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A very serious warning about San Mateo Suzuki.

Well that seals it... I've been pondering where to get my new (to me) V-Strom serviced and I think I'll just contact Shawn when the time comes for my service..
 
Example #3
when i looked @ the other side of the axle the axle bolt was not even hand tight & only held in by a couple of threads & again the pinch bolts weren't even close to tight & since the wheel was in backwards the spacer was on the wrong side & the axle was about .25" from coming out of the throttle side fork & causing a crash.

TjkhJqs.gif
 
Being a 20 year automotive tech, mistakes do happen when you work on dozens of vehicles day in and day out, year in and year out. But this is ridiculous. Must be some new kid who talked his way into employment, but can't back it up.

Or the original poster's friend (the bike's owner) blamed San Mateo Suzuki because he was too emabarrased to admit he did that himself.

Maybe I just don't want to believe an actual dealership could turn out such horribly shoddy work.
 
too quick?

it might have been better to hold off naming the Dealer until they had been given a chance to respond. The OP could have simply said - these are examples of what can happen - so check your bike before you ride off from the Dealer!
 
it might have been better to hold off naming the Dealer until they had been given a chance to respond. The OP could have simply said - these are examples of what can happen - so check your bike before you ride off from the Dealer!

But then where's the fun of teh BARF?
 
it might have been better to hold off naming the Dealer until they had been given a chance to respond. The OP could have simply said - these are examples of what can happen - so check your bike before you ride off from the Dealer!

:wtf
No it is not too quick.
Wait till a rider dies then name the dealer?
Dealer deserves to lose business if not all business with bikes leaving like that.
Ban assault moto dealers.
 
OMG!

:wtf
Id march that bike back, and demand a refund, and a replacement chain.

Thanks for the post Shawn.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of Shawn working on your bikes.
You cant have anyone better fixing it and ensuring it gets fixed right!
He is my first and only call when it comes to top notch service, and advice.
Awesome catch Shawn!
 
it might have been better to hold off naming the Dealer until they had been given a chance to respond. The OP could have simply said - these are examples of what can happen - so check your bike before you ride off from the Dealer!

This is pretty egregious, I'd be interested in a scenario where they have something to say that could put them in a better light.

Perhaps those options would be a straight forward apology and a promise to never do such shitty work again.

Filling us in on a problem tech who was fired.

Or having some proof they didn't do the work at all.
 
What's more dangerous:
1) a shop that leaves a wheel loose
2) a rider that doesn't even notice that their wheel is loose

Motorcycling isn't for the hands off maintenance free type
 
The scary thing is that guys like me that have hands and knowledge not even myself trust, choose and pay for real mechanics like you, Jim, Dave, etc to do small and big jobs, because, case in point, it's not that hard to make a mistake. And then you go to a dealer, which has no reason to be of lower level, but stuff like this happens. That's scary.

But when the dealer charges $110/hour, and pays their guy $10/hour......?



As someone mentioned though, are you absolutely sure those guys worked on it?
 
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I disagree

This is pretty egregious, I'd be interested in a scenario where they have something to say that could put them in a better light.

Perhaps those options would be a straight forward apology and a promise to never do such shitty work again.

Filling us in on a problem tech who was fired.

Or having some proof they didn't do the work at all.

Not just one mistake but several that could of caused an accident or worse case a death.
Any dealer or shop who doesn't have any quality control and allows a bike to come out of their shop like that doesn't deserve to be in business.
The dealer should kiss as much ass as possible and beg for forgiveness as well as refunding the cost of everything.
And yea replace the chain!
 
I'm betting they were trying to use that to seat the plate on the pins, cranked it down a bit, backed it off to check how it was going, saw the dimple, and said "oh shit, well, I hope that's tight enough, now let's try and rivet these pins..."

What, they don't have a motion pro chain breaker/press kit? Lemme guess they got something better? My guess is they just are good mechanics but prolly recent graduates of some type of MMTC?
 
Or the original poster's friend (the bike's owner) blamed San Mateo Suzuki because he was too emabarrased to admit he did that himself.

A likely scenario. If a dealer turned out that sort of work Id want a look at the security cameras to see if it was the work of a burglar.
 
A likely scenario. If a dealer turned out that sort of work Id want a look at the security cameras to see if it was the work of a burglar.

yeah now i'm starting to wonder that too-be interesting what elskipador thinks? It's hard to imagine anybody fucking up every single thing that badly, not even possible to blame it on drugs.
 
What's more dangerous:
1) a shop that leaves a wheel loose
2) a rider that doesn't even notice that their wheel is loose

Motorcycling isn't for the hands off maintenance free type

That's a pretty illogical argument to make, unless you're willing to accept that hands off maintenance free types probably shouldn't be driving cars, either. It's just as possible for an auto tech to not tighten down some lug nuts or make some other deadly mistake.
 
yeah now i'm starting to wonder that too-be interesting what elskipador thinks? It's hard to imagine anybody fucking up every single thing that badly, not even possible to blame it on drugs.

What's more likely - compete novice tries a chain install and bungles every part.

Or

Tech at dealership installs chain and bungles every part.

Pretty obvious which one is more likely. Just to be fair...:|
 
I would concentrate less on sportbike mechanics and more on your Bimmer's brakes. They felt woefully inadequate the day I had to roll your bike out of the way here at the house. :laughing

HEY! :mad

:cry

My brakes are servo-operated, the bike should have been turned on. I'll demo that for ya sometime. :thumbup :laughing
 
I went in there awhile ago when I was thinking about getting a DR650. Don't mean to dogpile, but the place seemed a little fatigued. Your pix pretty much showed DGAF wrenching. PSA...
 
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