With all this talk about lube prices lately it seems like a good time to make this thread. I have been thinking about starting a lube shop for bikes. I have a good location and a nice new shop. Theres a guy doing services and performance upgrades down the street and I would leave the cams ect to him. I would just want to do lube and brakes. Full service in his shop includes the following:

1. Check air cleaner (clean it if it needs it on K&N type)
2. Change engine oil (he uses Harley oil 20-50w the dino type NOT SYN3)
3. Change tranny oil (he uses synthetic Bel- Ray gear saver)
4. Change primary fluid (he uses Harley primary fluid)
5. Check tire pressure
6. Lubes cables and adjusts clutch cable if neccesary
7. Grease neck
8. Install chrome Harley oil filter
9. Check brake pads and replace them if they need it for the cost of the pads. (No extra for labor if it does)
10. Adjust drive belt
11. Adjust primary chain

I think this is everything. Again, he doesnt use synthic because he doesnt like it. He will if you bring it to him but doesnt have it in the shop and doesnt recommend it. I know, i know, lots of people use it and want it but not him. PLEASE DONT LET THIS THREAD TURN INTO A DEBATE OVER SYN Vs. REGULAR OIL!!! He does this for $200.00. How much do you think this service should cost?

 

I would say if you are gonna do service work like changing fluids and brake pads you should be able to do the full service that the svc manual has in it for each dif model. For example do a 1k, 5k service and not just change the fluids and brakes. If you can do that and compete with the guy down the road and the local HD dealer, indys and whoever else does that type of work then GO FOR IT!!!

Good Luck to you and I hope it is able to work out for ya.

 

i think thats too much. but i guess it would depend on the area you live in. i live in the sticks, biggest thing we got is a walmart. so 200 around here is way too high, esp. for dino oil.

couple things i noticed. primary/tranny oil does not need to be changed at each engine oil change. thats just wasting money. i think it was in 07 they changed the intervals, 5k for engine, 10k for primary, and 20k for tranny. for simplicitys sake, i change my primary and tranny at the same time, with every other engine oil change.

i do like that he will change the brake pads for no additional labor charge though. i guess he gets that with every other oil change that doesn't require it....

if you decide to go ahead with this endeavor, good luck. i have thought about something like this myself, but decided that i really have it good with the job that i have, and i like riding too much, so i'll just stick with changing my own when it needs it.

 

I'm with Scratch, seems a little high to me. But I do all my own, so anything over the price of the materials is high to me. I'm sure there's folks out there that will pay it. Key might be convenience. I know I had my oil changed (crank only) and filter in Sturgis last year, and it cost me $49. That was for an HD chrome Oil Filter, and HD Dyno Oil. He had folks lined up. And they were FAST! Normally I wouldn't bother having someone else do it, but I was getting close, and was at the end of a long trip, with close to 1000 miles to get home. I was happy to get it for that. And I was able to stand there and watch em do it, to make sure some knucklehead didn't screw things up. First rate.

 

Good luck!! New shop sounds exciting. Syn??..maybe something to offer that he doesn't

 

Sounds like 40 bucks at most for fluids/filter and 160 bucks for labor.....way too high, IMO, considering there is nothing included in that list that you have to be a rocket scientist to do. That entire list would only take about an hour to complete.

 

I just got all that done at an indy shop that is cheaper than the Stealer. I live in Ontario where a new CVO ultra is about $45,000 OTD. I had to have the rear brakes replaced,32,000km service(all fluids-dino oil) and a safety. I left the place $549.00 lighter, that was taxes in( $65 ) the saftey($85)and brakes($48 pads-$255 labour). I figured that works out to about $96. for fluid change and service.
With those kind of prices i'll be getting Fix my Hog and wrenching myself!

Chop.