04-16-2015, 12:08 AM
(04-15-2015, 09:04 AM)Rboe_imp Wrote: I've had good luck with Steve down at Renaissance in Tucson, but a buddy did not. Luckily, for the Griso there is little that I can't do my self. Looks like I get to learn how to adjust shimmed valves now.
The fellow up in Prescott is real good with older Guzzi's, for the newer ones I'm less confident. A buddy has one mechanic at Ride Now (assuming he still works there) that he'll let touch his Guzzi's. But I get the impression Ride Now is more about the profit margin than hiring good qualified mechanics (and paying what they are worth) and establishing a long term relationship with the Euro bike owner community. Businesses have to make money, but if that is your only goal, if the relationship with your customer is not at least on equal footing with the mighty dollar you will not be around in the long term.
I'm not as good as a good mechanic; but I'm better than what passes for mechanics at most bike shops. If anyone is going to learn how to wrench on my bike; it's going to be me. May as well be me!
Troy over at Apache Honda on Camelback has rebuilt my XR650L after the folks at North Valley dropped the ball. He does dirt bikes at his place on his own time for extra cash. Decent wrench - and only dirt bikes.
Rboe, I got a call from the "new" service advisor at Ride Now Euro yesterday. I had reluctantly scheduled a 6K service there about a week and a half ago. I cancelled the appointment last week. Apparently the new service manager had just fired the old service manager because in his words, "he wasn't living up to the established standards." Pretty low bar it seems. The new guy wanted me to reschedule, I declined. Anyway I got Tom Hull doing the 6k this week. Went over to his shop on Tuesday to drop the bike off and wow, three bikes on lifts, a beautiful 850 Ambassador that Tom is completely restoring. An Aprilla RSVR in for service and a 1400 cc twin Moto Morini, European only version that Tom purchased for his dad. Needless to say I felt much more comfortable after that visit. Unfortunately Tom does not work on Japanese 4's/