Decent Mechanic - Melbourne.

Does anyone know of a mechanic they'd happily reccomend with no qualms?

I have had Redwing Honda reccomended to me. And I've been to them, several
times. Frankly, I'm pretty disillusioned, heading towards disgusted. I don't
know if its an attitude problem on their part, when a postie bike rider
comes through the door...
First experience was getting the rear brake shoes replaced, I'm told 5 days.
I phone up on the fifth day, they'd like to know what year model the bike
is - they hadn't started, or attempted to call me. Disappointing too, as one
of the guys who then worked on the other side of the road knew the exact
story regarding 98 posties, that they're essentially '99 posties. But, they
didnt ring, didnt even start until I phone up after 5 days and told them
what model it was.
Second experience - perhaps not their fault, but they fit a Cheng Shin tyre
thats as good as riding on steel. Not holding this too much against them,
perhaps not many postie riders do Reefton, Black Spur, and Toolangi-Chum Ck
on a regular basis.
Third experience - as a 21st Birthday present, my Dad pays for a helicoil
fix of the stripped sump plug, that had gradually worsened. They offer and
quote for a helicoil fix, the fix destined to completely end the leaky sump
that makes my Honda CT-110 act British - after 4 days - they haven't used a
helicoil, they have, and I quote, 'cleaned the thread and used a new sump
plug.' Well joy to the world, that's nothing short of miraculous. In fact,
we probably would have been better off splitting the cases (ha ha) and
re-applying the locktite brand strip thread remover. Its now leaking oil
again. They did warn me that it might start leaking again after a few oil
changes, but for chrissakes, I havent even done one oil change yet, and I'm
back to leaving those oily spots wherever I park.
And worse, they told me when I picked it up, that the clutch (centrifugal)
was way way out, and they'd fixed it. What they had done was tighten it as
far as it would go, essentially leaving me with no clutch, and a rapid need
to learn how to change smoothly with no clutch. With even the slightest
imperfect change, the bike would lurch. I take it home, and follow the
clutch adjustment instructions in my Clymer manual, and hey, whaddya know,
problem solved!!

In any case, I'm ridiculously disillusioned with Redwing, and if someone
could reccomend a mechanic that they trust, that would be likely to look at
and fix a postie, that'd be helpful. Hell, I can even lend them the shop
manual!

Cheers,
Adrian.
CT-110

Sayeth Silmaril <blah@hotmail>:
 > Does anyone know of a mechanic they'd happily reccomend with no qualms?

No. Not even me. Frankly, I've seen the state of my shed and
I'm not convinced I should be trusted.

 > I have had Redwing Honda reccomended to me. And I've been to them, several
 > times. Frankly, I'm pretty disillusioned, heading towards disgusted. I don't
 > know if its an attitude problem on their part, when a postie bike rider
 > comes through the door...

Sad, I'd heard they were okay.
Still, there's nothing like doing it yourself.

 > Third experience - as a 21st Birthday present, my Dad pays for a helicoil
 > fix of the stripped sump plug, that had gradually worsened. They offer and
 > quote for a helicoil fix, the fix destined to completely end the leaky sump
 > that makes my Honda CT-110 act British - after 4 days -

The other thing which works well is PTFE plumbers tape -- the
high-temp pink stuff.

 > In any case, I'm ridiculously disillusioned with Redwing, and if someone
 > could reccomend a mechanic that they trust, that would be likely to look at
 > and fix a postie, that'd be helpful. Hell, I can even lend them the shop
 > manual!

Dunno. The lads at The Motorcycle Workshop in Eltham have done some
good jobs for me, I normally just take the bits in which need fixing
though. No idea how their fault-finding skills are, but they've
done a very nice job of knocking out bearings and things like that.
And their mechanic came up with the idea of punching lots of
divots in the rear wheel bearing seat before loctite bearing repairing
it, which worked a charm.

-----sharks
--
Nick 'Sharkey' Moore | Everyone complains about the laws of physics
<sharkey RemoveThis @zoic.org> | but nobody ever does anything about them!<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->