Motorcycle Thoughts

It was tough, I called at least three different repair shops in the area. The problem is I needed to feel good about who would apply a wrench to my Pride and Joy. This is, after all, My Bike. I know, I know, there are thousands and thousands of Honda Shadows on the road, probably thousands of Aeros, and 100’s of thousand bikes in general. My Shadow-Aero is nothing special in most peoples eyes, most say it isn’t a Harley. No it is not a Harley, too bad, it is a Honda, and I like my Honda, Respect My Bike. I do not care about the thousands and thousands of other bikes, well I do care, but they are not as important to me as my bike.

The chosen repair facility would have to meet some criteria. First, Respect my bike, show that respect. Second, Show the knowledge, the problem that I am having with the bike is obvious, I already know what is wrong with the thing. Third, respect me, I am not stupid, I make mistakes and say some stupid stuff from time to time, but I am the customer. I paid good coin for my scoot, I am paying the repair facility good coin to fix it, call me, IM me, email, etc, I DO want to know. Fourth, you need to have a shop that I am comfortable with, if you run a pit you will not treat my bike right. This extends to your personel as well, they better not look or act like the two grease monkeys on the great movie Vacation. My bike needs to be respected at your facility as well. I do not want to leave my pride and joy anywhere strange, but I accept that I will have to, make sure you put it inside if it must stay over night, if it starts to rain put it inside! Fifth, get the bike in as fast as possible, take your time fixing the thing but be timely.

I will sometimes consider the dealer in certain repair decisions. I have had a lot of bad (really bad) experiences with Honda Dealerships. That includes Motorcycles and Cars. I have utilized the local dealer (All-Seasons Wooster, Ohio) on one occasion for the Goldwing but that was only after having a long talk with the service manager, and it wasn’t that major of a job. Overall All Seasons gives me a bad feeling. They are expensive and seem to not care for Honda’s in general. They carry BMW motorcycles, fine motorcycles, no doubt.

The first company that I called I wanted to work with, they came recommended by a very reliable source. I tried very hard to explain in a tactful way, a way that would not make me sound like some type of Psycho about my bike. Unfortunately, I did not end up with a very good feel about the company. The person on the other end of the line did not sound like he had any respect for my bike, or me. He also was running about a week behind, what does that say about him, his shop, etc. It also tells me that you need to hurry up to catch up. My scoot will have to stay overnight at your facility for 5-7 nights, that is 4-6 too many. 4-6 additional times that you could screw up my bike, 4-6 additional days that I am without my scoot. Unacceptable, sorry.

The second place that I called was a place right down the road from me, called two wheeled pony. When I go by the shop it looks ok, they seem like a good facility. I called them, asked them if they work on metrics (non Harley’s), nope the guy said on the other end of the phone with a sarcastic almost condescending tone to his voice (probably just me though), only Harley’s and Harley based customs. Whatever, your loss.

The third and final was a long shot. I looked into them at a recent Motorcycle swap meet at the Wooster Ohio fair grounds. The repair shop seemed like another Harley ONLY shop, so I did not have high hopes. Called the guy at Cleveland Road Cycle. “Do you work on metrics” I asked, “Oh yeah, Harley’, Honda’s, we work on em all”. Talked with the guy on the phone for a bit, still didn’t have that great of a feeling, but I decided to take it to him to see what he would say. After work I went home fired up my baby, and headed out. Hated the popping, all the way north of Wooster on route 3. This has got to end. Got there it took him a while to finish up with the customer ahead of me, but it was my turn. I explained to him what it was doing and what I suspected. He said that I would have to leave it for the night because his guy already went home for the day. Damn, oh well. He asked if the problem would show up right away, Oh yeah. To make a long story short, he diagnosed the problem, told me exactly what he planned to do, how long it would take, and how much it would cost. After he got done, shut the bike off, walked around the bike, said ” this is really a nice bike”. Respect the bike I thought to myself, finally, I felt ok.

I was on edge the rest of the night. Kept going into the basement where the bike generally sits, looking at the empty space. The next day at work was a bit tougher than usual, but I got through it. Must have missed the phone call, toward the end of the day looked at the cell phone; 1 missed call. Listened to the voice mail; “Bike is done, runs good, come get it” as a programmer I like it short, sweet and to the point, but a bit more detail wouldn’t be bad, oh well.

Couldn’t get out of work fast enough. Love my job, love my employer, had to go. Ran home and waited for my wife to pick me up to go over and get the scoot. Took forever. Finally got there, looked skeptically over the bike, few smudges, some finger prints, no problem. No scratches, fabulous. Clicked the key to the on position jabbed the easy go button. Oh babbbbbyyyy, she is right again, what a sound and nay a pop. Further inspection would reveal that the some plugs had not been replaced over the air screws (who cares). A very fair price of $175.00 for rebuild of two carburetors and NO Scratches such a deal, couldn’t be more ecstatic.

After some chit chatting, I got on the road and gingerly started playing with the throttle, winding her up and letting it coast at closed throttle, not even a cough, sweet. Took my joy into Wooster which is ripe with hills, rolled her all the way down buckeye street which is maybe three miles all downhill. This allowed the bike to coast at speed in gear at closed throttle. It coughed twice the entire way, not even a single spit or pop. Suh-weet.

I got it all, respect for my bike, for me, my bike fixed, fair price, timely, descent shop. I recommend Cleveland Road Cycle for any repairs that you do not want to do yourself. Good man there. Feel Free to tell him the Black Shadow Aero sent you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Joys. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.