rode out from ft Lauderdale to Sturgis this year with my son. at the end of the first day the primary on his 04 cvo was making a lot of noise. once the bike cooled down it seemed fine so the next day we continued our journey. actually rode from Chattanooga TN all the way to Sioux city Iowa (1000 miles) without incident. made it to Sturgis the next day which was Monday the 3rd. did some riding tues and wed. on Thursday we decided to do needles and Rushmore. when we come out of needles to rt 16 my boy says the check engine and battery light came on all through needles. that was it. the bike died. had the bike picked up and took it to black hills hd. until I got to the right person all I got was a bunch of bs. now I understand it is the rally and they are swamped but there are ways to tell someone they have to wait a day or two to get their bike looked at, and the a-hole I originally talked to did not have good people skills. I did get to someone who not only got the bike in but got it fixed the same day, or at least i thought it was fixed. so i over paid for a stator, comp rotor, voltage reg, and battery. plus they reset the comp to "factory spec" (165 lbs ft). we rode fri, sat and sun. and Monday we flew home because i had to get back to work. once the bikes caught up with us in fla, my son started riding. he calls me last week and says the bike is making the same noise as when we were in Chattanooga. i tell him to get the bike to me so i can hear it. he never made it. the bike died. i call black hills and ask them if they will cover the repair. i am told that the parts are under warranty but i would have to pay for labor unless they did something wrong. now this is less than 30 days from when i had the bike fixed. i am thinking i understand where they are coming from but 30 days???there must be some kind of warranty of merchantibility or something. they also tell me i MUST bring the bike to a Harley store for the repair, even though here at home i have an independent shop do all my work. their reasoning is so there is an impartial 3rd party looking at the bike. ok, i get that. so the bike goes to my local HD dealer. at first they say its just the Voltage regulator and they can go bad at anytime. i question the noise that my boy heard from the primary, the service writer just brushes it off and says that they want to get the bike running first...again ok i get that. i call black hills hd and ask for the service manager. his name is Andrew and he was a really nice guy. we talked a little and when i said to him that if i lived there and needed the repair he would have covered the labor no matter what, he agreed and the regulator repair was covered 100%. now i call Peterson's here in Miami and the service advisor informs me that once the regulator was replaced the bike wasn't charging so they had to open the primary. he told me the comp bolt was either only finger tightened or backed out again and they used the wrong amperage stator(a 38 amp instead of a 45 amp which the cvo required). they had to replace the rotor again because it got damaged and retighten the compensator. once they put it all back together they retested the original voltage regulator and it is fine so they put the old one back on. now i am just waiting to see who is going to pay the labor for all this because i am the last one who should have to eat it.....
so we have 2 dealerships and both have had some good experience but black hills i think dropped the ball by not repairing the bike correctly the first time. that in itself is an issue and they should be made to pay for the repair i am currently having done.
the service advisor in Miami (José) is doing a fine job and I believe he will get me the desired result which is to have the bike repaired and for me to not have to bear any of the expense.