Does anyone train these shop guys?

So I took my wheel in to a local shop to have the bearings pressed in. While I was there I asked the guy what they charge to mount and balance my new tire. He tells me $15. SWEET! I drop the tire off on my way to work at 1030. The guy calls me at 9 am and asks what side of the bike the chain is on so he can mount the tire going the right way. I told him the day before what bike it's going on and talked with him for about 30 minutes about the bike. What the hell is wrong with these people? I think you should get a discount and be able to stand over their shoulder when they ask a stupid question.

Ya, i know because i used to wrench at the kawi dealer, i dunno about them, but the supervisor i had was more intrested on how many bikes we could get in and out in one day, and not the quality of the work. The only thing good about because i worked there, anytime i need tires mounted i just go up there and they let me mount and balance my own tires for free. Shit, this one time there was a kid i was training, i went to lunch, he went to mount a set of tires on a turbo'd busa, the stuid idiot put the tires on facing the wrong way, to make things worse he dropped the rear rim and bent the lip of it so it didnt hold air anymore, ya needless to say he got fired and had to by a chromed rim for the dude's busa.

we used to put about 65 lbs of air in the tires to pop the bead on if it was being a bitch...i was 18 (going on 15) and did this for a summer at a kawi shop ..plus little stuff here and there....do you know what some 18 year olds are thinking about at work????do you know what an 18 in california has for breakfast ,break time,lunch ,afternoon break,and till 1 in morning,????
do you know how much sleep the average kid gets a night their first year with roomates????
one day i came in to work...late as usual...stoned and happy....my boss says some guy crashed on his way home from getting a tire here....could you go check the tire pressure on the tire he brought in?...i went in back saw that it still had 65 psi...ppsssssssssssssssss 36 p.s.i now..took it up front...said "it was fine" and went back to work....that is how shops work when they hire guys for 8-11 dollers an hour to save money and cut overhead.. ......never take your car or bike to a budget place or YOU ARE THE IDIOT....9disclaimer edit 8-11 is okay in some staes where the econemy is equaled out it is not enough to attract high quality experienced motorcycle mechanics in most areas is all i meant

Ya even at the dealer were i worked, people alway's brought back the bike because of bolts not tightened, and other things done improperly. Hell i used to get yelled at because i actually took the time to do thigs right the first time, a concept my boos had a hard time understanding. Trianglelaguna is right they hire people on the cheap to save money and cut over head and it dramaticly shows in the final product.

i'm trying to train them as best as i can but god it's not easy with some of them the quality coming thru the school system sure does suck sometimes

Most are there to just draw a check and care less about what they are doing. That happens in alot of jobs. I deal with it everyday.

The guy I had do it has been with the shop for almost 10 years and they usually do good work from what I have heard. The last shop I took my bike to a few years ago left the plugs loose after a compression check-another one crossed off the list.

I had something like that happen. I was trying to figure out why my 2nd cylinder wasnt firing......that was when i was playing with the dyna ignition, well my buddy pulled out plug #2 to see if i had spark which i didn't. After fiddling around with the dyna, i finally just threw the points back in, now my buddy told me he tightened the plug back into cylinder #2,. I fired it up ran like a dream, i took off like a bat out of hell and went to shift into 3rd, and heard what i thought was a civil war cannon go off, the plug shout out missed me but found a nice home in the center of my tank. So ya that was a fun ride home........lol. The next day I heli-coiled the plughole and was back on my way.

i used to take my bike down to engine and frame and srubadub with brush...get er all nice and shiny....again when i was a kid.....once i had put it all back together and was riding on a main road to dry the hose water out of nooks and crannies...suddenly my bike was running on three cylinders.....i looked down and saw my left outside plug cap dangling in the wind...no problem...so at 50 mph i reached down to put the plug cap back on the plug....WOW...i am still suprised i did not fall off the bike.......if you don't know what i'm talking about ...try it somtime..........

YEP! Almost as bad as peeing on electric fence!! So im told? HA HA!!

I think I'd rather have the guy double check with me than taking a guess and finding out when I get back there that the tire is on the wrong way. The guy probably sees enough bikes and wheels that one tends to run into the other by the end of the day.

N0NB wrote:

I think I'd rather have the guy double check with me than taking a guess and finding out when I get back there that the tire is on the wrong way. The guy probably sees enough bikes and wheels that one tends to run into the other by the end of the day.

I wouldn't be worried about it if we hadn't talked about the bike for a half hour the day before.