motowrx costs unusually high given the work put in?

[shrimants]

I took my shit-tastic bike to motowrx so they could do a safety inspection on it and change what needed to be changed (basically, install chain guard, throttle/clutch grip and lever, change brake fluid, oil, coolant, battery).

I brought them the parts for everything except brake fluid and battery.

They charged me a total of about 1200 bucks.

$124 for a battery (ytz10s, right price but why such an expensive battery?)

10 bucks for brake fluid, a couple bucks for parts, and 12 HOURS of labor.

when i got the bike back, they specifically told me they had replaced the brake fluid, coolant didnt need replacing, and they had replaced the oil (used 2 of my 6 bottles, which i think checks out).

Only since yesterday, the bike has been routinely getting to 220F even though im maintaining a speed of 30-50mph, and the rear brake fluid is redish brown, meaning its never been changed.

so considering they did an oil change (shops do this in 10 minutes, can feasibly charge for an hour of labor), supposedly did a valve adjustment (i have no way to check this myself, but lets just say its 6 hours of labor by itself), and never even changed the rear brake fluid or the coolant, im a little confused as to why 12 hours was the magical number for time spent on the bike. I feel like its excessive, but i dont know about this stuff.

what do you guys think?

im going to buy a bleeder kit for 14-30 bucks and do the rear brake fluid myself, and when i take off the fairings and replace the coolant res. with a less horrible looking bottle i'll do the coolant too.

Also, is 220F a regular operating temp? i looked through the manual and couldnt find anything about temps, but i did find that the cooling fan is supposed to come on at 220F (and it does) so im assuming that alone is enough to keep it OK. i havent ridden it more than 6 miles at a time to work and back, but maybe this weekend i'll go on a proper ride and see how it holds up. wife will be in the car, i'll be behind her, we'll do some sightseeing up at diablo mountain.

EDIT: also if you follow my other posts the high pressure fuel pump line was also disconnected the morning after i took the bike home, so they definitely removed the tank to get in there (check air filter and valves) but didnt even put that part on correctly. just makes me wonder.....

 

[bpw]

If they did a valve adjustment it should say so on the paperwork and they should be able to tell you how many where out of spec, or if none were bad, tell you what the clearances where. You would likely have a charge for valve shims on the receipt if they where adjusted.

I would be a bit bummed if I asked a shop to change brake fluid and they only did the front.

 

[shrimants]

www.imgur.com/NHtqKsW

none of that information is on the receipt. I had told them before to keep the cost below 1200 because thats all the money i had. i found it very suspicious that they charged for tiny things like bolts, grip glue, a "custom license plate bracket" (its just 2 bent pieces of metal) and have absolutely no other info on the receipt except labor cost.

 

[hophead]

Shri I think I remember your other post about this..........also didn't motowrx come with good rep from a couple of Barfers like Connie and someone else? I have no experience with them I am just wondering....

 

[Indio]

I took my shit-tastic bike to motowrx so they could do a safety inspection on it and change what needed to be changed (basically, install chain guard, throttle/clutch grip and lever, change brake fluid, oil, coolant, battery).

I brought them the parts for everything except brake fluid and battery.

They charged me a total of about 1200 bucks.

$124 for a battery (ytz10s, right price but why such an expensive battery?)

10 bucks for brake fluid, a couple bucks for parts, and 12 HOURS of labor.

when i got the bike back, they specifically told me they had replaced the brake fluid, coolant didnt need replacing, and they had replaced the oil (used 2 of my 6 bottles, which i think checks out).

Only since yesterday, the bike has been routinely getting to 220F even though im maintaining a speed of 30-50mph, and the rear brake fluid is redish brown, meaning its never been changed.

so considering they did an oil change (shops do this in 10 minutes, can feasibly charge for an hour of labor), supposedly did a valve adjustment (i have no way to check this myself, but lets just say its 6 hours of labor by itself), and never even changed the rear brake fluid or the coolant, im a little confused as to why 12 hours was the magical number for time spent on the bike. I feel like its excessive, but i dont know about this stuff.

what do you guys think?

im going to buy a bleeder kit for 14-30 bucks and do the rear brake fluid myself, and when i take off the fairings and replace the coolant res. with a less horrible looking bottle i'll do the coolant too.

Also, is 220F a regular operating temp? i looked through the manual and couldnt find anything about temps, but i did find that the cooling fan is supposed to come on at 220F (and it does) so im assuming that alone is enough to keep it OK. i havent ridden it more than 6 miles at a time to work and back, but maybe this weekend i'll go on a proper ride and see how it holds up. wife will be in the car, i'll be behind her, we'll do some sightseeing up at diablo mountain.

EDIT: also if you follow my other posts the high pressure fuel pump line was also disconnected the morning after i took the bike home, so they definitely removed the tank to get in there (check air filter and valves) but didnt even put that part on correctly. just makes me wonder.....

FWIW, I called them once for changing tires. They quoted me one price on the day of the call & totally different when I showed up. I pointed out that so & so quoted me this price they didn't offer any reason why it would be different. The guy who I talked on phone was at the shop while I was chatting about it & he made no effort to step in.I left without getting work done.

I went to Addiction after that & since they closed down been to Berkeley Performance. IMHO, it is a shady business practice to quote one price over phone & a different one in person.

 

[shrimants]

Shri I think I remember your other post about this..........also didn't motowrx come with good rep from a couple of Barfers like Connie and someone else? I have no experience with them I am just wondering....

yeah, they did come highly recommended. thats why i was wondering if the charges seem fair to anyone else here or not. i mean now that the bike is in mostly running condition i plan on doing whatever work i can by myself, but its a real bummer if i wasted that money. especially considering the bike has been unusually hot (maybe?) and rear brake aws definitely not replaced.

I feel like they just sat on it for a while, replaced the bare minimum, and figured i'd be back for more repairwork.

unfortunately for them, im of the mindset that i'll do the cheapest possible ghettoA$$ fixes i possibly can on the bike until it straight dies on me, then i'll either buy a car or shell out for a new bike from a dealer. one i can appropriately care for rather than wondering whats going to fail on me next.

 

[RickM]

If they went over the rest of the bike thoroughly in addition to a valve adjustment, It can easily take the 12 hours of labor. Shitty about not bleeding the rear brake and not having the fuel line connected properly.

Not all shops bill extra for shims when adjusting the valves.

Maybe they did not bleed the rear brakes as it's a lesser priority and had to stay under the budget.

Oil changes on most bikes take a lot longer than 10 mins due to the bodywork, but in your case that labor should be pooled with the valve adjustment as fairings have to come off for that.

It is possible they did take the 12 hours or more for everything. Especially if they had to fix previous owners mistakes/crappy work. Some used bikes I have bought, I had to spend many hours correcting stuff like properly routing wires, cables and lot of seemingly small stuff like that.

btw you don't "need" any special tools for bleeding the rear brakes.

 

[Ready to Ride]

Motowrx has mounted and balanced (static) a number of tires for me for $20 when I brought in the wheel and the new tire. There is no additional disposal fee.

CG now want $40 including a dynamic balance for tire mounting but also insists on a new tube ($15 - $25) for every new tire on a tube type wheel. I think they charge a few bucks more for disposal too.

 

[CRUZer]

That's not a bad price at all...assuming they also rebuilt your transmission.

 

[shrimants]

their tire prices are pretty on point. its 20 for off-bike and 40 if the wheel is still on the bike, but they only charged me for off-bike.

i assumed they pooled everything under labor just to make the reciept easier to manage. maybe their system has fixed charges for certain tasks? like for valves, maybe the cost of labor is automatically built in so they just pooled all labor in the end?

the bike does still work fine (i think?), and from what i understand valve adjustments take quite a bit of time and involvement. dunno.

Also, for the brakes i know you dont NEED anything extra but i figure a 14 dollar tool will make it a hell of a lot easier, especially considering it will be my first time.

 

[hophead]

If they went over the rest of the bike thoroughly in addition to a valve adjustment, It can easily take the 12 hours of labor. Shitty about not bleeding the rear brake and not having the fuel line connected properly.
QUOTE]

Quoted for emphasis, it is not a good thing for his bike to have had this issue after work was done, it tells me someone is not paying attention to detail, the best mechanics are all about the detail......just saying.....

 

[shrimants]

im just happy the fuel line decided to fail early in the morning when i was starting the bike and not on my way home. its hot enough in california without me bursting into a ball of flame.

 

[hophead]

Lol shri please do not burst into a ball of flame!:laughing

 

[RickM]

If they went over the rest of the bike thoroughly in addition to a valve adjustment, It can easily take the 12 hours of labor. Shitty about not bleeding the rear brake and not having the fuel line connected properly.
QUOTE]

Quoted for emphasis, it is not a good thing for his bike to have had this issue after work was done, it tells me someone is not paying attention to detail, the best mechanics are all about the detail......just saying.....

Totally agree. I would be pissed off too. But could have been a honest mistake. A very dangerous mistake though.
I do not have any personal experience with that shop. Sort of trying to look at it with a different perspective. Easy when It was not my money I know. But no point in feeling pissed off now. I would have asked what all was done when picking up the bike.

 

[shrimants]

Lol shri please do not burst into a ball of flame!:laughing

i'll see what i can do.

He did go over what was done on the bike. he said he replaced brake fluid and i figured he charged me for 1 bottle of brake fluid ergo thats how much my bike took. half in front and half in back. apparently not so.

In any case, i was only thinking about it because my bike had been engine braking REALLY hard, and i felt like maybe one of the brakes was actually put on incorrectly or something? so i looked at the rear brake, couldnt tell by eye if it was floating above the rotor or not, but did notice that the fluid was still reddish brown instead of clear/amber. and thats what got me thinking, if they didnt service coolant, did the oil, and only did half the brakes, did they REALLY do 12 hours of labor or were they just conveniently charging me for every penny i had left

 

[gixxerjeff]

I brought them the parts for everything except brake fluid and battery.

Not to mention you brought your own food to the restaurant.

 

[russ69]

Maybe I can help you out a bit. When ever you go to a shop and say something like; "Fix everything and do a tune-up". You are basically going to get bent over except at the very very best shops (few exist). You will be a lot better off learning to do as many things for yourself as you can. You'll learn as you go. None of my bikes have been inside a shop since about the late 70s. I didn't know squat when I started, now I'm a master mechanic (well, damn good anyway).
The reason I do it myself is I know the job will be done well and if anything isn't 100% I'll take the time to make it right. For example, flushing out brake fluid is super easy, and you just need a piece of hose and a cup. It takes 15 minutes working slow. Next time try to do a few of the jobs yourself, it isn't hard.

 

[Lucky_Devil]

Familiarize yourself with BAR rules (Bureau of Automotive Repair).

No customer should be surprised by a repair bill. They are supposed to get approval for everything up front and again along the way if things change.

How much did you sign for when you dropped it off?

 

[steev]

did you get an invoice? or only receipt?

$1200 seems like a lot, i think u got ripped.

 

[FXCLM5]

you got raped,

what you listed out doesnt really seem like 12 hours of work to me,

it seems like they billed you the time for the bike to cool off before they can even get to the valves, and that is if they even looked at them

bikes are a luxury item, and it sux to see people get raped, i was a automotive mechanic a previous life - service writers have a great tendency to bend people over and rape them whenever they can

and when you come into the shop saying "i want a tune up" its a green flag to get raped for everything they can rape you for, ESPECIALLY when you say i can only go up to $xxxx, guess what they will find anything and everything to bill it up to as close ase $xxxx

its the nature of the industry - yea it sux but this happens on the daily