Red Baron Rant

[Two Smoker]

Hey everyone,

Just a bit of a rant about Red Baron. I've only heard bad things about them, if you wish to enlighten me on them doing good things, by all means do so.

My old man crashed his CBR1100XX in early October. Only cosmetic damage was done. I took it for a ride, and thrashed it. Threw it through heaps of different corners, scrapped the pegs, took upto 250 odd and it was perfect. Not a problem at all, handled beautifully...

Now he then on went to take it to Red Baron for Insurance appraisal. A month later, he was told that Red Baron had written of his bike because of a bent frame (WTF? it was mint).

Now this nice guy just knocked on the door, saying he had bought the bike, and was wondering if he had any parts. Turns out Red Baron sold the bike, and had kept all of the fairing bolts and plastic that goes inbetween the fairing and frame. They sound nothing but dodgy to me....

Has anyone else had troubles with them???

Cheers

[aff-man]

Phoned them up to find out about any 600's etc etc so i didn't have to ride all the way down there..... wern't too helpfull.

[Jantar]

...Turns out Red Baron sold the bike, and had kept all of the fairing bolts and plastic that goes inbetween the fairing and frame. They sound nothing but dodgy to me....

Cheers

This sounds like bordering on insurance fraud to me. I would approach the insurance company, tell them what has happened, and ask if the bike was ever put up for tender. I would think that their assessor would also be interested.

[Cary]

I wouldn't say trouble but i've brought 2 new bikes off them in last 2 years (KX250F & YZ250F) and the after sale service sux! Basically there is none.

Got some freebees with the YZ (Yamaha jacket,cap,oil) only at the time of bike pickup the didn't have them in stock and was told the would call me on arrival.

Of course no call and after a month (yea, i know) I called them (Gio) and asked whats up, was again told they had just come in and would courier them out. Another week passed so I went in and finally got it. Course they were all out of jackets but would a t-shirt 2 sizes to small do.............

Guess thats what you get with the bigger shops. Had a similar thing happen with AMPS and a $16k KTM.

[Coyote]

Has anyone else had troubles with them???

Outrageous 250 prices, and other dealers then follow them. Come on, 6500 for a ZXR250C, daylight robbery.

[TwoSeven]

I got the feeling that they were putting on extra high prices so they could pretend to be giving a good discount to the poor punters.

[Riff Raff]

I had really awesome service from the salesman at Red Baron when I bought the Rebel. That salesman is now at Colemans. Have been back to Red Baron since then and found them very unhelpful.

[Jackrat]

Been twelve months since they said they'd get some oil seals and wheel bearings for the XS.Reckoned they'd ring me as soon as they arrived.
Ya' think they forgot or what ?

[NinjaBoy]

The set of events that led to the write off of the CBR sound really weird and dodgy.

However, when I had the Ninja serviced I got great service from Mike and it ran flawlessly.

Been shopping for a 600 and they let me take a couple out and no obligation to buy at all. In fact Gio suggested I should take the 2005 636 out but decided to play it a bit conservative. Shop prices are high but I reckon Cyclespot are more outrageous.

Just my limited experiences.

[avgas]

We'll the stories i have heard bout Red Baron would make you all shudder.
Here's a good one:
Ever wonder why all the bikes there look so good paint wise, well thats cos they have been resprayed.
Infact, If you also notice they usually get 3 (or more of the same bike), yet the bikes will have one average, one nice one and one shabby one.
Infact all the bikes share one thing in particular.......theyre parts, good parts on one, bad parts on another - so they are all frankensteins of 3 bikes, they cover this all up with a repray and some new stickers, but have seen cases of numbers not matching
Mate got a ZXR from them recently, paid $5500 - 1st it got pinched, then recovered (fuel cap and barrel replaced - via motohaus, not RB), then all the electrics went fut, on a bike with only 20,000ks (obiously not the right speedo for this particular bike ).
My bike has done nearly 3 x the k's, yet its in better repair then his (on the inside), and mine burns less fuel. But his is only 12 months out of the shop, mine is 5 years.
Got more stories, the old man told me - but the rabit warren goes in to gang turf so ill stay silent

[Firefight]

Not sure what to make of them.


Couple of years ago took my mint WR250 in to sell, they offered me what I thought was unreasonable price, took same bike to Greg Boyd in Hamilton he offered me NZ$ 2,500 more than RB !, so sold it to Greg.

When I bought my 04 R6 I took it to them for its 10k service, as the local Yam dealer seemed too exspensive. Well me, they we NZ$70 cheaper ! :unsure: .

Not sure how they are now, I heard their workshop Foreman left and went to another Yam dealer.

had the same sort of problem as Jack, ordered a part a year ago, still no word.

However, when I have gone in there to kick tyres and look at bikes, they were very helpful, had no problem if I had wanted to take a bike out.

So like I said, not sure what to make of them.

F/F

[enigma51]

Havent had any problems as such with them just bad service I was going to buy a demo model from them but it had rust on it and they said that I will have to pay to have it sorted so I thought no why should and bought a gsxr

[Motu]

I've only tried to buy parts there - no one knew what the XLV750 was,or was even interested in finding out...we'll ring you....never,ever have they rung me.I bought one oil filter for the Honda there - 80s Hondas have two oil filters,a big one and a small one,the XLV takes the big one - oh dear,even that's too complicated.OK,how about you show me the filters you have in stock and I'll pick out the one I want...that worked,but never went back for Honda parts.Have bought filters for the XT400E there,only one guys knows it's just a XT600E in disguse,the rest are totaly lost.

Well they lost me a long time ago.

[ktulu]

Thats just fucken dodge chris, surely the insurance company would want to know about that because there must have been some laws broken.

Shit some of theses stories make you wonder about what happens to YOUR bike behind closed doors... luckily my mechanic has built the championship winning superbike in new zealand for the last 3 years, must be ok

[justsomeguy]

I guess it all depends....... I've had good service from them, when I went to buy safety gear, etc. Always gave me like 5-10 dollars of parts. And the prices were good - as I had phoned around other places before I went shopping.

But I never seem to be able to hear anything good about them, the guys upstairs in parts and accessories seem like decent fellas others I have had no contact with.

On the other hand I got ripped off by a mechanic who came highly reputed by KB'ers and who works for another highly reputed shop. Only thing he did the work from home as a private job, dicked me around when it came time to give me some proof of work done, and when I got suspicious and went elsewhere for a 2nd opinion I found out I had been ripped off both in terms of cost and work done. All this from someone who everyone says is a nice fella...... who I KNOW is a bare faced liar.

So go figure :unsure: