my dealer is pretty cool about throwing on a new derby cover if they already have the old one off for service and stuff like that but again they aren't going to do very much for free. i was quoted the same 4 hours for the forks.

 

When I put my forks on, I looked at forums, checked youtube and did them myself. The only thing I couldn't do was compress one of the springs on the Premium Low cartridge. I took that one part to the dealer, they charged me 1/2 hour and I finished the install. I have been an automotive mechanic much of my life and like the feeling of accompilishment of doing the work myself. I go in with the attitude of "if I can't put it back together, someone else can" But usually able to figure it out myself. If you are not that type and mess up more than you fix, then expect to pay for it.

 

You may wish to consider getting an independent mechanic shop to perform service on your bike.
An independent can be found in most free motorcycle papers in your area.
While booked hours might remain the same the labor rate is less at an independent since they do not offer all the pretty stuff that a franchise must carry...no free doughnuts or coffee...
A dealership will generally charge full retail on parts unless there is some sale and then charge book time with very little to no allowance for anything extra requested.
Then many dealers will add the rag fee of something like 10% or $25-$35 dollars whichever is less for shop supplies..most folks do not even look at the bill and notice that fee...$25 can buy a nice lunch
I would imagine that a 10K service, pipes and sliders would be at least $200 cheaper at an independent on labor alone.
Rather surprised that a dealer would even offer to load a tune that is probably not EPA compliant and that they would expose franchise to that situation.
Some dealer shops have 0.5 to 1 hour minimum for anything they touch so your situation seems common...odd they did not offer nitrogen for your tires as an extra at $20 to $25 extra.

 

Thanks again to everyone for their input and comments. I spoke with the dealership today and we came to an agreement on things. The parts salesman had a heart to heart with the service manager describing the potential lost business over something I thought was unfair. I never questioned any of the labor costs until they wanted the full 1 hour for plugging in my power vision and uploading the tuner.

Got everything straightened out and it's all good. The dealership gets to work on the bike and get paid and I get my service and some goodies.

 

Flashing a tune with a PV takes about 35 seconds. About 5 presses on the touch display. Why even make an issue out of it? Get the headers installed and when you sit on the bike to rider it home, take off the left bag, open the left panel, plug in the PV, and load the map. You may want to get a handlebar mount so you can see it while you auto tune it a few times to dial it in. It's really simple.

 

[QUOTE=Adenton528;16181849]I have my 10k service scheduled for a couple weeks from now. Went into the dealership today to talk to them about adding some parts while the bike is in the service bay.

I am having them remove the fork lowers and sliders and swapping them with a set that have been powdercoated. Replacing the seals and adding the heavy weight oil. Quoted 4 hours

Asked about having a FM 2-1-2 head pipe installed. Quoted 2.5 hours for pipe installation.

This is where things got irritating for me. I already have a PV tuner from FuelMoto and planned on getting the tune from FM and having it loaded onto tuner. I'd just give the tuner to the dealer to upload the tune to the bike after the head pipe install.
They said they'd have to charge me 1 hour minimum labor rate for this. I asked why it wouldn't be included in the 2.5 hours for HP install. They said it isn't and it's non negotiable. Kind of took a hard stance on it with me. So I scrapped that project and just told them to do 10k service and fork sliders.

Questions I have for the group.

Do the labor times look normal?

Are they trying to hose me with the extra hour just to plug in the PV and upload the tune?

At $106, I think feel it is about as unfair as it can get. I'm perfectly fine having them wrench on my bike when it's something I don't feel comfortable with, but this seemed ridiculous to me.

I am not going to name the dealer as I don't feel that is fair to them. I think they have their way of doing business and have treated me very fairly before, I'm just very irritated with the situation of trying to get an extra $106 for just plugging in my tuner.[/QUOTE

Buy yourself a HD Service Manual & HD Parts Catalog for your year/model bike & do your own work. That way you're not 'Irritated' at the dealership

 

Personally I do not see anything wrong with the dealer charging for a flash, even if it takes a min amount of time.

They are in business to make money, your bringing parts to their place of business that you bought someplace else and wanting it serviced for free.

But bottom line is, everyone has expenses and bills to pay, every minute of everyday an employees income needs to be paid. Never mind then, if things dont seem quite right after the flash, then many people would be asking the dealer to correct it, etc... Ex. "can of worms"

Plus, at least around here, dealers service departments are booked solid, sometimes for weeks, they cant spend unbooked time playing around.

 

I agree the hour for flashing a tune seems a little high, but the rest seems reasonable. If you have other dealers around, I would ask for quotes from them.

I recently had new handlebars installed. One dealer quoted me $1500, which included $250 for the handle bars, $50 for longer cables (which were not needed), and I think it was $150/hr for 8 hours.

The dealer I normally go to has winter rates that are half off their normal $95/hr and quoted me 4 hours. With "shop supplies" it was under $500 which included the $250 cost of the bars.

They even loosened them up to rotate them back some a week after the install at no charge.

My point is...like anything else...there are good dealers and bad dealers.

 

you can build a good relationship with the dealer that will result in perks I get along very well with mine and being on a first name relationship has paid off for me

 

that's awesome! sometimes it just takes a little breather time for things to work out.

glad it did for you!