The ramblings of mgdavis

[Scoutmedic]

Welcome Back!

[mgdavis]

I've put about 60 miles on the Honda so far. After that first day she was running decently, enough that I was confident enough to make a trip to work, one day, and a run to a motorcycle dealer yesterday.
The trip to the dealer was mostly 60mph highway riding, 10 miles round trip. The bike seemed to run well on the way out once it warmed up. When I took the exit I needed, she stalled out as I dropped into first gear and coasted to a stop at a red light. She fired up immediately when I hit the starter, then promptly died when I let go of the throttle. I cranked her up once more, this time tickling the throttle to keep rpm's up. I made it where I was headed, the engine died when I got off throttle in the parking lot.
I went inside and did my thing, which happened to be exchanging defective Fieldsheer "Booster" pants. When I got back out after 45 minutes or so the engine was still being balky, refusing to run without the throttle applied. I got back on the freeway and headed home. I was about to maintain 60-70 mph easily for about 7 miles, at which point I realized a 70 mph cruise was becoming a 60 mph struggle. My engine was loosing serious power. Even with a downshift to fourth there was not enough grunt at 5500 rpm to accelerate at 55-60 mph. Very disconcerting.
We made it another mile or so to my exit. Luckily it is not heavily used, as the engine stalled out at the top of the off-ramp. I waddled off to the left shoulder and waved the truck behind me to go around. I managed to get things lit back up in fairly short order. The engine was running very roughly at this point, it would bog heavily to about 3000 rpms, then start pulling more. I noticed very non-linear throttle response.
I got it home, it stalled out as I coasted into my spot. Later I was able to start it, the engine refused to idle. I have a "Schedule C" (goddam expensive) service set for Tuesday morning at the local Honda dealer. This includes a carb sync and balance which, hopefully, will cure my problems. I'm truly dreading the ride to the dealer. I've got my fingers crossed that the bike doesn't decide to give up halfway there, leaving me stranded on the shoulder of the highway.

[Scoutmedic]

Dang, that sucks. Good Luck with your ride to the dealer. Hope all goes well.

[mgdavis]

I wound up getting help from a friend and putting the bike into my truck for the trip into the dealership yesterday. It's probably a good thing I didn't try to ride, I cranked it up before taking it into the dealer and the engine sounded truly disgusting. I heard knocking from the transmission or bottom-end. It sounded expensive. I really hope this doesn't wind up costing too many hundreds of dollars. Dammit.
On a related note, I scheduled my service for Tuesday a few days before-hand. I showed up ten minutes before they opened. As I was shaking hands with the guy at the service desk he mentioned that they might not finish that day, as they were still a little backed up from Saturday. I was a little irritated, as I have to work Wednesday and Thursday. I called this morning (Wednesday) on the way to work and found out that they hadn't so much as laid a finger on my bike yet. I'm starting to get rather annoyed. They also charged me an extra $30 for the "Sportbike" service, as opposed to the "V-Twin/Touring" service. I'm assuming this is for removing the fairings on sportbikes, a feature mine most definitely lacks. At the moment I'm not very happy with the Service Department at The Brothers Honda.

[Shorts]

Eeesssh! Typical dealership service let down. Keep fingers crossed that once they actually do touch the bike it gets done quicker than expected.

I didn't know you had the sportbike option package

[mgdavis]

Right now it's 5:30, I'm pretty sure they close at 6:00. I haven't heard a thing from them on either my cell or work phone. I'm going to be pissed if this "3.5 hour" service isn't finished today. A little bit of communication on their part would do wonders for this customer's satisfaction.

[mgdavis]

It's 4:50 on Thursday afternoon. I hadn't heard anything back about my bike so I just called the dealer. I spoke to a very nice Gentleman who said that my bike was currently up on the rack, and was being worked on. He said it should be ready Friday at some point. I intentionally came across as rather disgruntled on the phone, making some noise about poor communication. He was apologetic enough to mostly appease me. I believe he may have been management, he stated that he didn't work for service but was just assisting because they were swamped. I wish I'd gotten his name.
I'm still rather upset that my bike wasn't touched until (apparently) Thursday afternoon, when I had made a Tuesday morning appointment. I told him that while I understood that delays happen I would have appreciated some contact. I was promised a phone call as soon as it was done Friday. We'll see how I feel after I go in to pay and pick it up.

[mgdavis]

I got my bike back this afternoon. It's still in the back of my truck at the moment, as I was called into work before my girlfriend got home to help me unload it. I did start it, it runs a thousand percent better than it did before. It wound up costing about $425, I got a bottle of "Ring Free" at the same time. All said, it was money well spent, they did several things that needed doing aside from the carbs.
I talked to the guy at the counter about the lack of contact, he was apologetic and said he would work on it in the future. He seemed sincere, so I didn't make to much fuss about it. Now I can't wait till we get a dry day so I can go ride some more. I'll probably start commuting on it next week.

[Flesher]

I read your whole blog over the last couple days, glad to hear your bike is running so much better. Be sure to post once you have a chance to ride (I know you will - lol), I'm anxious to hear how much better it feels compared to how it was. Take care...

[Shorts]

Glad to hear its been taken care of and back in your hands. You'll definitely feel goood when you go for ride.