So I think I'm getting scammed by the stealer ......
 

....what a surprise huh...haha. Do you guys think it should take them 5 hours of labor to replace the rear brake master cylinder, replace the headlight, replace shifter and brake brackets and do a tank lift (i supplied them with the brackets and hoses)?

By the book, that is probably about right.....Sounds like money wasted for such simple jobs to me, though.

tell me about it bro..... i'm upset at myself because I don't have the know how or tools to do any of these mods myself and i'm petrified of screwing anything up and ruining my warrantee.

but it really takes that long to do those simple mods?

It will come in time for you to start wrenching on your own and there is some good info here on it, plus I know there is some videos like Fixmyhogcom and etc. Do you have a service manual, it will help tremendously.

Yep...paid the dealer for my 1000 mile service then promptly ordered a service manual from lakeshore HD on ebay...for 48 bucks, theyre 60 and the dealer....dont think ill pay a hd mechanic better than 50 bucks an hour to do my wrenchin anymore!!!

Just to show the other side of the spectrum......sometimes little jobs turn into major headaches. I bought some chrome hand controls from a Big Dog/Victory dealer as the store is owned by my best friend from high school (about 30 years ago). He has lots of HD parts, and these were HD controls that he had rechromed at the chrome exchange. He made me a smoking deal so I bought them. He looked up all the parts numbers and everything was supposed to be for my bike...uh...no. The lower swith cover was for a pre '07 and did not have the hole for the clutch switch, nor the slot for the switch covers in the clutch perch. OK, easy fix, bored a half inch hole and ground a slot for the switch cover. After assembling the left side and moving to the right, the channel for the throttle boss was not long enough......no problem, my trusty Dremel fixed that. After assembling everything, the real problems reared up........As I was attempting to bleed the brakes, the bleed screw in my PM caliper snapped off leaving a 1/8 piece of threads hanging out. I tried and could not get it out, so I figured save that for later whwn I have access to an easy out; just put the stock calpier back on for now. I installed the stock caliper and tried for 2 hours to bleed the system and it just wouldn't build pressure. Off to the local indie to get a master cylinder rebuild kit. Rebuilt the master cylinder, still wouldn't build pressure. Took it all apart again, took the guts out of the master and blew everything out, and used a needle to make sure the fluid holes on the master were clear. Evidently the small holes in the master cyliner must have been partially blocked, as it finally built pressure after ressembling everything.

I installed all the new parts last night and started this morning at 9:30 am in my first attempt to bleed the brakes. I finally got brakes at 4:30pm after working on it all day in the hot garage, missing a poker run I wanted to ride....the whole day shot.
Long winded, but it shows what can happen when an easy job takes a turn and goes to the shi**er.

I always estimate the time it will take to do a job...then multiply by two, but then again, I'm not a mechanic. Five hours to do Alain's list looks like a stretch for a skilled Harley mechanic...but it doesn't say which model either.

hey guys, thanks for the replies... All the work is to be done on an 08 rocker c.

as for the service manual...i have to order me one of those. Is e-bay the place to go or should i get one from the stealer?
What is in a service manual anyways?? I have the softail book that came with the bike, i thought that's what you guys were referring to before. I'm getting the impression that i might be wrong though.

Car dealerships & H-D might be the same, a particular job is assigned so many hours which is determined by how a long an average wrench takes to do it. So, a hot shot mechanic may finish a job in one-half the time as a less experienced one, but you are still charge the average hours for a particular job.

As many of you may be aware by now, I am notorious for taking a day or more for a project that should take an hour.

I have not had to go to the shop yet, but I think my new shocks have gotten me beat.