If you are learning from your mistakes you are doing good..

If you blame others for your mistakes, you are not doing so good..

Everyone makes mistakes...

 

I bought it 2 years ago with about 33,000 miles on it. Yes I do check the fluids and tire pressures on my stuff.. Yes oils and filter change last year and this year. Last year for inspection it needed a wire repair and a part for the rear lights. This year the front tire and brakes were below 50% so I had them replaced as I don't like low tires or brakes on a bike. I take everything to a garage. My Buick, my Jeep, my 66 Mustang and the bike. The Buick is in the shop right now for inspection ac work and the Mustang is in for work as well. Ok so I'm the idiot running without a muffler, but swear to god I have no idea that's an issue other than being loud. I lost most of my hearing in the military so it doesn't bother me anyway. lol I check fluids, tire pressures, maybe change the occasional bulb, fuse, whatever. 99% of everything goes to the garage. What's it need? do it. done. I haven't wrenched in 20 years and have no interest in it. Anyway, no this isn't bs. Right hand up and on all my oak leaf clusters.

I hear ya. It was instilled in me by my dad, reinforced in the military, and everything else I have done. Own what you do. I always have. I own my mistakes and expect others to do the same. I get what everyone here is saying, but I still will debate that why a dealership would not say something about the condition of the product they service. As a customer why would't they say hey this is a problem. Everyone on here that are familiar with Harleys say ya that missing muffler is an issue, but yet not a dealership's service department? Even if they said you may already have damage and it's your fault. ok, so now what do you need to do? You think I'm taking a week or 2 trip on the bike if I think I know it's an issue? Call me the village idiot all day long, lol. I take something away from this conversation. Third thing I've learned today.

 

One thing I was taught many years ago about Hydraulic lifters was it takes oil pressure to get oil into them. If you had zero oil pressure you should have heard strong knocking on the right side. I'm surprised the shop didn't install anew oil pressure gauge. Most dealers have take off mufflers in a pile some where and nobody offered one to you to get you back on the road.

 

The first time there was no noise. The pressure dropped to 16 and I hit an exit ramp then it dropped to like 5 or 6 and I shut it down and coasted to a stop. The second time it was zero and there was some noise as I coasted to a stop, but it was hard to hear with traffic and my hearing. Could have been lifters or bearings. Don't know. Like I said the other thing that bothered me was that the sales manager started it the next day after it comes back with zero oil pressure. I would think that's a bad idea. What if it wiped the bearings? Scored the rings? Who knows. And ya as far as the muffler I would have left the bike even if they had to get one. I mean you guys all say it's an issue. If they had told me not to drive it and I had said I am going to anyway wouldn't they have written that on the repair order? I bet they would have.

 

If your bike was 8 miles from catastrophic failure, the dealer topping off the oil and sending you on your way had nothing to do with it.

 

Ok. They diagnosed and repaired a low oil pressure concern. 8 miles later I end up with the same problem Only worse. How is that not related? Not arguing, but if it was your bike?

 

Late on a Friday,long weekend they prolly did the best they could. My point is nothing they did changed the outcome. 8 miles? nothing could have been prevented. Another couple of hours for you towing again, but the damage was already done.

 

There are a few things to point out.. Late friday, SM gets a call for help. Sends out a guy to pick up the bike.. Bike comes in and is missing a muffler. Both the mech and SM probably are pretty worried about getting stuck with the bike and it turning into a something that might be prolonged. Sales guy is the same way.. Bike don't run, parts missing.. They don't want to come up front and tell you the bike probably needs a lot of work and might be in the shop for a while.. While it sounds like you'd take it straight, they opt for the simplest way out and just to to get it running well enough that they think you can make it home..

I work as a motorcycle mechanic from 1969 to 1979.. about 4 year of that was SM in Honda(3) and Kawasaki(1) shops. The rest was as a mechanic in with about 3 years in independent shops that worked on mostly everything. I and a hard headed buddy, worked on HDs on the side for about of 3 years years. I've seen a lot of stuff come into the shops where there are so many things wrong that you have to turn the guy away.. I can tell of an instance where the Service Manager took in a 175 Yamaha for simply setting the timing and the bike ended up running over his tool box..

Ok, so you get where I'm coming from.. The SM just picked up your bike on the start of a 4 day weekend. He was likely hoping he'd be able to fix something quick and get you back on the road.. When the bike shows up, it not in the condition he was expecting. He doesn't know you so you really don't have any rapport with you. He's probably interested in getting you back on the road and out of sight..

I've personally seen stuff like this being abandoned.. I build a round barrel BSA 441 from the ground up out of a basket that I took apart to rebuild an the guy couldn't pay the bill. Fortunately the guy turned over the registration.

 

First off if your bike was at 5 or 6 pounds pressure when you shut it off that is normal at idle.

 

lol Good stuff Max. That's awesome. And I hear what you are saying, but I was't in any hurry, I told him that. Like I said they were helpful on a late Friday, but I would much rather have it diagnosed and fixed properly. Let's say the oil pump was going bad. Let's say first time it got weak and there was no engine damage. They figure it out the next week it's fixed and what? $1000 and I'm off? I have no clue what a pump would cost. Now they miss the oil pump problem and send me down the road and now it's maybe rings? Bearings? Now I have a $4,000 repair? and that's on me because they missed it? They're the Harley dealer. That's why I took it there. And then to blow me off about it. That's the worst. So frustrating. I just wanna ride. lol I talked to my local dealer about a new one, but to be honest there's a part of me that is wondering if I should get another Harley. This is a terrible customer experience in my opinion. I know everyone talks up Harley ownership, the group, but man this sucks. I've never had this bad of an experience. Ever. I know the consensus on here is I am the village idiot, lol, but I drive and ride. I get the cars towed or whatever. I don't give a crap about HP, torque, compression ratio, bore, stroke, lift, duration, whatever. I left that a long time ago. I know a lot of these guys on here put it on me because of the missing muffler. The bike isn't held together with bungee cords. It's solid. If any one of them had a car, bike, animal in the vet, whatever, and they fixed a problem that came back, got worse or caused more of a problem? They would be right there same as me. You made a mistake. Just make it right. That's all I want. I don't want a pound of flesh, but I don't expect to have to pay for someone else's mistake. I took it to a Harley dealer to fix the problem with low oil pressure. I paid the bill and left and got no oil pressure. They didn't fix it. And again, if it's related to the missing muffler why wouldn't they say we need to fix it. They didn't.

You were around bikes back in the day. My first mini bike was at 5. Yamaha 60, Honda XR75, then a CR250 elsinore, a '74 I think with the exhaust under the frame. lol



Iwas 16 on the highway up around 2800? The 5-6 was going up the exit ramp maybe about 1800? give or take. That's when I shut it down.