There is a very good reason why I wrench on my own vehicles. Cars, bikes, whatever...I do my own work for a reason. Everytime I forget that, I get reminded why that is. This is one such moment and I just need to rant and blow off some steam.

I ride my Dyna a lot. A 45 mile, one way, daily commute racks up the miles quick and she is already over 28K miles and still under warranty. Coming up on 30K miles, teh fork oil needs to be changed. At the moment, I really don't have the room to get it up on a lift, pull the tubes and do this myself. Besides, looks like a pain.

At my local indy...which having them work on the bike is a story unto itself...they want to charge about $480 for the service and is still about half of what the dealer wants. Considering I can do most of the other stuff myself my one big hangup is the forks.

Another shop though has a chrome exchange program. For $460 they'd swap out my front stock fork lowers and replace them with chrome ones. Since I can do the rest of the 30K service myself, I figure I'd be paying about $100 for chrome fork lowers installed. I figure why not.

So I go in and ask about the swap. Naturally they don't have a set of chromed lowers for a 2011 Wide Glide. But, they tell me, they'll just charge me the chroming fee and waive labor taking the cost down to a total of $240. The downside, I'll be without my bike a week. I can live with that. The price of gas in my truck will up the overall cost to about $325 but that's still less than the 30K service at the indy and I'll have new fork oil.

So I make an appointment to bring in my bike. A week later, I drop it off on a Sunday so they can start working on it first thing Monday morning...one of the few shops open on Monday. On Wednesday I call to check up on my bike because I'm paranoid about someone else working on my bike and making decisions or having issues without keeping me in the loop. If you have about 24 hours to find out why, just ask.

Come to find out, they had just started taking the stock lowers off. Wish I would have known they weren't going to be able to begin working on it until Wednesday for I would have rode it to work Monday and Tuesday and dropped it off Tuesday night. Well, too late now. They tell me now it may be as late as the middle of the following week now before I get it back but they hope to have it done by Monday.

Since they were going to have the bike that long I have them take the exhuast off. I needed a bung on the front tube relocated for my Wide Band O2s. When I got the pipes I had calculated the position of the one one the front pipe wrong and it was not usable. Worse, it was hitting the engine. So I'd get that cut off and relocated further up the pipe. I tell the shop to make sure they mark the pipe so that the new O2 won't hit anything.

So naturally they mark it right behind the where the stock O2 comes up so that the stock O2 bung and the new O2 bung can't be used at the same time. When I take it down to the exhaust shop I point this out and tell them to make sure they install the new bung so that the stock bung location can still be used and that the other O2 bung I had installed needs to be taken off and the hole filled. No problem they say.

So when I come to pick them up the new O2 bung is right where the mark had been, the stock O2 bung now has a screw in plug in it and can't be used if an O2 is in the new bung, and the old bung is still on the pipe. I explain none of this will work and again explain what I need. No problem, we'll change it just wait here. They move the upper bung and install the narrow band O2 in the stock position and my Wide Band in the new bung. However, again they don't remove the old bung. No matter, I'll deal with it. For whatever reason they don't charge me for the work. I ask "You sure?" and they say not to worry about it.

Well, that was fine until I get the pipes out into the sunlight. The heat shields of my beautiful black V&H Big Shots are now scratched to ****! Some scratches are big, some not so much, but all are VERY obvious. Since I didn't pay them for the work I can't bitch too much but I'm still pissed. Well, gives me an excuse to do a little gloss black Powder Coat on them and make them a bit different right? For now I'll just paint them with some black exhaust paint to cover up the scratches for the time being and keep them from making me mental until I take it down for PC.

So I take the pipes back to the shop doing the forks. It's now Sunday and the bike has been there 7 days. One week. They tell me the lowers could come back from Chrome Monday...the next day. So I call to see if they got them the next day and to see if they had any problems with my pipes. The pipes went on fine (though I'm almost scared to ask if they painted them...) but they haven't heard from the chromer. They called him, no answer just voicemail. No call back from him. They e-mail him and asure me he is good about answering those. Being an IT guy I get that. You want a reply quickly from me, e-mail me.

So today I call again to get an update. Today I call again to see if the Chromer emailed them back. Nope. Then the kicker. They've been looking for a new chromer because this one takes too long. Usually he has parts for a full week and, if he's quick, the parts will be back by Friday...middle of next week at the latest. This "one week" job is now going to be 12-17 days...possibly half a month! Now my fuel costs are going to push this build up to $450 IF I get it before next Monday. They then tell me they had a new Chromer come in today and talk to them and gave him some parts to get samples but fat lot of good that does me.

This just serves to remind me why I do my own ****. One day I'll learn...maybe. Feel better.

 

The three most expensive words in any project are: "might as well"; while we're doing the front end, might as well do the exhaust...

Adding to the dealer's work load, at the last minute, may have given the impression that you weren't in a hurry. Anyway, whenever outside vendors must be relied upon, you need to allow for contingencies. Bet you're wishing you had done it yourself.

 

Doing some research online helps to tackle them odd errands.
I did my own front spring swap and intiminators install along with Amsoil shock theraphy oil.
Two years running and still great, no leaks.
It took an afternoon. riding same day!
Dealer hasn't seen me since I drove off.
I have one of the best maintained bikes around.
The money I saved paid for my upgrades.

 

The forks are easy to do yourself. If you have a parking spot to work in, you could have done it yourself.

 

Perhaps I left the wrong impression. I can do the work myself, I didn't want to hassle with the forks. I don't have room to do the work as I live in an appartment complex and my 1 car garage is pretty full...A car, two bikes, and all my tools. The spot I park my bike in is under 3' wide and only about 2" longer than the bike itself.

On my Sportster I did all the work myself but had a nice, big garage to do it in. Same with the car.



Oh how I wish I had that garage now. Right now, I have to roll my bike out of the garage and then have to have it all back together before I leave anywhere so I can put it back in the garage. I can't leave it torn down because I have to work in front of the garage. If I had a normal 2 car garage like before, I would have taken them off myself and done this.

Right now, the hold up is with the Chromer. I didn't add to their workload until they told me the parts were already off to chrome so the delay they had...waiting until Wednesday to pull the forks apart...had nothing to do with me also doing the exhaust. The fork lowers left to chrome before the exhaust came off and the exhaust is already back on while the lowers are still out to chrome. Besides, taking off and putting on the V&H Big Shots is a 30 minute job total once they have been initially installed.

 

I'm fully supportive of any person who tries on their own.
We used to be better, gooder, with our hands.
Yeah I am the Bike builder, Electrician, Plumber, Lumber Jack and people always notice that my hands are those of a craftsman. I like that.

 

Is this the shop by old town?

 

The indy, yes...the exhaust shop, no.

 

jesus maybe i need to re-look at my prices! i only charge $125 to swap fluid and seals! that is crazy prices...

 

You're not in CA...LOL Here dealers will charge $800 on a 30K service.

So now the fork lowers came in yesterday and the local indie goes to put them on today. As he is putting them on, he notices the chrome around the top of the tube looks like crap. Pits, a big scratch on one that's about 1/4" wide and 3/4" long. Apparently some of the other parts he had chromed looked bad too and he was already doing them but he didn't catch my fork lowers. Lovely. So now they go back and get redone. Grrrrrr...going on week three.