On to the air filter that apparently needed replacing. This requires removal of the mirrors, screen & panel between the headlamps. A few screws were a bit seized, but I was most impressed with the bike shop's attention to detail, of re applying several years of road grime to all the screws & air cleaner lid after checking the filter, so as to make sure nobody could tell that they had been there.
Either that, or possibly they didn't even look at the air filter. I blew the filter out & im sure it won't need another for a few years.
I checked the tyre pressure & while they had fitted a new front tyre & done a WOF, the rear tyre had 12psi in it.
Not sure where these amateurs are trained, but it seems to be an industry wide problem.

[Grumph]

And they're getting away with it because most customers don't know enough to complain.

It's not new. I can quote the top mechanic at a shop here who was the best because he could charge out around 16 hours for an 8 hour day.
He made his boss a lot of money....

[Honest Andy]

That kind of lazy incompetence gives me the shits.
As a trained professional I've made a few mistakes but there's no excuse for the sort of shoddy work that you've described.
I wonder how much time and effort went into the invoice...?

[Scubbo]

terribad alright. seems to be creeping through to other shops to, perhaps hard times, but with good reliable service comes customers, margin for new bikes must be feck all compared to workshop labour but I guess you need to keep the other 50 people who do feck all in the business employed right?

I hear george at motorcycle doctors is run of his feet, must be doing something right (at about half the price of a stealership with free pickup-drop off.....)

[merv]

Mate, that is all quite ridiculous but not unexpected. I don't ever take my bikes to a shop once they are out of warranty, except the trail bikes I don't take back at all and trust they don't need a warranty to argue about, if they say I should let them service the bikes.

[merv]

As for the T Max I was quite impressed with them for a scooter when I saw them in Europe way back in 2010.

https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/s...post1129731159

[Katman]

The performance of one workshop does not define a profession. (As you should well know).

We all should be well aware there's dodgy motherfuckers in every line of work.

It's your job to work out who's who.

[jasonu]

I've been having a look in on the Cycletreads thread & although I don't pay anyone to work on my bikes, I thought I'd relate a tale demonstrating the absolute either complete ineptitude, or dishonesty of a bike shop, which cost someone dearly. Fortunately I was the benefactor in this.
I won't name the shop, but to say, it is Auckland based.
As I have mentioned on here occasionally, I've been fanging around on a 250 maxi scooter in the city. It's the only way to get about in a hurry, economically & with a load for next to nothing.
Seeing as this has been panning out quite well for me, I have had an eye out for a Yamaha Tmax 500 to take it to the Next level & by Jove it really has. But enough about the surprising acceleration & big bike handling of the mighty Max. Here's how I came to own a great bike at a great price.
The Max had been at A bike shop for poor running, a WOF & new front tyre.
Invoice reads, fit new spark plugs, old ones fouled, attempt to replace air filter (clogged), no filter available in NZ, fit new front tyre & perform WOF inspection.
I purchased the bike immediately it came out of the bike shop as pretty much having a serious engine problem, causing fouled plugs, rings & such I guess they assumed.
Upon getting it home, the first thing I did was drain the oil & remove the filter.
From a bike that holds 2.8 litres of oil, I drained over 4 litres of filthy old oil.
Fitted new filter & filled with correct level of oil.
Next step was to take a look at the carbs, just visually, I had no intention of stripping them down at this point.
Undid one screw retaining a plastic panel, & there were the carbs. One had lost the auto choke retaining screw & plate & the choke mechanism had fallen half out of the carb, causing a permanently choke on situation on the R/h carb, helping to foul the plugs also.
Fortunately the missing parts were sitting on the mat that protects the carbs from road grime.
3 minutes & a Phillips screwdriver & the problem was solved. Warmed it up for a while & wound the air screws out a bit to obtain smooth idle.
On to the air filter that apparently needed replacing. This requires removal of the mirrors, screen & panel between the headlamps. A few screws were a bit seized, but I was most impressed with the bike shop's attention to detail, of re applying several years of road grime to all the screws & air cleaner lid after checking the filter, so as to make sure nobody could tell that they had been there.
Either that, or possibly they didn't even look at the air filter. I blew the filter out & im sure it won't need another for a few years.
I checked the tyre pressure & while they had fitted a new front tyre & done a WOF, the rear tyre had 12psi in it.
Not sure where these amateurs are trained, but it seems to be an industry wide problem.

Name the shop and give them the chance to defend themselves.l

[Grumph]

The performance of one workshop does not define a profession. (As you should well know).

We all should be well aware there's dodgy motherfuckers in every line of work.

It's your job to work out who's who.

I understood that one of the principal functions of forums like this was to expose the dodgy motherfuckers - and endorse the good buggers....

As I posted earlier, most of the motorcycling population don't know enough to complain. And while car complaints get air time, bike ones don't attract the same publicity.

[sidecar bob]

Name the shop and give them the chance to defend themselves.l

They don't need to defend themselves, as I haven't named them because I'm not the poor bugger that gave the bike away for a knockdown price based on "professional advice" that it was toast.

[sidecar bob]

The performance of one workshop does not define a profession. (As you should well know).

We all should be well aware there's dodgy motherfuckers in every line of work.

It's your job to work out who's who.

Quite right, but the incidence of stuff like this is on the rise with the dumbing down of society, and the car & truck repair industry is just as bad, if not worse.
I don't think these guys were dodgy, just stupid. & apart from lying about the air filter, I think they genuinely thought the bike was rooted without even looking at the oil level through a small window.
If you can't plug it into a machine & get the answer printed on a screen, then it must be buggered & sold off cheap.

I'm aware of a car that received a second hand engine recently due to an awful sound coming from the the engine.
The only thing wrong with it was a strip of the main external front drive belt that had come away from the rest of the belt that was whacking on the trans cooler hose.
I don't think those guys were dodgy either, in fact I know they aren't, they simply failed to check all possibilities.

[Katman]

I understood that one of the principal functions of forums like this was to expose the dodgy motherfuckers - and endorse the good buggers....

See, isn't it funny how two people can read the same post and yet take two different meanings from it.

The original poster didn't expose anyone - but went on the suggest that his story was indicative of some industry wide standard.

[jasonu]

Quite right, but the incidence of stuff like this is on the rise with the dumbing down of society, and the car & truck repair industry is just as bad, if not worse.
I don't think these guys were dodgy, just stupid. & apart from lying about the air filter, I think they genuinely thought the bike was rooted without even looking at the oil level through a small window.
If you can't plug it into a machine & get the answer printed on a screen, then it must be buggered & sold off cheap.

I'm aware of a car that received a second hand engine recently due to an awful sound coming from the the engine.
The only thing wrong with it was a strip of the main external front drive belt that had come away from the rest of the belt that was whacking on the trans cooler hose.
I don't think those guys were dodgy either, they simply failed to check all possibilities.

Not stupid more like incompetent. People need to know where not to take their ride and hard earned cash to. As grumph said this is the place to name both the good and bad shops.

[OddDuck]

Understaffing and paying peanuts, would that be a part of this sort of thing happening? Agree on customers not knowing better, the days of backyard wrenching being a standard part of growing up appear to be over.

As per the others above, feedback is useful here - we all need good, honest mechanics, and the good ones deserve the income they earn.

[Grumph]

See, isn't it funny how two people can read the same post and yet take two different meanings from it.

The original poster didn't expose anyone - but went on the suggest that his story was indicative of some industry wide standard.

believe it or not - I was responding to your post, not Bob's...The fact I quoted you, not him should have given that away.
I was in point of fact agreeing in part with you. I realise this is unusual and forgive you for not recognising it.