Hey guys, this is basically a "rant", and a "props" about a few different bike shops in Calgary. As you can tell its pretty long, but worth the read if your ever looking at getting your bike serviced.
Anyway, for my girlfriend, we were looking at a good starter bike for her, so after searching on www.usedcalgary.com we found this deal, (1990 RZ350)
http://www.usedcalgary.com/classifie...es-under-500cc
and picked it up for $2100. The problem? it was a B.C. bike, meaning it needed an OOP inspection before its fit for Alberta registration.
There weren't too many places interested in doing an OOP given the age of the bike, however after I called Blackfoot, they suggested I take it to Performance cycle and auto.
http://www.pca-canada.com/
Back when I had my old school Ninja 750, I dealt with them lots as they seemed back then to be fairly reputable.... but it drove me nuts that I'd take my bike there for something simple: basically a $200 fix and walk out with an invoice of $800 or more most times.
I didn't want to take it there again, since I had a feeling this would happen; yet again, whereas they'd fail the bike for a dozen idiotic reasons.... but I was at the end of my rope since I wanted to get the bike ready for (this) upcoming weekend, as it's supposed to be fantastic outside on Sunday, and I wanted us to go for a drive out to Banff or Montana. I called everybody, and either they dont do it, or there would be a two week waiting list. "PCA" quoted the next day... I was thrilled.
I asked them to charge the new battery in it, since the bike was sitting for a while as it hasn't been driven in a few months. Not surprisingly they failed the bike.... as they forgot to charge the battery, so (thanks to the dumbasses) the horn didn't work.
As well as they said the
-rear axle is loose
-as well as the front fork bearings were loose.
- the throttle "stuck"
My jaw dropped when I heard all that over the phone, as I knew for example the horn DID work (when I tried it on the battery charger)
They quoted me a mind numbing $900 to fix those things. I knew I could fix those myself in less then a few hours. As I said I'd fix the stuff myself and bring the bike back for a re-inspection. but that was after 5 hours of waiting while they slowly finished the paper work to "release the bike" (and yes that 5 hours included a nice long lunch break for them)..... in the meantime I went down to the registries and got an "in-transit permit" and drove the bike home. (this was on a Friday)
{just as a side-note: you can get an In-transit permit on an "out of province" vehicle, providing you have (proof of) insurance... its $25 for a one-way permit.... usually to move a vehicle that hasn't yet been safetied or registered}
- Anyway, the rear axle was fine, the only "PLAY" they were talking about, was the rims internal rubber "sprocket" thats there to absorb shocks going from the wheel to the transmission. Again the axle was fiddle tight, and the bearings spun like new.... I repacked them just the same.... so WTF was THAT all about?
-The Throttle was only a little slow because the cable hasn't been greased in eons: basically a 10 minute fix. (but quoted $200 for that alone)
-The "triple tree" bearings were also fine, no slack WHATSOEVER.
They also said my battery was toast, so they took the liberty to install a new one, particularily one that didn't fit the bike (too small).
That little escapade cost $180 in total.... thanks guys! They said the re-inspection would be done and I should call them as soon as I'm finished, as it would only take a few minutes. I called them back, (this last Monday) and they couldn't fit it in for another week or so.. and there was no way they could "squeeze me in"
Well so much for PCA, I swore never again would I deal with those cock-sucking knobs.... they didn't do anything "unethical per-se" so rather then waste a bunch of time going to the 'BBB' about them, I decided to make this thread instead.
I started calling up EVERYBODY! for an OOP; Finally ending on Calgary Harley Davidson of all people (These guys)
www.calgaryharley.com
Even though they were booked until late April, they understood just what a gong show of a situation I was having, and they were able to fit me in the Thursday for the OOP inspection, provided I drop my bike off first thing in the morning. As this Friday is/was Ash Friday (as EVERYBODY is closed), It was either Thursday or I was shit out of luck...
(Thank you Sweet Jesus!)
Doing so, the inspection took literally 10 minutes (but just as thorough) and I was off in a hour (paper work took another 45mins).
The folks at Calgary Harley are incredible people, extremely understanding, and easy to deal with, despite being a Harley dealership they still dealt a lot with Jap bikes, actually the guy who did my OOP was a Yamaha enthusiast himself.
So HUGE props to John, Geoff + Gerry at Calgary Harley, since they really got me out of a bind.
I now have a plate on the bike, and were really looking forward to this weekend.
Another awesome place to go (I called him first. but he was booked for a month solid, he also doesn't do OOP's anyway)
http://www.rockcentralcycle.com/Home.page
^ I've been dealing with Andy for almost 10 years now, and haven't yet been anything other then totally happy with his service.