Wilsons Sandbox

After following this thread for a little while-I thought I might add a little something. It is all in the dealer you find. I have a local dealer that is your worse nightmare. So, I drive 40 miles or 75 miles to the dealer in the next county. I do most of my wrenching, but I tend to leave the engine alone on four strokes. Never have been good at fixing them darn things. So for engine work, I have two local guys that run small shops of their home property. Both do excellent work and charge reasonable rates. I've lived in other parts of the country, where you would not find me handing my bike over to any large dealership. On the other hand, I've lived close to some very excellent dealers that were enjoyable to do business with. As for training, I don't know what the rules aree for Honda or Kawasaki, but to get a Suzuki franchise, you "have to" send your mechanics that will be working on Suzuki's to approved Suzuki training courses. I would presume that Honda has done this for quite some time. Regardless of what Kawasaki used to do, now that Suzuki owns Kawasaki, I'm sure the same rules will be applied, eventually. After having gone through a lot of the archives, for the past month, I can see how Gino might be a good dealer to support. He seems to come from the perspective as a rider first and chose to become a dealer second. Folks that come from the ranks to actually open a dealership, tend to have a much more rider friendly approach to their dealerships. Plus, if your good, your books will always be full. There are a lot more motorcycles and a lot fewer home mechanics than there were in the 70's, 80's, and some of the nineties. Plus, due to economical fluctuations, many of the small shops in urban areas have been priced out of business by high volume dealerships. Basically, my frame of mind is-if you find a good dealer, support him/her. If you don't have one near you, stick to the guys on this list and learn how to do the bike yourself if you can't find a competent shade tree mechanic. Over and out. Tori KLR650A11L