Originally Posted by
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.
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