So... I bought a 2004 Vulcan 1600 Classic about a month ago.
Being fairly smart about it, I took it to a (at least to my knowledge) reputable shop here in the Phoenix Metro area to have the official 'once over' and basic maintenance completed. Admittedly after riding it for about 10 days.
Change the all the fluids (to include the oil, coolant, brake system flush), basic mechanical and safety inspection, replace the brake pads fore and aft. You know, the whole shebang.
some couple of hundred dollars later, imagine my surprise when I felt the rear brake turn to mush on the way home this week.
Ok - no worries - I can deal with this on the way home. Got it home on Tuesday, drove the cage for a cupla days (no time due to work/school/family etc)...
I finally got a few minutes to look at things tonight. I open the rear master cylinder... dry... that's not good.
Pull the bags off, pull the rear caliper... anti rattle springs fall out... Uh oh... that's not good.
I pull the caliper... flip it over... and find...
Pistons fully extended, pads are *hosed* and the caliper has melted due to extreme heat and friction. There's slag/droplets on the wheel rim...
I can only imagine how hot that caliper got to do this (melting point of pure aluminum is 1221*F)
I've only seen this kind of thing happen once before - with a bad caliper...
That ended badly, with things catching on fire.
Yes, I will be seeking recompense from the shop - no - I won't name names, as they can't defend themselves here.
It looks like they forgot to do the rear caliper and this led to an over extended set of pistons, and a frozen caliper.
Please, please, please... check the work when you pick up your scooter. I got lucky and made it home, with no issues.
Change the all the fluids (to include the oil, coolant, brake system flush), basic mechanical and safety inspection, replace the brake pads fore and aft. You know, the whole shebang.
azdesertdad, that sucks big time! I assume you received an invoice detailing everything that was done. Around here, a motorcycle repair shop would have charged much more than a couple hundred dollars for all that work.
Yep. A year after I bought my 2004 1500 Classic, I had new tires put on it the day before a trip from North Idaho panhandle to San Diego. On the day I left, it was pouring rain, but I had all the gear so no worries. I did notice, however, whenever I would lean the bike over on a curve, it would make a scraping/squeaking noise like metal on metal. Not huge, but noticeable. I would stop and look at the underside, the fenders, etc etc. Everything seemed fine, and it was not a constant sound. I kept going. Two and a half days later I arrived in San Diego, safe and sound, and took the bike to a metric bike shop. After looking it over for about ten minutes, a mechanic calls me over. "Here's your problem," he said. Turns out the shop that replaced my tires forgot to put the front axle nut back on the axle. Whenever I'd lean over, the forks would spread a bit on the axle. The only thing that kept it from falling out was a pinch bolt on the right side fork tube where the axle passes through. Only three hours before that I had been flying down San Bernardino Grade on I-15 at about 80 MPH. I was not happy.
Called the shop today - they are making it right - new caliper, new pads, new hoses, new mounting bracket for the caliper. AND they are refunding the labor charged for the rear brake portion of things.
I just need to get it towed in... and I'm gonna be down for a bit, until the parts come in.
sigh... and it's 70-something here, all week long....
I purchased a new vulcan 900 custom in 2014. Dealers wanted between $180 and $600 to do the 600 mile inspection. I rode it to the dealer for the inspection, 45 minutes later they said all done. I thought that was awfully fast for several hundred dollars of work, thinking other than the oil and filter there can't be a lot of parts as the bike was only a month or so old. A few weeks latter I noticed some play in the steering when riding, turned out the handle bars were close to falling off as the nuts holding them had never been tightened.
There was Pre delivery inspection charge for several hundred dollars when I bought it and an additional several hundred dollar charge for the 600 mile inspection a month later and the handle bars are about to fall off! I decided from them on to do as much work on the bike myself as possible. (2 dealers)
I am no mechanic but with the manual, a few new tools, YouTube and help from this forum, I am able to do oil, changes, brake work, valve adjustment, belt tension, remove and reinstall rear shock and swing arm, replace and balance tires etc.. Not being a mechanic I don't have an over abundance of confidence so I tend to check whatever I do twice.
At least Azdesertdad had a honest shop to deal with that accepted responsibility for their oversight and made things right.
I am no mechanic but with the manual, a few new tools, YouTube and help from this forum, I am able to do oil, changes, brake work, valve adjustment, belt tension, remove and reinstall rear shock and swing arm, replace and balance tires etc.. Not being a mechanic I don't have an over abundance of confidence so I tend to check whatever I do twice.
Lucky to say the least,your lucky I didn't leave a bunch of the skin off your assistance in AZ. That's on mech. That needs to be washing bike for a living..
I suggest getting in the habit of doing a pre-trip inspection on your bike each time before going for a ride. Just walk around it doing a visual check, looking for loose parts or fluid leaks. Also I'll twist on different nuts and bolts on the bike to see if anything has worked loose.
I learned on my custom chopper, to do this religiously, each and every time, as the bike has the nasty habit of constantly tossing parts off of it while running down the road. I drag a magnet behind me to catch all the fallen parts.........
One day I was hanging out at my friends bike shop, and noticed one of his mechanics struggling with a bike he was working on. So I wandered over to visit with him, and see what he was doing. This guy had gone through one of the motorcycle mechanics training courses, and got his diploma stating he was a certified motorcycle mechanic. This guy was unable to figure out how to adjust the rear shocks to lower the bike down a bit. This was on one of Harley Davidson's softail bikes, with the shocks running underneath the transmission.
I had to tell him how to do the work.
The owner of the shop got a little ticked off at me because I was going to bring my bike in for some work, but after I discovered that one of his mechanics was unable to adjust rear shocks properly, I chose to do the work myself.
Always check your bikes out before going on a ride. And when you've had a bike shop work on your bike, go over it with a magnifying glass. Make sure all the work that they've done is listed on your receipts too.
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