31-07-13, 07:56 PM
Well booked my bike in for a valve check.
I bought the bike from Ride On in Glasgow in 2004, but after the PDI mess and the first and only bike shop service she's had at one year old, well I'd rather avoid their mechanic. I don't want him to ever touch my bike again.
The mechanic at the place I go for for my MOT's bull shitted me one year (I'd cleaned your brake callipers up and bled the brakes too he told me). So I had to pop em back off when I got up the road worried he'd cleaned all my red rubber grease off that I put on a couple of days previous. But the most he done is bleed the already well bled brakes.
Where to find a mechanic you can trust?
I spoke to Jim Allen Motorcycles in Falkirk. But their work shop is fully booked for weeks ahead (not cheap either), so they put me onto a fella that used to work for em.
Anyway the fella at Jim Allen, said yeah we get a good few tensioner failures. But when I mentioned bent valves he said - nope not had any em. Just folks riding in with rattling chains from tensioners that have given up the ghost. He said the only manual tensioners they had fitted were to race bikes and they wouldn't recommend them for road bikes.
Anyway hope the back street fella I'm booked in for is OK. He sounded like he knew his stuff on the phone and seemed keen as well. I've got quite a few hours to kill in Falkirk on Monday. Says the bike will have to sit and cool for a couple of hours first as he may have to take the radiator out. I was thinking, tank off, cam cover off, bobs yer uncle?
I bought the bike from Ride On in Glasgow in 2004, but after the PDI mess and the first and only bike shop service she's had at one year old, well I'd rather avoid their mechanic. I don't want him to ever touch my bike again.
The mechanic at the place I go for for my MOT's bull shitted me one year (I'd cleaned your brake callipers up and bled the brakes too he told me). So I had to pop em back off when I got up the road worried he'd cleaned all my red rubber grease off that I put on a couple of days previous. But the most he done is bleed the already well bled brakes.
Where to find a mechanic you can trust?
I spoke to Jim Allen Motorcycles in Falkirk. But their work shop is fully booked for weeks ahead (not cheap either), so they put me onto a fella that used to work for em.
Anyway the fella at Jim Allen, said yeah we get a good few tensioner failures. But when I mentioned bent valves he said - nope not had any em. Just folks riding in with rattling chains from tensioners that have given up the ghost. He said the only manual tensioners they had fitted were to race bikes and they wouldn't recommend them for road bikes.
Anyway hope the back street fella I'm booked in for is OK. He sounded like he knew his stuff on the phone and seemed keen as well. I've got quite a few hours to kill in Falkirk on Monday. Says the bike will have to sit and cool for a couple of hours first as he may have to take the radiator out. I was thinking, tank off, cam cover off, bobs yer uncle?