reminder to double check your work

My xl600r was a big toy and it had a cheap oil control ring. The compression rings were great but the oil control ring was crap from the factory. It was low miles when it started smoking a ton. All new aftermarket rings, and it was fine.

 

Pretty much all the metric bikes are interference engines.

Every time I start my FZ1 up after reshiming the valves I cringe a little bit. I roll it over by hand several times first but you never quite know until you hit that go button...

I once rode an XR650 set up for SCORE. WHOLE LEE chit! Totally useless in the woods on single track, but once you got out onto the old rail grade look out! With the front wheel off the ground I was passing folks like they were standing still. It was incredible the hits that bike would take and stay totally controllable.

 

I loved my old 84 xl600r. It was basically the same bike as an xr650 but without e start, 50 cc's smaller, but with turn signals. Those motors are torque monsters. You could wheelie anywhere. A supertrapp with open end cap and like 20 discs on it was a sweet sounding beast that scared the local Harley riders.

This was pretty much it exactly, supertrapp and all.

 

It depends on the customer. Uninformed / ignorant customers want to believe that going in to the shop for repair is no more difficult than opening the hood and filling up the container over there with that stuff here and changing a tire. Either it's "fixed" or it isn't kind of fools. You can't involve these folks in the decisions - except that they want everything "fixed" "cheap". These people get really bent out of shape when their belief system is even slightly poked by reality. Too many shops treat all of their customers like this kind of customer.

Then there are those with a clue - who understand that machines wear, maintenance is a sliding scale, and mechanics are human and diagnostics do not give black/white results. We'd rather know what was done, what wasn't done, and what needs to be monitored.

I greatly appreciate a shop that trusts me with a bit more information or lets me talk with the mechanic. I get cagey when a shop won't/can't answer basic questions like "how did the cylinders look"? or "how crusty is that muffler?".

Oh well I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.

 

Yes and those people are unreasonable and unneeded as customers. Best thing you can do is show them the door. Unless you're charging astronomical prices the customer has to be understanding. As long as you keep them in the loop as to what is going on with their machine I really don't see the customer asking for more.

 

This philosophy goes beyond mechanics, I do mostly handyman work. I don't do HVAC and I don't do roofing. Everything else is game on. My rates are competitive and I'm busier than I can handle. Annoying customers get the boot.

 

I think dealerships might not agree that these customers are unneeded. Specialists/ independents with more than enough work, certainly true.