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After having some dealings with my dealer about service and listening to lame excuses and senseless explanations, I decided to get my 1st service (1800 km.) done at by an old timer Harley mechanic who runs a small local shop. My first impression was a bit leary when I arrived as in many private shops the place looked like a junk yard inside (many years of various HD parts accumulation). Turns out he is building a number of custom bikes and doing some serious mods for some high profile individuals that love customs. Boy did he know his stuff. Unlike my dealer he was happy to change the oil to what I wanted, dealer only would use HD or SYN-3. I brought my own supply of Amsoil that I purchased from a local dealer, the mechanic performed the entire first service in under 1 hour and charged me a whole $35.00 labor. I found this a great deal since I felt confident in his ability and got a great lesson in HD history and motorcycle building 101 by spending some time going over some of the bikes in various stages of assembly in his shop. This was a great experience and I feel I made the right decision to have my service performed by this shop. He's been working on Harley's longer than most of the dealer's mechanics have been around and very intimately knew every nut and bolt throughout the generations of bikes, from rigids to shovelheads to current 96's. I was like a kid in a museum - really made my day.
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Slideshow: The Swiss custom shop has taken a Harley Softail and stretched it into something so long and low that it looks closer to a rolling sculpture than a conventional motorcycle.
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Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
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