[Polonius]

I had been going to this guy, Gaylen Miller, for several years for small things like stickers and such. During that period, I thought that I had developed a personal relationship of service tech and customer. I would ask questions and I received what I believed were honest, straight forward answers. Gaylen would even clue me in on not wasting money to purchase some sort of dumb gadget or other that I had read about in bickey mags.

In the last year, I have purchased a pair of SIDI boots at list price and had a minor tuneup. I even followed up with a new set of Michilans.

My bike is a Kawi ZR-7 and requires frequent major checks of the engine every 6000 mi. So! Having believed in the man and his technical expertice (he is a racer), I brought the bike to him for service. I was given a ballpark quote for the work around $250.00. However, when I went to pick up the bike and pay the bill, I got whacked for $630.00.:

Gaylen gave me a story about how he had to do this and that and it all took around 11.5 hours. But, to give me a sense of his honesty, he gave me a credit for 2 hours since he indicated that when he put the engine back together the first time, something was not correct and therefore he pulled it apart again at his expense and fixed it. Now I believe all this. I am new to this bike thing and quite nieve. I just couldn't belive that I was getting a giant sized line of shit from a person that I thought was a trusted professional.

In the meantime, every knowledgeable person that I have talked to about this issue (and showed them the bill) suggests that you could rebuild an engine for that price. All that was performed was the changing of the oil, filter and shim adjustment to 5 valves, supposedly checking bolts and nuts and lubricating the cables. I am informed that if a mechanic had a broken arm in a cast, was a cripple and totally blind in one eye, that the work could still have been performed in under 3 hours.

I have had some hearings that things are not going well for Bikeworkx including several pending lawsuits. But! Those are Gaylen's problems, not mine. He had no business fucking me out of around $500.00 to cover his situation.

Two weeks ago, I was on a ride in western MA and the bolt holding the shift lever dropped out of site. Checking all the bolts is one of the tasks to be performed during the checkup. How could any competent mechanic miss one of the most vital components that requires maximum tightning? I don't believe it was checked.

I had to ride to Cycle Design in third gear and have a temporary bolt system installed and order replacement parts. Doug of Cycle Design was just about closed but insisted on waiting for me and put in a temporary fix. Doug did not charge me for the labor.

Something is definitely wrong with Gaylen. He is not behaving professionally and apparently robbing customers to cover his debts.

So! People!! Beware!!!
:mad