Off topic?? Maybe. Shout out to local bike shop.

[jdvorchak]

I was just up visiting my local Harley Dealer. Teds Motorcycle World in Godfrey Il. They are a HD, Honda and Can-AM dealer. I have bought hundreds of parts there and 3 motorcycles. Well now that the commercial is over I wanted to mention that the owner grew up in a motorcycle family and owned one of the first franchise shops in St. Louis. They sold Yamaha but worked on everything. Bill, owner of Teds, was a mechanic there and we often talk about working on these old metric bikes. He has a CBX in his office! Well we started talking about sourcing parts for the CB 900 and he mentioned that when I get to pulling the carb rack off to come up and use his sonic cleaner! Then he took me back to the shop and showed me how to use it. It's huge thing and will easily hold a full rack of carbs, heads, cylinders what ever. When I asked him how much to rent it he said "just call me first and you can use it to clean your carbs". Now that is customer service! I will still offer him at least a 1/2 hour of his shop rate but I doubt that he will take it. Even if he does, $45 for using a pro sonic cleaner? Sounds like a good deal to me.

I believe in supporting the local shops. Even though I pay a couple of dollars more for parts I will shop local every time I can. No hassle on ordering parts. They will ship them in no cost to me and if there is a problem, they take it back with no problem. And I'm talking about literally a couple bucks. Maybe 3 or 5 dollars more on $100 parts. They serve free coffee as well. So to me it's a wash on the cost....LOL.. It pays to develop a relationship with a good reputable local shop.

[wingrider]

Sounds like you have a good dealer nearby....great thing to have!

[Casper]

I agree on buy local as much as you can.

[CYBORG]

I can't agree more

[SnoBrdr]

I agree on buy local as much as you can.

Too bad more of us cannot.

[taunusrainer]

The next bike shop is 10 miles away and run by one really unfriendly guy from Albania or so.
Ordering parts is a pain, he does not even know the older Hondas "SL350? What is that?" and is not willing to dig out
the old microfiche sheets. Fortunately I hardly ever need genuine parts.
You are lucky to have a this shop in the neighbourhood. I order my parts online at Wingovations.com.

[chewy999]

I bought my CB1300 from a main Honda dealer about 50 miles away, and as I was getting back to bikes, I got a good deal on all the kit. Then I would make the trip every time it needed a service, and paid the price that only main dealers seem to charge. Last year, a month after a 'major' service, the chain needed changing as it was worn, and they had not noticed, and certainly hadn't advised me.
On a mates recommendation, I went to a small two man place about 8 miles away. As has been said, had to pay a little more, but not much, but he did the chain and sprockets, and also said the swing arm bearing were worn, another thing the main dealer bandits had missed. He took the time to show me so knew he wasn't trying to pull a fast one, and again quoted me a fair price and did that work a week later. The only thing I had to do extra, was to take a packet of chocolate biscuits to eat with the FREE tea and coffee, and that makes him and his mate remember me! (think that's the reason!)
Now I will always go back to Paul and Dave, as they are people to trust, have a laugh with, and as the reviews in the link show, have a good reputation, and sometimes, that is hard to find.

http://gooddealerscheme.co.uk/dealershi ... ch=pe283hx

My comments are dated 7th and 16th April!

So while the web can save a lot of money, sometimes the best things are right in front of you!

[JSBail]

My nephew is the shop manager of Bob-Jo Cycle co in Maple Park, Ill, they've been around since the mid 60's and are one of the oldest Honda franchises in the US. Throughout the years they've worked on all brands of bikes and have a warehouse crammed with vintage bikes they've amassed during that time. From time to time they'll pick a bike to restore but most of the bikes in the warehouse are used as parts bike for those looking for very hard to find parts not to mention they have loads of NOS parts in stock, the problem is they never have the parts I need for my 77 cb750. Another problem is that even though my nephew knows Kaw H2's and H1's like the back of his hand he's not too knowledgeable on other vintage bikes like say my 77 cb750. He is however a wiz on modern bikes and his help and knowledge was invaluable for my youngest son when he had problems tuning his cbr600.

[CYBORG]

The best shop I know is about 60 feet behind my house.

[Gowing]

The only shop that has touched my bike, unfortunately, has a tech, although a great guy
And they let me go back to the lift and chat while working, doesn't have the knowledge
he should about our bikes. While installing new tires and tubes I bought from them, I asked to
have them use the moly60 I brought put on the spline and rear hub.
He preceded to tell me that if he unbolts the driveline to expose the spline the gear oil will run out. And that the spline lubing is a major expense. Well I just kept quiet and got my bike out of there. I mean that's pretty basic stuff for even me. And I don't know much. It's to bad I had my rear tire replaced and tube and he didn't lube up the spline. What a shame. I need to pull that rear tire this winter. It's good for me to learn that anyway. But I will use them for things
I know they can handle. The sad thing is the mechanic rides a 85 1200 interstste.
I still stop by for a can of pop and a chat. The owner is very knowledgeable but he can't
do the work anymore, just works the counter. I agree if we don't patronize the small shops
they will go by the wayside.

[JSBail]

The best shop I know is about 60 feet behind my house.

Amen to that, the best shop around here is about 8 feet from my back door. A friend of my youngest son had on old Kaw sportbike that wouldn't start so he took it to a local shop, the shop had the bike for 8 months and couldn't get it started and tried to convince my son's friend that it needed a new engine. The shop gave up so my son convinced his friend to bring the bike over here, within a week my kid and I had that bike running beautifully. All it was was a severe vacuum leak that the shop somehow overlooked.

[robin1731]

The best shop I know is about 60 feet behind my house.

Mine is even closer.

[Oldewing]

Mine too, but the owner is a slug

[ritalz]

Mine too, but the owner is a slug

But he has a good supervisor.

[Old Fogey]

Mine too, but the owner is a slug

The best shop I know is about 60 feet behind my house.

Good hotels at these shops too!