Tire Installation Screwup

[HiYaBruceA]

My three week old '04 model with a whopping 610 miles on it got a flat yesterday while I was visiting a Suzuki dealer. I used the opportunity to ditch both Bridgestones in favor of Dunlop D208's, which took over three hours for the service department to install. I sensed they were having difficulties because of the time involved and how they eventually closed the service department door to keep me from observing the work in progress.

When I got home I noticed that the rear profile of the bike is now asymetrical, the tire not lining up true with the rear fender. Does anyone have an idea as to what these people failed to do properly? And how in God's name does a Suzuki service department not know how to correctly mount a new tire?

 

[atticdog]

are the swingarm, axle alignment lines the same on both sides?

 

[HiYaBruceA]

I don't know. I'm out of town now until Friday. My dealer thinks that the nuts had not been tightened adequately and the wheel was pulled out of alignment. In fact the wheel is pulled to the left, the chain side. Call me unreasonable, but this should not have happened; a service department should be skilled enough to get it right the first time.

 

[Haywood]

man, that's downright dangerous. i'd tell them to pick up the bike on a trailer, and put new rubber on it and to get it fricken right this time.. then i'd never go back.. that's bad, man.

 

[UUBusa]

If you haven't read this already...check it out.

Also, be careful when using the tick marks...some are slightly off, as mine are.

 

[HiYaBruceA]

When I called the manager of the dealership and complained about the poor installation he kind of apologized with the qualification that mistakes sometimes happen. It's that kind of cavalier attitude that allows bad performance to exist. When he asked me what he could do for me, I asked him to credit my MasterCard for the rear tire installation. He said he couldn't do that, but that he'd give me a credit on my next tire purchase, to which I responsed that I wouldn't want his mechanic to touch my motorcycle if he gave me tires for free. So I'll file a formal dispute of the charge with MasterCard and let them handle it.

After personal inspection by me and the good mechanics at the dealership where I bought the 'Busa, it turns out that the chain block on the chain side had been installed backward and that the locknut on both sides had not been tightened. The combination of these two screwups allowed the wheel to be pulled out of alignment by an inch. And oh, the new tires had only been inflated to 35psi.

What a disappointment. One of the reasons I became disgusted with Harley-Davidson was because of poor servicing. Now the same crap happened to me at one of the major Suzuki dealerships in the Pittsburgh area. Forunately the guys where I bought the bike seem to have it all together, so no shop is going to handle my 'Busa but them. I have two free towing memberships and if I break down I'll use one to tow me home, and one to tow to the shop the next day!

 

[Haywood]

Send a letter to the OWNER of the dealership, detailing everything and see what kind of a response you get. Maybe CC Suzuki USA as well. That's total BS, man. Good luck with Mastercard.

 

[dezzy7]

Dispute the charge on the card if the dealership is really screwed up. I would have asked about a store credit before I thrashed him. "Don't get mad get ahead" I would have spent the credit and then thrashed him for being an irresonsible dealer if he didn't jerk the mechanics chain